Kyon: Big Damn Hero
by Durandall
Summary: A Tvtropes website/Haruhi crossover. Kyon with a beam saber. Haruhi aware of her powers. An unsubtle harem plot. Did I mention the Higurashi crossover? Now say it with a straight face - I dare you. Now with site-compatible formatting!
1. Prologue

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

In Media Res Prologue

Exactly What it Says on the Tin

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes! This story diverges from slightly before the A/B paths in novel nine, but assumes the 'lazy Sunday' from A.

* * *

_"Chapter Two: Don't Just SAY You Have a Bad Feeling, DO Something About It!"_

_"...but I digress. When you get that feeling, you know the one, in the back of your head? The one that makes you think something is off about the situation? It may be right. Granted, you may also be tumbling headlong into a fit of paranoia that will end terribly for you and everyone you love. But what if you're NOT? Remember, if you're aware of things, you know most people think you're crazy anyway. Is it going to hurt that much more to overreact rather than just label something a false alarm?"_

_"Practical Heroism and You: Awareness" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

Class had started innocently enough that day, but he'd long ago given up on expecting _that_ to mean anything. With each passing moment after lunch, he grew more and more anxious, stealing glances behind him to make certain that she was still there - still _safe_. And every time their eyes met, she smirked knowingly and quickly looked outside, trying to pretend eye contact was never made.

He was absolutely certain that if his sense of anxiety weren't imagined, she was the one behind it - one way or another. When the fifth period bell rang, he was prepared. In a way, he'd always wanted to do this; exact that one tiny bit of revenge upon her for all the times she'd done it to _him_. So when she rose, turned in one smooth motion, and made to bolt out of the room-

-he was there first, seizing the decorative ties of her sailor uniform's neckerchief and making for the door at top speed. "Bwa!" she protested, arms waving frantically as she dashed to keep up, or risk the knot being pulled out. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

Naturally, he said nothing to her during the entire mad dash to the remote stairwell where she had first hauled _him_ by his own tie, so long ago. He released her at the top of the steps after looking around to ensure that no one else was nearby. Her momentum carried her forward, resulting in him pressing one hand flat against her chest, just below her neck. Her eyes quickly sharpened, her features fixed into a scowl. "What the hell, Kyon!?"

He held up one hand and said, "Something's up."

Her irritation vanished instantly, replaced with wide-eyed excitement. She clapped her hands together and hopped from foot to foot. "Yes!" she cheered. "It's been so _boring_ lately!"

"This better not be your fault!" He shook his head in irritation, then patted his left coat pocket. Then right, then both pants pockets, then the back of each hand. After that, he traced the fingertips of his right hand above his ear, eyes distant, and pulled his cell phone from one pocket.

"What is it?" she asked, when he spent a long minute studying the screen.

"Maybe a false alarm," he admitted, shifting his shoulders. "Are you messing with me?"

"I should be asking _you_ that! But whatever! You hauled me all the way out here - by my shirt, I might add! - so tongues are going to wag! If you're going to do this, then you know what I want!"

"Haruhi..."

"Do it!" she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. "I want to see it!"

"Is now really the time? Break's going to be over soon-"

"Get it out now! I want to see!"

Heaving the sigh of the eternally doomed, he put his phone away and muttered underneath his breath.

"Do that voice, too! You know the one? Like from a movie voice-over guy? I love that! Do it! Come on!"

"Fine," he grumbled. "But _you_ come up with the excuse for class."

"Student council president," she said without hesitation. "Blame him."

"_Ahem_," he coughed, shooting her a dark look. "Take a step back, I don't want to catch you in the interdiction field again."

She nodded and stepped backwards, against the wall.

Standing perfectly straight, hands at his sides, he closed his eyes, and began speaking in his best faux movie announcer voice-over: "Skinsuit active," as something that looked like nothing so much as black paint suddenly engulfed his entire body beneath his uniform. "Gravimetric stabilizers and secondary gyrometrics online," as ridged metal studs appeared on the back of each knuckle, and beneath his uniform pants, metallic vertical rails were described in the skinsuit. "Greatcoat thermoptic stealth disengaged," as a knee-length tan greatcoat coalesced, covering his shoulders with a thick mantle.

"Doesn't that get hot?" Her smile had only grown, her eyes shining with anticipation.

"We had environmental conditioning added last night, since the weather's heating up," he said in a normal voice. Switching back, he said, "Primary weapons check." He pulled a fifty centimeter long glittering metal cylinder from within the greatcoat, releasing it to spin on its axis in midair to one side, announcing, "Long range precision and high yield weaponry is at full charge." A circle of light appeared on the floor around him, a simple white ring with glittering sparks chasing around in either direction, sending brilliant flashes to streak upwards.

Another cylinder, wider but shorter than the last was released to float next to the first. "Mid- and short-range crowd-control weaponry is at ... ninety seven percent capacity and charging," he continued, squinting at the featureless gunmetal tube. Pulling a well-crafted sword hilt with no cross-guard or blade from one pocket, he released it horizontally, and it hung before him between the other weapons. "Beam saber is at full capacity." After pulling his cell phone from one pocket, he brushed his fingertips over his ear, revealing three dull metal studs in the skinsuit. "All systems nominal; no proximity alarms-"

He broke off suddenly, scowling. "Okay," he said in his normal voice. "My mistake. We've got incoming."

"God _damn_ it Kyon, you're so _cool_ when you do this," Haruhi gushed, clapping her hands together. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," he said, as a cold, familiar chuckle echoed. One eyebrow twitched and he stowed his weapons, banishing the ring of light and flinging his phone at Haruhi. "Speed dial two," he snapped. "Stay in the circle."

She pouted, but did as she was told, the ring of light reappearing on the floor around her this time.

"Kyon-kun~!" someone caroled up the stairwell, the echoing click of their shoes sounding as they climbed the stairs. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" The school bell chimed just as she rounded the landing, and he activated the beam saber. The blade made a crackling, whirring buzz and shed a soft, pale blue light. "Y...you..." she began, before she frowned, blinking, staring at the energy weapon.

"Long time no see," he said, switching stance to the long-sword style, Ni-Ten Ichi Ryu.

"Um... Hm. This is different. You've certainly changed, Kyon-kun."

"That's funny, Asakura-san, because you haven't."

* * *

Author's Notes: I promised. And I wasn't kidding.

Now, count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!


	2. Chapter 1

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Obligatory Anachronic Order Explanation Arc I

Chapter One: Scene Twelve, the Ninth Big Fight

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter One: The Truth is the Greatest Weapon"_

_"...of dozens of issues with maintaining a 'masquerade' scenario. Generally, unless it's absolutely required, it's a bad idea. There ____will__ be fallout. If it ____must__ be done, the truth is still going to be the ultimate weapon - plan accordingly, and make sure it's a weapon that will serve ____you__, and not any enemies. Barring that, make fast friends with someone who can BS better than you."_

_"Cover" - Author Unknown_

* * *

Haruhi bounced on her heels with a wide grin, holding Kyon's cell phone in both hands as she remained in the center of the glowing circle. "I _knew_ it!" she cheered. "There was _something_ off about Asakura! What is it?"

"Um..." the onetime class representative said, frowning.

"She's alien," Kyon volunteered. "From the same place as Yuki-chan and Kimidori, but she tried to kill me once."

"Whaaaat? What did you do to make her mad?" Haruhi asked, looking at him in bemusement.

"Er," Asakura said, crossing her arms beneath her chest. "Evidently my information requires an update. I was sent to dispatch Kyon-kun, because he's become an undesirable element for my superiors. Really, I'd hoped to see a new state, maybe even provoke it with his death. But, those toys seem to say that's already happened! So disappointing ... I suppose if I'd been more patient, I could see it anyway?"

"I personally like to see it as a lesson on the effects of _randomly stabbing people_," Kyon muttered.

"Oh, it wasn't random," she countered. "It was highly specific! I put a whole two hours of thought into it, you know. For us, that's quite a while!"

"I'm touched," he said dryly.

"Blah blah blah," Haruhi muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and rolling her eyes. "Skip the speeches - if I don't know the complete back story, it's all meaningless to me. I think it's about time we get down to business, right?"

"Happy to oblige!" Asakura said brightly, as their surroundings pulsed, the window turning into a gunmetal gray steel barrier, strange patterns coalescing across the walls. The circle on the floor around Haruhi abruptly winked out. "Now, I've converted the entire space of this stairwell into-"

Kyon spun on one foot, crying out with a great, "Ki-yah!" and kicking the door halfway across the roof. Sparing no more time, he swept Haruhi up in one arm and dashed through the opening.

"Waaah!" she protested. "Why are you running away!?"

"Confined spaces," he answered, sliding to a halt in the middle of the roof and setting her down. "Speed dial two again."

"Right, right," she mumbled, reactivating the circle of light. "So, what's so great about this if she can just turn it off, anyway?"

"It's a barrier and emergency help function," he answered, reactivating the beam saber and reassuming a defensive stance. "Unless she seals this space off - again - she can't disable it."

Asakura gave a pained sigh as she stepped through the jagged distortion between her controlled dataspace and the rooftop. "You shouldn't be able to manipulate data like that," she said reprovingly. "I suppose that means it's time to stop holding back." She clapped her hands together before her and drew them apart, flinging a fan of dozens of identical knives outward. Kyon maintained his guard position, his free hand already clenched into a fist, the metal ridges of his skinsuit facing outward.

The knives adjusted their course, most homing in on him to suddenly be halted by a semi-circular barrier of glowing blue force before shattering into nothingness, but a handful stopping suddenly in the space over the circle around Haruhi. He opened his mouth to retort, but Asakura was already within his guard, driving yet another blade into his stomach. The inner carbon-nano-weave of the greatcoat and the force field of the skinsuit beneath it converted the stabbing force into a distributed shock wave, so instead of being pierced, Kyon was merely hit with the force of a speeding minivan, flying clear across the roof with a choked grunt.

"In the end," Asakura remarked, watching his form tumble off the edge of the school building, "all those toys are pretty silly if you don't actually know how to use them."

"You have to give him credit, though," Haruhi said, peering very closely at the knives frozen over her barrier, not even glancing back to where Kyon had vanished. "He comes up with one hell of a distraction ploy, doesn't he?"

The blue-haired interface cocked her head to one side, blinking. "What?"

* * *

The sensation of being hit with a force that would crush a mid-sized car into a work of modern art was not entirely new, but was without a doubt extremely unpleasant. His skinsuit did what it could to distribute the kinetic force evenly across his body, so the crushing pain was at least perfectly uniform in infliction. The balancing gizmos gave up the ghost on keeping him upright, and struggled to guarantee he wouldn't land wherever he flew head-first. His gravity manipulation defenses all strained to bleed the inertia of his impact off without even _more_ pain, but the end result was that he didn't slow appreciably until after he passed the edge of the five story rooftop.

Not what he'd hoped for by a long shot. All of the 'toys' would keep him mobile, even if he was afraid he'd need to be _poured_ out of the skinsuit when it was over. He'd have to beg Nagato or Haruhi to help him out and repair things later, but there was just too damn much to keep track of with all the attack vectors, defensive capabilities...

"It started off such a nice day, too," he mumbled, as his forward momentum was arrested and he began the downward plummet in earnest. How had it come to this, anyway...?

* * *

That day had started normally enough, but then, in his experience, that was true of nearly all days. This had caused him to become naturally suspicious of every day, to the point where he was starting to suspect a slow but sure slide into absolute paranoia. Haruhi was taking her toll on him ... even if she _was_ calming down, her behavior after that horrific (in retrospect) run-in with Sasaki was doing absolutely nothing to soothe him.

His preferred refuge from total madness was quite simple: Drink some milk.

He didn't know why it had such a calming, reassuring effect on him, but it did. So he poured himself a large glass in the kitchen, one ear perking up and catching the sounds of his sister playing a video game in the living room. Damn it, he thought. He'd even left his cell in the other room specifically to lay a claim on the system!

Seriously, he thought darkly, taking a large swallow of his milk, the system was a Playstation Two - about ten _years_ out of date now, and he had to haul it all the way upstairs if he wanted to play games in his room. He probably shouldn't even bother getting worked up about such an antiquated gaming system. Even if it was the only gaming system in the house. His phone rang and he sighed, rolling his eyes but staying in the kitchen.

"Kyon-kun," his sister called, pausing the game with a loud chirp, "phone!"

He lowered his glass, already able to anticipate Haruhi demanding his participation in something. "Answer it for me," he called back between gulps. "I'm busy."

"Okaaaaaay," she said, before he heard her say, "Kyon-kun's phone! He's too lazy to answer!"

"Thanks," he muttered under his breath.

"Oh? Okay! I'll tell him. Feel better!" Then her voice rose from conversational, to an unnecessary bellow, "Kyon-kun! Yuki-nee-san says she's sick and really wants you to visit her!"

He didn't even bother to grab the phone on the way out.

"Can I come with..." she began, before the door slammed shut. Shrugging, she turned back to the game after flipping Kyon's phone closed.

* * *

He calculated the ride to Nagato's place as a twenty minute trip, at one point. When he reached the lobby, barely pausing long enough to lock up his bike, he wondered if he'd beaten his best time, but didn't feel the need to check. Instead, he dashed to the console, still gasping for breath, and fumbled, mis-dialing her room number and needing to hammer the 'cancel' button to dial again. "Nagato!" he called, the second she picked up. "It's me!"

The door opened.

After taking the elevator to her floor, he slowed his mad pace, seeing her standing outside the doorway to her apartment, waiting for him. He tried to imagine that he saw some relief around her eyes when he reached her side, but wasn't confident enough to be certain that was the case. "Nagato," he said, nodding. "What's wrong?"

She gestured him inside, leading him to the table. He kicked off his shoes and went to the kotatsu, watching her warily.

After pouring a cup of tea for each of them in silence, she finally spoke. "The Integrated Data Sentience Entity has determined that I have become a liability," she said in a soft monotone, nearly devoid of inflection.

He stared at her for a long minute, blinking. "What ... do you mean?"

"Factors within my makeup have become too unpredictable. It has been calculated that I will commit another error. To prevent this, deletion has been scheduled in three hours, twenty one minutes, fifteen seconds; I will be replaced with an interface more suited to defending against possible Sky Canopy Domain interference."

After taking a deep breath, he growled, "There isn't enough milk in the world."

She blinked several times in response.

"How set is this?" he asked, his hands shaking too much to hold the teacup properly.

"It is absolute."

He took another deep breath, then jumped to his feet, nearly upsetting the table, and began pacing back and forth in her living room. She watched him silently. "Okay," he said, after a moment of thought. "I'll just-" He broke off, fumbling at his pocket when he realized his phone was still at home. Biting off a curse, he asked, "Can I use your phone, Nagato? I need to call Haruhi and the others."

For a moment, mild disappointment flickered around her eyes. "It is not necessary."

He stared at her, then shook his head. "What do you mean?"

"I requested your presence for ... personal reasons," she said. "It was not a request for help."

"I don't care!" he shouted. "I've always relied on you - now that you need help, I am _not_ going to just stand by and watch you get taken away from- From us!"

She blinked, considering, then lowered her head slightly in her infinitesimal nod. "I see," she said quietly.

"So, I need to make some phone calls."

"Understood."

* * *

She couldn't imagine what had possessed Kyon to call her, ranting like a lunatic about Yuki being sick. But he'd done it from _her_ phone, which meant for whatever reason that he and Yuki were alone together. She wasn't certain why that bothered her, but it did - so when he demanded her presence, instead of telling him what he could do for trying to order the Brigade leader around, she swore that she'd be there.

After trekking all the way there, much to her annoyance, she found that she was the last to arrive.

Mikuru sat at one side of the table, opposite Yuki. Koizumi sat between them, his eternal smile faded to half its normal strength. Kyon himself stood next to her - he was the one who had answered the intercom and let her in. She narrowed her eyes at him and kicked her shoes off, storming into the room to Yuki's side and immediately pressing one palm onto the smaller girl's forehead. "You don't feel feverish," she finally commented. "But if you're sick, you shouldn't be up and about anyway."

"Not sick," Yuki answered. When Haruhi turned to Kyon and scowled at him, she corrected, "Dying."

Her irritation at Kyon's practical joke momentarily blew away, like settled dust being disturbed. "Dying!?" she yelped, turning to stare at the smaller girl. "What of? _How_?"

Yuki blinked twice, then answered, "I am not able to say."

"Mikuru?"

"Um ... classified."

She scowled at Koizumi, daring _him_ to be a defiant annoyance, too. "I don't know," he said, looking embarrassed and flustered.

Turning around, she glared at Kyon, letting her irritation return and focus on him full-force. "I am not in the mood for pranks!" she snapped. "This better not be a joke!"

"I wish it was," he said back crossly, and she found herself taken aback at the force in his tone. She had a mental catalogue of Kyon-like behaviors, and this fell firmly into the category of the seldom-seen but always feared _angry_ Kyon. Dour, upset, irked, sarcastic, caustic ... sure. But angry?

Hell, she'd once smashed his head into her desk - entirely on accident - and he was only _annoyed_. And it wasn't for hitting his head, it was for disrupting a class! Nevermind that he had been dozing off before that.

She'd seen him genuinely angry two times. Only once had it been at her. She hated that memory more than anything else she knew about him, but couldn't dare to forget it. Once it had been at - of all things - his unfinished homework over summer break, though that was the lesser of the two displays; also the first. She didn't understand it, but she knew whatever it was, she wanted to be on his side against it.

Even then, some small part of her really didn't like the way that when he chose to, he simply seized command of her precious hand-crafted Brigade and, no matter how cute it was-

She firmly suplexed that thought into oblivion.

"Alright," she said evenly. "Tell me what's going on."

Kyon ran his hands through his hair and began pacing, not looking at her. Good; she wasn't the one who had made him mad.

"Have a seat," he said. "This may take a bit, and I need a promise from you before we start."

"I'm not making a blind promise," she retorted, though she did take the seat opposite Koizumi, between Mikuru and Yuki. Yuki wordlessly poured her a cup of tea, which she threw back in a single gulp.

"I need you to promise to listen to everything we have to say before leaving," he answered.

"That's stupid," she grumbled. "If Yuki's in danger, what kind of person do you take me for?" She wasn't _that_ bad about ignoring the needs of her brigade members.

"Even so."

"Fine," she sighed. "I promise. Now can you get on with it?"

"Okay," he said, pacing around to the window. "Almost a year ago - last May - we ended up going on a city search where no one but you and I showed up."

"I remember," she said, annoyed. A stupid practical joke on his part ... though, it had given her the idea for the movie.

"I told you that aliens, espers, and time travelers really existed, right?"

"We're going back to that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, okay, you remember it, so I don't need to say it again," he said with a shrug. "Koizumi, you promised that if it had to happen, you'd stand next to me when Yuki needed our help. Remember?"

"Yes," the smiling boy said, though his smile had completely vanished. "As much as it scares me... Suzumiya-san, Kyon-kun is speaking the truth."

"You're an esper?" she asked him doubtfully. He gave a solemn nod, and she internalized a sigh. What, was Kyon just _acting_? Was this is unsubtle way of saying he wanted to be a star in the next movie, not just a camera man? She had to admit, his emotion seemed genuine, but why couldn't he just have _asked_ her? There was an awful lot he could have just asked for, and never bothered to!

That thought was drop-kicked to fly off next to the last banished thought.

"And, Mikuru, you're a time traveler?" she asked, idly spinning her teacup on the table before her.

"Um ... that is ... I can't..."

"Asahina-san," Kyon broke in suddenly, "please ask your supervisor to declassify this for me."

Mikuru stared at Kyon, her eyes large and confused. "Y...yes," she agreed, her glance flickering nervously to Haruhi before she pressed a hand against the side of her face, and her eyes became unfocused. They abruptly snapped back into focus, though her expression had become comically bewildered. "I ... they said yes!? I don't understand! Kyon-kun, how-"

"That's ... classified," he answered, looking away. "Anyway, go ahead and explain it to Haruhi."

"Oh! Um, Suzumiya-san ... what he says is true! I am a time traveler, though, it's more accurate to say that I'm a visitor from the future who is projected into the past, almost like a two-dimensional image projected into-"

"Right, right," Haruhi cut her off. "You're a time traveler. Understood." Though, Mikuru's acting skills had picked up quite a bit, too... This better not be a ploy to make Kyon the male lead opposite Mikuru in the next movie! Saving that thought for later, she turned her gaze to Yuki. "And you're an alien?"

"The function allowing me to confirm or deny that data has been denied at this juncture in time," she answered. Turning to Kyon, she added, "One hour and twenty minutes remain."

He bit off a curse, running his hands through his hair. Haruhi was taken aback again ... he obviously didn't like getting bad grades or doing poorly on exams, but he almost never got _this_ stressed about things. This was starting to become unnerving.

"Okay," she said, before he could speak. "Look, this has gone far enough. I get it, alright? Your practical joke ... okay. Fine. What are you really after? Producer? Co-director? You want to help write the script for the next movie? Let's just cut to the chase - this isn't really fun, especially since it's at my expense!"

"At _your_ expense-" That had done it, she realized, flinching back. Now some of his anger was directed at her, though he quickly controlled it, smacking one palm against his face. "Last May," he said, "you came to class with your hair in a ponytail."

She suddenly couldn't meet his eyes, and a previously suplexed thought began to climb back into her awareness.

"It was hot!" she said defensively. "What of it?"

"You had a dream - a nightmare - that night," he added.

"So?" She forced her heartbeat to still. She'd _told_ him that much, why wouldn't he remember? She did, after all, even now.

"So, in your dream, you watched giant blue creatures smash apart the school, and you were very excited about abandoning the Brigade - your friends - and leading an exciting new life in whatever world was to come." Koizumi looked uncomfortable. Mikuru's face turned red, and she began studying the bottom of her teacup intently. Yuki merely stared at her, unblinking.

"I never told anyone that," she mumbled.

"In the end, I told you that I wanted to come back to _this_ world," Kyon said. "That it was more interesting than you realized. Do I have to say what I did to wake you up?"

She felt her face color. "N...no," she managed. "Who- No, _what_ are you?"

"I am a normal person," he told her, shrugging. "I happen to have traveled to parallel worlds. I have traveled through time. I've seen some amazing things ... but through it all, I always come back _here_ to be with my friends."

It was getting very strange, and she didn't know why, but the conversation was starting to make her uncomfortable. Maybe the knowledge of her dream was just an expert analysis based on her personality? The refusal to mention the kiss specifically was because they didn't _know_? But she wasn't certain she wanted to hear him say it _was_ a kiss, here, right now...

And she'd _promised_ she would listen. "You're claiming that you're a _slider_?" she asked, blinking, buying herself some time to think.

He was momentarily startled by the question, then exchanged a glance with Koizumi, who shrugged. "Actually, Kyon-kun, you may be," the supposed esper said, smiling. "That would explain why one never seemed to appear; it was you!"

"Nevermind that!" he said quickly, shaking his head. "Haruhi, there's something I have to tell you, something I think will make you believe me."

"What's that?" She couldn't think of anything else to say or ask.

"Tanabata last year was the first time I traveled back in time," he began, his expression solemn. "I went to a night three years earlier. That would be Tanabata four years ago. While I was there, I was sent to East Middle school, carrying Asahina-san on my back."

"Y...you're..." she gasped, her eyes widening as the world around her spun, the amazing, simultaneously horrifying and delightful realization that he was speaking the truth was making her dizzy.

"And I met a younger version of yourself, and wrote the message, 'I am here' on the school grounds, following your instructions. You asked who I was, and I told you that I went by ... John Smith."

"_You're_ John Smith!" She wasn't aware of getting up from the table, uncertain if she had moved around or just jumped over it - she just knew that she had flung herself at him, tackling him to the floor and grabbing on tightly. "I _knew_ it!" she yelled. "I _knew_ I'd find you again!"

* * *

"Hmm," Ryouko mused, turning slowly around, to where her sealed space in the stairway had been breached. "It was broken from the outside, somehow? I wonder-" The shrill buzz of a brilliant energy beam licked out from the roof of the tiny structure that housed the stairwell.

Ryouko was struck in the chest dead-center of mass, her entire body glowing white for a second before she staggered- Instantly another beam shot out from the same location, lighting slightly to one side, near the girl's left shoulder. A third, though not as brightly glowing shot was somewhat lower, near her stomach, and Ryouko dropped to her knees, eyes widened. "High yield neutron flare?" she asked. "Quantum entanglement to disrupt my connection..."

De-stealthing, Kyon stood from his hiding place atop the stairwell housing, his greatcoat billowing behind him. The end of his weapon was glowing orange with discharge, the shape changed from a simple cylinder to a much thinner meter-long construction of sturdy rails and curving hand guards. He slung it over his shoulder and ignored it, pulling the second cylinder from his coat and leaping the twenty meter distance between himself and Ryouko.

Beneath him, a widening circle of dust marked where he leapt from, and while in midair he flipped over, a sequence of touch-points converting the unadorned cylinder into a stocky, blunt, two-handed gun. It fired with a rasping cough, launching a ring of metallic spikes to burrow into the rooftop around Ryouko, and then a grid of crackling brissant energy raked between each of the spikes, snaring the girl in a glowing, shuddering net.

"Ah," she said, her voice disappointed as Kyon's repulsor and gravimetric systems flared his momentum and spread it evenly across the entire rooftop, landing him near Haruhi, at Ryouko's side. "I failed again."

"Is that going to hurt her?" Haruhi asked, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow at Kyon in concern.

"Hurt her?" he asked, somewhat indignantly. "Haruhi, she's tried to kill me. Three times, now, and you just saw one of them! Your primary concern is that I not _hurt_ her?" He muttered to himself beneath his breath, folding away his firearm into storage.

Haruhi tapped a toe impatiently, still staring at him.

Pulling a phone identical to the one Haruhi was holding from one pocket, he punched a key. "Nagato should be here shortly," he added, shaking his head. "This is all up to you. I already know you'll take care of things just fine."

"Yes!" she said, pumping one fist in the air. "I get to do something! Hey, how's the future?"

"It's awesome," he said, annoyed. "Try and have some pity for the me that nearly got murdered off a building, huh? Anyway, just so you know, she's programmed to try and kill me; she won't do anything to you. And you won't see me tomorrow at school, because I'm going to be ... well. You'll find out."

"Okay," she agreed, frowning. "But, hey, why aren't you going to be around?"

"Further information is not available here," he warned, shaking his head. "Now, when you see that other me, tell him I said 'hi', like I always do." He paused before glancing at his phone again with a grimace. "My time's up," he announced, re-engaging his stealth field and vanishing from sight.

"What?" Ryouko asked, still trapped in the containment field. "He just abandoned me here with you?"

"Damn it," Kyon groaned, from where he was just climbing over the edge of the building, breathing hard. "I hate when I have to rely on time-travel to take care of things."

"Oh!" Haruhi said cheerfully. "Future-you says 'hi', like always!"

"Yeah? That guy always annoys me. Probably almost as much as I'm annoyed by having to save past-me." There was a flash of light and a warping of space, and then Nagato appeared at Haruhi's side. The circle of illumination around Haruhi's feet had vanished.

While Nagato knelt to examine Ryouko, Haruhi dashed to Kyon's side and helped him stand. "How bad was it, anyway? Future-you seemed to think you weren't very tough, and that you were hurt pretty badly."

"I think I've got some internal bleeding," he said, wincing, one hand pressed to his abdomen. "And some of my gear is messed up from the impact and overload. While this is fun for you, I wouldn't mind some medical assistance."

"Sure!" she said cheerfully, clapping one hand on his shoulder. "Happy, healing, all-better thoughts!"

"Medical program loaded," Nagato added helpfully from where she was studying the other interface. "Permission to proceed?"

"Granted," Kyon said, straightening up as a sparkle of green and white lights suffused up from the rooftop beneath him, flowing through his body and undoing the damage. "Oh, that feels so much better! Thank you; that probably saved my life. And for future reference, you can probably assume that I'm okay with that one being used."

"Acknowledged," Nagato agreed.

"Hmm, hey, Kyon, you know, you're going to have to really step up your game," Haruhi said suddenly, tossing his cell phone back to him.

He scowled, pocketed it, and then banished all of his equipment, the greatcoat taking the longest to phase out of view. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked in irritation.

"Well, this is fun and all, but you can hardly expect me to take your lectures on using power responsibly seriously when you're always relying on your future self to save you," she warned, raising one finger and waggling it at him.

He sighed and hung his head. "You know, I really am trying my hardest," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away towards the sea. "But I can't just leave you alone, and Nagato can't handle another interface right now."

"And you did such a great job!" Ryouko encouraged from beneath her energy net. "Time travel, is it? Now that's one tool you seem to know how to use well."

"It's fine," Nagato said tonelessly. "Asakura Ryouko is isolated and confined; she is limited to her organic functions at this moment. After she is dispatched, I will retrieve defenses to protect against further interference."

"Waaaait!" Haruhi yelled, stomping one foot and spinning to face Yuki. "'Dispatched'? I don't think so! If you need something from her, there's got to be a way to do it without killing her! What's the point of running into another alien, just to kill them?"

"But the fighting is fine," Kyon observed, stretching his arms above his head, then swiveling his hips, stretching his spine out. "After all, no one of any importance was smashed off a building."

"Kyon!"

"Alright," he said, shaking his head. "I don't really want Asakura to die either. But if her body were destroyed, she'd just go back to the place she came from. At least, as I understand it." He shot a questioning glance towards Nagato.

She didn't meet his eyes.

"Good!" Haruhi nodded decisively, grinning again. "Yuki, let's come up with a backup plan. Something that will let you get your power-up and let us reform Ryouko. Can we do that?"

Nagato stared intently at Ryouko, then gave a decisive nod. "Awaiting program," she announced.

"Hmm," Haruhi mused, narrowing her eyes and peering intently at Ryouko, who merely watched back curiously. "Um ... some kind of second chance ... a chance to start over, prove herself, and ... let's see, realize she doesn't want to kill Kyon at all. And she gets to give Yuki what she needs to make her equal to the next interface that comes along... But no brainwashing, that's not cool. So, maybe an 'evil' module or something like that, which Yuki can purify and use for good, letting Ryouko learn how to become a nicer person? Yeah! That sounds very good! Let's do that."

The pinned interface blinked several times, then turned her eyes to Kyon from beneath the glowing energy net. "None of this has been reported to my superiors," she commented. "It's entirely possible that this new knowledge could change their perceptions; there's no reason to be hasty!"

"Program loaded," Nagato replied. "Permission to proceed?"

"We can be reasonable!" Ryouko protested.

"You're probably the most reasonable person I've ever had try to kill me," Kyon agreed. "But I remember that time you _did_ stab me all too well."

"No stabbing!" Haruhi said in a chastising tone. "Bad Ryouko! No class rep votes for you!"

"...you don't really think that's her prime concern, do you? Aside from which, did you even vote last time?"

"It isn't," Ryouko agreed. "And no, she didn't. But, about being reasonable...?"

"Anything that I should know about this program, Nagato?" Kyon asked, quirking one eyebrow higher.

"It will be beneficial to all involved," Nagato assured him, while Haruhi nodded knowingly.

"Okay," he sighed, shaking his head. "Granted."

Then smaller girl turned her gaze back to Ryouko's bound form, the faintest hint of a smile coming to her lips. "I will not let you harm him again."

* * *

Kyon hadn't had time to think about things before. Part of that was from a certainty that if he had let himself think about things, it could easily become too late to do anything. Part of it was his desire to make sure he could find his way back to his own world. But most of it was the fact that he could deal with the _world_ going away, as long as he could keep the Brigade intact, regardless of his position in it.

Though, that thought in mind, when he awoke, he stared out the window after rising before his younger sister yet again. This habit was probably going to wear him out, he thought. Still, by the time he had finished washing up, just in time to watch her prance out of her room, he couldn't help but smile. Her face fell when she realized that the era of deadly wake-up elbow-slams was probably at an end.

He busied himself making breakfast while mulling over the likely consequences of his impulsive decision. And there would be consequences, he had no doubts of that at all.

Serving his curious sister a piece of toast with a fried egg on it, he set about preparing one for himself. Now Haruhi, as she understood it, believed that she could change reality...

* * *

"But you're saying, I have a _power_ I don't even know about?" Haruhi asked, now pacing anxiously back and forth. "Why would you have _kept_ this a secret from me?! Even more than the fact that you're the people I've been looking for, the fact that _I_ can do things!" She looked on the verge of tears and laughter at the same time.

"That was the decision of my superiors," Koizumi offered, frowning. "It was believed that ... there could be unfortunate consequences."

"And you," she continued, peering at Mikuru, "also followed your instructions?"

"U...um," Mikuru said, shrinking into herself slightly. "I...it's not a matter of choice for me ... literally, I can't talk about classified information when it's classified. If I try to, then classified info-" She hung her head with a weary sigh. "Sorry."

"And you?" she pressed, turning her gaze to Yuki, who sat at the table, staring at the teacups.

"Focus is on preventing my imminent deletion," the interface finally answered. "Limited resources."

"So, all along, the lowliest ranking member of the SOS Brigade is the only one who ever actually tried to tell me the truth," Haruhi grumbled.

"That aside," Kyon said, shifting his shoulders, "we can talk about this later. I'm sorry, but I'm really worried about Nagato. Since you believe us, or at least, I think you do-"

"I don't," she countered. "I believe _you_. Because you _tried_. But..." She trailed off and shrugged, gesturing to the other three. "The people who wormed their way into my good graces were working against me! How can I trust them?"

Mikuru said nothing, just sniffling as tears trickled down her cheeks. Koizumi's eternal smile had withered to a pained shadow of its normal impenetrability. Yuki continued staring at her.

"Because I do," Kyon said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "I don't know if we can believe _everything_, but I know that Nagato is a humanoid interface. I've traveled through time with Asahina-san. Koizumi's shown me the places where he and the other espers of his kind fight... And in every case, all three of them couldn't tell you because their bosses _told_ them not to."

"What about _your_ boss," she snapped, turning to eye Kyon with suspicion. "What does _that_ person say?"

"Right now she's asking me if she has any reason to trust her closest friends," he answered. "And I'm begging her to, because that may be the only way to save Nagato's life."

"I... I'm your boss?" she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "You don't work for anyone else?"

"Thankfully," he agreed, nodding. "I suppose I have done things for Asahina-san and her superiors. I know my actions have benefited Koizumi's Organization. But I've only ever done things because I felt it was important for you, or for the sake of the entire world."

"The entire world?" she pressed, struggling to contain all the new information. "You've saved the world?"

"Technically, _you_ did," he said, shaking his head. "I just convinced you to do it ... but we already went over that."

"So you're some kind of undercover hero without any of his own special abilities that fights to take care of me, and to save the world?" she asked.

"Yes," Mikuru said quickly, nodding. "He absolutely does! I don't know if you'll believe me, but it's the truth!"

"When this reality was overwritten with a reality where you had no powers, and none of our factions existed," Yuki contributed suddenly, "he found a way to restore this reality once more, actually creating a parallel universe."

"Then I'll believe that," she allowed, as strange as it seemed. But he _must_ be ... it made _sense_ that John Smith was Kyon if he was a normal person who called in favors from others. But still... "Okay. Things are going to change, right now. Kyon, you want me to save Yuki, right?"

"You mean, you don't?" he asked, aghast.

She winced. "Of course I do! But I want your opinion!"

"Absolutely! Haven't I been clear enough!?"

"Okay, then," Haruhi decided. "But no more running around behind my back! Anyone who can't do this is out of the Brigade. Everyone who really wants to help me out, and stay in the Brigade ... everyone who wants to prove to me that this is true and earn my forgiveness for the whole stupid masquerade ... has to accept _me_ as a boss, just like Kyon!"

She nodded decisively, then her eyes widened slightly in realization. "Oh, and Koizumi? You're demoted. Kyon's obviously more trustworthy as a vice commander, since you already report to him anyway. Everyone got it? We're the bosses - not your 'Organizations' or 'Thought Entities' or mysterious future 'superiors' who somehow control your minds!"

"Understood," Yuki replied quietly. "Permissions change indexed. Awaiting transfer."

"I promised this already," Koizumi agreed shakily. "Very well."

"I... I can't," Mikuru whimpered. "I'm not even allowed to try! Oh, Suzumiya-san, I _would_, but I can't-" Mikuru's eyes widened as she looked up, blinking away her tears. "I ... I'm getting a message?" she asked. "I ... I am allowed to do whatever Kyon-kun asks? B...but not you? I don't understand! I'm sorry, those are just my instructions!"

"Well, fine," Haruhi grumbled, narrowing her eyes. "I can trust _him_."

"Right," Kyon said, looking at the interface at the table. "Nagato, how much time is left?"

"Thirty two minutes, fifteen seconds," she said.

"So ... how do we do this?" Haruhi asked, biting her lip. "How do I use my power?"

"Your power is very dangerous," Kyon warned her. "If it's used incorrectly, you might accidentally destroy the universe. But Nagato can use that power safely. So, my idea is that you can become her boss and replace the Integrated Data Sentience Entity for her, and hopefully we won't have to destroy them. If we have to, then they have to go - that's all there is to it. But if we can avoid that ... well. Nagato, can you do what I'm thinking of?"

Yuki blinked several times, then said, "A memetic link can be formed between myself and Suzumiya Haruhi, such that all created data is cached within an internal buffer for analysis to await approval or disapproval. This will require the permissions of Suzumiya Haruhi, and an additional password carrier." Her eyes fixed on Kyon. "That carrier shall be you. Is this acceptable?"

"If that's how it has to be done," Haruhi agreed with a shrug. "I don't want you to die, Yuki... Kyon?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding quickly. "Let's do it."

Rising from her seat, the smaller girl reached both hands out and placed her fingertips across the sides of Haruhi's head. "Link established," she declared after a minute of silent staring into the taller girl's eyes. "Awaiting data creation."

"Data creation?" Haruhi asked, frowning. "What does that _mean_ exactly?"

"It has to do with how ... what she is views our world," Koizumi supplied helpfully. "From our point of view, think of it as the ability to create new aspects of reality. I believe she is prepared for you to try and use your powers."

"Yeah, but ... how do I do that?"

"Try and believe something," Kyon suggested. "Believe that Yuki is going to be fine, and will report to you from now on."

Haruhi shifted her gaze to the smaller girl before her, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concentrating. "Yuki works for me," she muttered. "She's a real alien ... but she's going to break away from her bosses and work for _me_..."

"Program loaded," Yuki said. Turning her eyes to Kyon, she asked, "Permission to proceed?"

"Granted," he said without hesitation.

* * *

After finishing his breakfast and heading to school, he was startled to run into Haruhi at the train station at the bottom of the hill - literally. The girl shot out from behind one of the pillars supporting the heavy structure keeping rainwater off the train platform, nearly plowing him over as she launched herself, arms wrapping around him as she swung around with her momentum, crying out, "YES!"

Struggling and only barely managing to keep his balance, he eyed all of the other Kitago students around them, watching with raised eyebrows and open smirks. "Hey," he managed, remembering his new role as the vice commander, and everything they had discussed the previous night. "What's going on?"

She released him with a huge grin. "Yesterday, after I went home, was _so_ _cool_!" she squealed. "I never knew you could do all those things! I mean, I suspected, since you were the best member of the Brigade next to myself and everything, but that was _amazing_!"

Her smile not fading in the slightest, she handed him an envelope, the seal already broken. "You said I should give this to you," she added. "You said to put it in your shoe locker, but why wait? What's so great about messages in shoe lockers?"

"They pretty much never go well for me," he sighed, taking the envelope and eyeing the broken seal. It was just a sticker, something that looked like it might have been stolen from one of his sister's collections. "You opened it already, I see."

"Well, of course! Doesn't make any sense to me, though. I probably wouldn't have opened it if you hadn't _told_ me it wouldn't make any sense to me. Why did you want me to give you a letter from yourself, though?"

The skies were clear of rain, if gray, so he sighed and pulled the letter out of the envelope while proceeding up the hill. "I'm guessing," he said mildly, "that since I just went home last night, I'm going to be time traveling back to yesterday relatively soon."

"Hmm..." she mused, considering. "Can I go with you?"

"'No she can't'," he quoted the first line of the note, scrawled hastily in his own handwriting. "Well, seems that future me is a bit of a smart-ass."

"Humph! I could have told you that."

He eyed her, then shook his head. He'd brought this upon himself. Maybe, with luck, Nagato could act as a controlling agent and keep Haruhi in line. Maybe, he told himself. If this was what it took to save Nagato...


	3. Chapter 2

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Obligatory Anachronic Order Explanation Arc II

Chapter Two: Clear as Mud

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Ten: Time Travel"_

_"This is the one you absolutely cannot afford to mess up. The most important thing is to pay attention, and not over think things. But mostly, it's about paying attention; the worst thing you can do is assume that just because time travel is involved, you cannot fail."_

_"Practical Heroism and You: Awareness" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

"Anyway," Haruhi said, glancing at Kyon again as they topped the hill, "what's it all mean?"

"I'm not entirely sure," he admitted, scanning his eyes across the other two lines before folding the letter back up and stuffing it into a pocket. "I'm guessing it'll make sense when it happens."

"So, you're good at time travel?" she asked, nodding as Mikuru drew in range.

"Ah!" the upperclassman yelped, wincing. "S...Suzumiya-san, you can't talk about it so carelessly! People might overhear!"

"What do I care?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "It's real, so I don't see a reason to hide it!"

"Because if you're careless, you might end up causing a paradox," Kyon said patiently.

Mikuru nodded furiously in agreement. "If the timeplane is shattered," she whispered in a quiet, conspiratorial voice, "then multiple realities could result. A break in the timeline could classified information!" Her face fell again. "Ooh..."

"Geez, that's gotta be annoying," Haruhi conceded. "Well, you can tell me if he's good at it, right? Time travel, I mean."

"He's better at it than I am," Mikuru said with a crestfallen sigh. "I'm supposed to be a professional! But sometimes it feels like I was sent here to learn from him."

"Hah! Okay, I'll admit, I had my doubts before. Mikuru the time traveler? Silly. Mikuru the cute and hilariously inept time traveler, relying on Kyon for support? Entirely plausible!"

"Be nice," Kyon said, shooting Haruhi a mild scowl. "If it weren't for Asahina-san and her bosses helping us out ... things might be a lot worse right now."

"Alright," Haruhi allowed, smothering the irritation that arose when Mikuru's face lit up at Kyon's comment. "But this doesn't get you out of mascot duty!"

As she had expected, Kyon only shrugged at that. Mikuru broke away after they entered the school's front hall, moving to the third year students' shoe lockers. She and Kyon changed their shoes, then she sidled up to him on the walk to class. "But, seriously, is that why you're always seeming so tired and lazy, and your grades tend to suck?" she asked in a soft tone.

He looked at her sharply. "Only sometimes," he said. "Uh ... the week of February - you remember when I called you in a panic to say Asahina-san had been kidnapped?"

She nodded, remembering it vaguely. "Except, she was with me. I thought you said it was a really lousy prank call?"

"A version of her from a week in the future was with me," he said in a low voice. "And she _was_ kidnapped. I spent that entire week running around making excuses to you so I could try and follow some set of obscure instructions from the future. It's not usually so bad ... that's why I did panic and called you, even though it was probably stupid. Of course, you didn't believe me anyway." He shrugged, sliding open the door to the classroom.

She watched the way his eyes tracked to Taniguchi, the other boy smirking widely. Kyon almost immediately adopted a scowl.

"Well," she mumbled, "you didn't tell me you were John Smith. If you _had_..."

He sighed, nodding. "Let's talk about that later," he suggested, taking his seat.

* * *

"So," Taniguchi said with a huge grin, approaching Kyon's desk during the first break. "I hear that things between you and Suzumiya are getting ... closer?"

Kunikida and Kyon exchanged a look, then turned to the other boy. "Why don't you ask her?" Kyon asked, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to point to the girl in question.

"Eh!? Suzumiya?" Taniguchi asked, stunned. "But, it's break! Why are you still in the classroom?"

"Why is that any of your business?" she asked him coolly, her eyes narrowing into sharp lines.

"I just remembered somewhere else I had to be," he blurted out, charging out of the classroom.

Kyon sighed, shaking his head.

"Well," Kunikida said, shrugging and offering a placating smile. "It's none of my business either. But I thought I'd pass on that pretty much the entire school has caught on by now ... I wouldn't be terribly surprised if a teacher were to ask you about it, either."

"Ask us about what?" Haruhi asked, her voice falsely innocent. "We're just ordinary high school students!"

"Er ... that is..." Kunikida bowed his head slightly and shifted his gaze to stare out the window. "Your ... 'display' at the train station."

Kyon groaned and lowered his head to his desk.

"Well, the answer is still going to be that it's none of their business! Absolutely none!"

"Aha ... well ... I'll leave the two of you to yourselves, then," Kunikida said, bowing slightly as he drew away.

Straightening up once his friend had gone, Kyon turned in his chair to face Haruhi. "Do you understand the need to be somewhat subtle with all these things?" he asked.

"You told me yesterday," she said in annoyance.

He blinked, then pulled the letter he had written himself from the future from his pocket and scribbled a note on it.

"I'll be careful ... even if it is _boring_. But it's not like it's _that_ outlandish for a girl to be close to a guy. At our age, it's practically expected. Isn't that what Greaseball McGee over there," she said, nodding at Taniguchi as he slunk back into the classroom, "is all about? Aside from which, people are stupid and think that 'something' is going on between us anyway. If anyone asks, I'm tutoring you because your grades suck so bad. If they draw other conclusions on their own, they're obviously idiots and we shouldn't care."

He flinched back from her gaze as her eyes lit up with intensity, adding, "So, unless you've got some other girlfriend I should _know_ about, maybe Miyochiki-"

"Miyokichi," he corrected her flatly. "And it's a real compliment to me that you seriously consider an eleven year old girl to be my only valid romantic prospect."

"Whatever!" she snapped, her face darkening. "If not her, maybe that ... that Sasaki-"

"Ugh," he interjected again, this time with a small shudder. "She's a friend, but I really can't stand who she chooses to associate with these days."

For some reason, Haruhi calmed substantially at that. "Anyway," she said more smoothly, "if you're not actually dating anyone, then you have no actual girlfriend to get jealous of our studying together. And since you're some kind of action hero looking out for me, you can just consider it to be your cover."

"So, you're okay with the entire school thinking that we're dating?" he asked, unconvinced.

"Well," she said quickly, looking away out the window again. "No, I mean, we're obviously not. But hey, if they jump to that conclusion, what do we care? We can set anyone who asks straight."

He allowed his lips to quirk very slightly into a smile.

"Plus," she added, still staring out the window, "you've got to give authorization for all of my powers, so there's no way in hell I'm letting you further out of reach than I have to."

Sighing, he lowered his head to the desk again.

* * *

"So," Haruhi asked, her back to the large window of Yuki's living room, "did it work?"

Yuki removed her fingertips from Haruhi's head and said, "Yes."

"You're not going to die?" Kyon asked quickly.

Turning to face him, Yuki gave a small nod. "I am no longer connected or accessible to the Integrated Data Sentience Entity," she said. "They will not be able to delete me remotely."

"Good," he sighed, relaxing. "Thank you, Haruhi."

"I already told you," she grumbled, "I'm not about to let a brigade member get into trouble. And hurting Yuki because... Hey, actually, come to think of it, what was their reason?"

"To prevent me from committing errors," Yuki answered. "My makeup had been determined to destabilize, and I was scheduled for deletion prior to this error occurring."

"What's this error, then?"

"Unknown."

"Is it going to happen?"

"Unknown."

"Hmm... Hey, Kyon, you've always known Yuki best." Haruhi turned to look at him sternly. "What's it all mean?"

He frowned thoughtfully, his attention already focused on the smaller girl. "Is this something on the scale of the incident from December?" he asked.

The pale-haired girl blinked. "Possibly."

"Is there any way we can try and prevent that from happening?" he asked, shifting his shoulders.

"I don't like being left in the dark," Haruhi said crossly. "So, what's this 'incident' about?"

Yuki blinked, then passed her eyes over everyone in the room in turn, lingering on Kyon and Haruhi before saying, "I would like to speak of this privately."

"Alright," Kyon agreed, shrugging his shoulders. "I already remember, so I can respect that. Ah ... I know that this is a lot to take in, Haruhi, so is it okay if we talk about it later? Maybe at the brigade meeting tomorrow?"

She hesitated a moment, then nodded. "I suppose that you want me to stay here?" she asked Yuki.

The quiet girl offered a nod of her own in return.

"Well, alright then." In a warning tone, Haruhi added, "The rest of you aren't off the hook yet, you know!"

"Of course," Koizumi said, nodding. "I understand. In that case, Nagato-san, Suzumiya-san ... we shall take our leave?"

"Y...yes," Mikuru agreed, nodding as well. "See you tomorrow."

Kyon waved wordlessly, stepping through the door to the hall outside of Yuki's apartment last.

Once the three of them were in the elevator, heading down, Kyon said, "I'm going to guess that you've got a small encyclopedia worth of questions for me, Koizumi."

"My greatest question," the esper replied without hesitation, "is if this was all necessary."

"It was," Mikuru mumbled, her head bowed as the elevator stopped and the door opened. "This was a predetermined event."

"Is that so?" Shaking his head, Koizumi added, "I rushed over and missed lunch. I suspect you must have, as well. I think we have a lot to discuss ... so why don't we go to our usual cafe? My treat."

"That sounds fine by me," Kyon said with a shrug. The group stepped out of the elevator, only Kyon glancing at the snoozing supervisor in the lobby office. "Asahina-san?"

"Um. Yes, okay," the time traveler agreed. "But ... maybe we could go somewhere closer? Suzumiya-san might call and want to speak with us after ... um."

"Fine," Koizumi agreed, gesturing to the building entrance and leading the way.

Once they stepped out of the tall apartment building, Kyon asked, "Is closed space still a concern?"

"Right now, Suzumiya-san is more bewildered than anything else," the esper said, shaking his head. "But even though I requested this discussion, I still need a few minutes to order my thoughts."

"Okay. Asahina-san, I know I requested your superiors back me up on explaining who you are to Haruhi, but I'm still not clear on why they suddenly decided that it was okay for you to do ... whatever I said," Kyon said, shifting his shoulders. "Was there anything else in that message?"

"Um, no," she answered, her face turning pink, her eyes looking away.

Both boys exchanged a glance, then shrugged.

* * *

"Let's have lunch in the clubroom," Haruhi decided, the second the chime rang.

Kyon blinked at her, then shrugged. "Why not?" he asked, shaking his head.

Once they reached the hallway, Haruhi looked around to ensure no other students were nearby, and asked, "So, how long am I going to have put up with you and Yuki being in charge of me using my powers?"

"I was thinking forever," he said with a slight smile.

She shot him a glower. "Stop joking," she snapped. "Seriously! If it's for Yuki's safety, then that's how it has to be - like I said yesterday. But it can't be _permanent_, can it? I mean, can't I just fix it so that Yuki doesn't need to rely on me?"

"Then once you can be responsible with your power," he said, shrugging. "It's not like I've asked Asahina-san to let me go back and give myself notes on tests I did poorly on. Or I've come back from the future to warn myself about upcoming pop quizzes. Really, while it's useful to have access to that kind of power, well... With great power comes-"

"Don't even try and quote that movie at me," she warned him.

"Er ... where it's from doesn't make it any less true," he countered.

"Bah! I never wanted that! Espers with the duty to save the world, aliens with important research missions, time travelers who are only here to work - the goal was to have _fun_."

They reached the stairs to the old club building, and he said, "So, speaking of movies... Now, I don't blame you for this personally, but using your power responsibly? Do you remember the movie we made? Your 'Mikuru beam'?"

"Like I'd forget! What about it?" She paused at the top of the stairs, not far from the clubroom door, musing. "Does she really have one?"

"Throughout the movie, she had several," he said, shrugging. "The very first one would have killed me if Nagato hadn't saved my life."

She blanched at that. "B...but..."

"And you didn't even _know_," he added, shaking his head. "So, yeah. Once you can be responsible with your power, we can worry about that."

"I can be plenty responsible," she grumbled, following him as he opened the clubroom door.

Sitting oddly stiffly in her usual seat, Yuki stared forward, turning her face towards the pair as they entered. "Oh!" Haruhi said brightly. "Perfect! I was hoping you'd be here so we could talk about things!"

"Hmm," Kyon mused, setting his lunch box down and frowning. After a moment of peering at Yuki intently, he asked, "What's wrong, Nagato?"

"Four hundred and seventy three requests in queue," she answered, blinking.

Haruhi choked on what she'd been eating and Kyon glanced at her, scowling when he realized she'd helped herself to his lunch. "Really?" he asked.

"Program one goal: Cause dinnerware to levitate."

"Denied. Haruhi, I think this is a perfectly good example of what I was talking about."

"That one was on purpose," Haruhi mumbled, shrugging her shoulders. "I just wanted to see if I could use my power."

"Program two goal: Cause parents to increase allowance."

"Denied. Your powers are a gift, but not a toy," he said sternly, shaking his head.

"Program three goal: Grant Suzumiya Haruhi the power to read minds."

"Oh, gods, what a terrifying thought. Denied!"

"Aw, come on!" Haruhi protested. "You're not going to let me have any fun, are you?"

"Program four goal: Replace actor in nighttime television drama with rabid wolverine."

"Denied. What's fun for you isn't necessarily fun for other people! And it really seems that you have no concept of the fact that there are consequences for your actions."

"It's not like I couldn't just fix it! I'd have that ability, you know! Plus, that would only make the plot of Lost better."

"Program five goal: Cause Nagato Yuki to stop relying on affection for you to prevent future errors."

"Denied. Wait, what?" Kyon turned to stare at Yuki, who had turned her gaze to Haruhi.

In a very slightly more hurried tone, Yuki continued, "Program six goal: Cause you to become more amicable to the suggestions of Suzumiya Haruhi."

"Denied!" He turned back to Haruhi and frowned sharply.

She looked away, staring out the window while picking at Kyon's bento, her cheeks a bright red.

"Program seven goal: Replace bathing area with larger facility."

"Denied. And stop eating my lunch!"

Haruhi choked again, her face darkening even further. "That was when I went to take my bath," she mumbled.

"Program eight goal: Cause Asahina Mikuru to stop being loyal to you instead of Suzumiya Haruhi."

"Denied. Why are you trying to change who people are, Haruhi?"

"It's not important," she muttered, turning her face away.

"Program nine goal: Enlarge Suzumiya Haruhi's-"

"Yuki, that's enough! Just forget, um, all of them!" Haruhi yelled, pushing the remnants of Kyon's lunch across the table. "And forget about that one especially! You can't say that kind of thing in front of Kyon!"

"Understood," Yuki replied. She looked thoughtful for a moment, then suddenly relaxed very slightly, turning her attention to her book.

"In the meantime," Kyon said, picking through what Haruhi had left him, "I think my point stands for obvious reasons."

"Yeah, yeah," Haruhi mumbled. "I didn't _mean_ half of those things; they were just idle thoughts. I didn't know it was so sensitive."

"I'm sure. But again, my point stands. Try not to give Nagato so much trouble by coming up with a hundred new things you didn't seriously think about before we actually have our club meeting, okay?" Disgruntled, and realizing he would have no actual meal, he wrapped his bento back up and turned to look at Yuki. "In the meantime, Nagato ... you can safely disregard things that you know are a bad idea. Don't let Haruhi bother you too much; I trust your judgment."

Yuki looked up from her book and regarded Kyon levelly. "Thank you," she said softly.

Haruhi's expression shifted moodily before she suddenly stood up straight. "I'm going to the cafeteria," she announced. "So ... I didn't mean to cause trouble for you two!"

"I'll go with you," Kyon decided before Haruhi could storm out, stowing his bento in the clubroom's refrigerator. If he wanted to eat anything, he would have to buy it.

Haruhi shifted her shoulders, allowing a small bit of tension to fade. "Um, thanks," she mumbled. "I'll let you buy me a sanshoku bread."

He nodded, deciding that silence would be the best course of action for the moment.

* * *

After settling into a corner of a relatively new cafe, at least, one Kyon didn't recognize immediately, they sat in silence until their drinks were served. When his latte arrived, Koizumi began, saying, "It is possible that Nagato-san may curtail the creation of closed space, but my suspicion is that the opposite is more likely to be true. That is to say ... with her aware of her abilities, and Nagato-san and yourself being the key to releasing those effects she may desire, Suzumiya-san is likely to create even more closed spaces."

"I think even Haruhi would be reasonable enough to try and stop that once she was aware of it," Kyon countered. "Is there a problem right now?"

"At the moment, no," Koizumi allowed. "But we are entering, for all intents and purposes, uncharted territory. We don't know what might happen next, or if Suzumiya-san might even find a way to ... slip free from Nagato's control, as it were."

"I don't like thinking of it like that," Mikuru mumbled into her glass. "That sounds like putting a leash on Suzumiya-san."

"Sometimes," Kyon said quietly, "I feel that's what the world needs more than anything else. Don't get me wrong ... I don't believe that Haruhi's a terrible person by any stretch, but she's rather careless much of the time. If she has to have power, I think it's best she learn to use it responsibly. Or perhaps not at all."

"I think you're completely discounting the frustration she's going to feel when it becomes more apparent that she is now limited by yourself and Nagato-san," Koizumi countered, rubbing his chin. "I must ask you to take this as seriously as you wish for Suzumiya-san to. That seems only fair."

Mikuru nodded weakly, looking away.

Scowling, Kyon conceded, "Alright. That's true. So, you think we'll need to let her use her ability as she wishes, now?"

"That may be going a bit far," Koizumi said, shrugging. "You are the voice of reason for her, so I am merely asking that you be reasonable as well. Suzumiya-san doesn't seem the type to receive something at no cost and do away with it."

"Also true." Kyon sipped his coffee thoughtfully. "She'd take a cursed item if she was told it was cursed, and for just that reason."

"Well, I shall monitor the closed space situation, and if it-" He broke off abruptly, frowning. "There's one now... I think I can guess what Nagato-san has just finished explaining to Suzumiya-san."

"What's that?" Mikuru asked, glancing at Koizumi sidelong.

* * *

"Okay," Haruhi said, eyeing Yuki across the table and trying to put everything together. "So, you're telling me that you changed the entire world to fit your ideals?"

"In part," the stoic girl answered. "It was also because I believed it was his ideal as well."

"You made a world where you were just a shy bookworm, and I went to a different school? But, why?"

"It was an error. I was not to act on ... emotions." Yuki turned her eyes to the teapot and refilled Haruhi's cup.

"Well, that gives me your cause," Haruhi said, frowning. "But you don't even explain what emotions you had, or what your goals with your changes were."

"Sympathy."

"I'd like a bit more than a one word answer!"

"My situation was sympathetic to his."

"'His'. You never call Kyon by his name ... why not?"

"His name is not Kyon." Yuki blinked impassively, her face an unreadable mystery to Haruhi.

Lifting her teacup to her lips and drinking half of it, Haruhi mumbled, "Nevermind. Back to the earlier question. Why did you do it all? What 'emotion' compelled you?"

Yuki gave a tiny nod, explaining, "During the summer vacation, you caused time to loop. The events from August 17th to August 31st repeated with some minor variations fifteen thousand four hundred ninety eight times. This caused me to become ... frustrated."

"Five hundred and ninety ... four years of summer vacation?" Haruhi asked, taken aback. "I don't remember that!"

"No," Yuki agreed. "Others near you began to experience resonant familiarity with cyclical events. It caused the others to experience some distress, despite your unawareness. I retained perfect awareness because of memories transfered back to me by the Integrated Data Sentience Entity."

Haruhi mulled it over. "So, that's how long you waited before breaking the loop?"

"Negative. I was not authorized by the Integrated Data Sentience Entity to interfere, only observe."

That was an uncomfortable thought. "And you remember it all?"

"I remember it all."

"Wow. If you didn't do it, how did we get out of being stuck?"

"He did it," she answered, blinking. "On the last loop, he did something he had not yet tried in any other iteration."

Realization dawned in Haruhi's eyes, and she winced. "Seriously? His _homework_? That's what did it?"

"It engaged your interest to the point where another loop did not occur," Yuki answered tonelessly.

"So," she mumbled. "That's why he was so worked up about it? Well ... I didn't know. If you hadn't been- But I guess, you were only following orders. Well, now I know why you were frustrated. Is that why you made it so you never met me?"

"After this sequence, filming of the movie began. I observed that events here distressed him again."

"Don't I know it!" Haruhi snapped. "That one ... I will never forget."

"In December, when he appeared to exhibit signs of further distress at the announcement of the SOS Brigade Christmas party, I determined the feeling to be mutual. Our situations had become sympathetic. I incorrectly inferred that he and I shared insights and would both prefer a world where you would cause neither of us distress. Acting on my emotions in this manner was an error."

"So, you mean, that time he was in a coma, he was actually in another dimension?"

After a heartbeat of hesitation, Yuki nodded.

"Okay ... I guess. That seems like going overboard, though. Changing the entire world, just because..." She swallowed and looked away, staring out the window. "So, Kyon was really that upset with me?"

"Possibly," Yuki said. "I cannot guarantee my assessments are completely accurate. For example, acting on emotion and inferring his desires incorrectly."

"Fine. In that case, it's now a priority. What can be done to make sure you won't commit another one of these 'errors'? Remember, I'm your boss now, so don't hold anything back! Even if," she hesitated, forcing the words out, as uncomfortable and frustrating as it was, "it means borrowing Kyon a little bit."

* * *

"It is related to what Fearless Leader is trying to avoid admitting to himself," Koizumi said, glancing at Mikuru over his drink. "And perhaps, Suzumiya-san as well. On that count I'm somewhat less certain."

"Avoid admitting?" she asked, bewildered, looking between the two. "What is it?"

"I have no idea what nonsense he's going to spout out right now," Kyon grumbled, lowering his face to rest on one hand.

"Um ... what?"

"Well, as subordinates," Koizumi said suddenly, turning to Mikuru, "we should work together, shouldn't we? The problem is this; as far as I understand things, Suzumiya-san has a certain ... interest ... in Fearless Leader."

"Please," Kyon interjected, "stick with the old nickname."

"Of course."

"W...well, that's not too surprising," Mikuru said. She had trouble looking Kyon in the eyes and her face reddened, but she asked, "But, Kyon-kun didn't notice when ... Suzumiya-san jumped on him in the clubroom?"

Koizumi blinked several times, then turned to stare at Kyon. "Excuse me?"

"Not what you think it was," Kyon said in irritation. "She just wanted the last page of my story for the Literature Club anthology. I had hidden it because- You know, that's actually not important. Back to Haruhi?"

"Well, at any rate," Koizumi said, relaxing into his usual facial expression, "I hope you know what you're doing, and I'm putting my faith in you, so please handle things carefully."

Kyon bit back a retort, realizing that the esper was right. Staring into the mouth of the issue he'd been trying to defer, he asked, "What do you think I should do, then? And please, say something more serious than the advice you gave me about last August."

"It's troubling," Koizumi acknowledged. "For the time being, I can only ask you to be aware of it and hope that it can be dealt with reasonably. Moving on slightly and changing the topic to equally pressing, but only partially related matters, how should I proceed with the Organization?"

Kyon tapped his fingertips on the table thoughtfully, falling silent while the waitress returned, setting down their orders and refreshing his coffee and Mikuru's tea. After a bite of his club sandwich, once the waitress had moved on, he said, "Alright. How much trouble could you really be in with them? You haven't done anything wrong in their eyes; I would be the problem. As long as things are in control, wouldn't they be okay with it?"

"Possibly," the other boy allowed, picking at his salad. "I believe that I will have to write another letter of apology, at the very least. But even so, my 'trouble'..." He shrugged. "Being a double-agent seems unwise."

"How about an official liaison?" Kyon proposed. "If events were beyond your control - you were outmaneuvered, effectively - wouldn't it be fine? And this gives your Organization direct access to the brigade. Being a liaison might remove you from some circles in your Organization to protect various secrets or whatnot. That means that Haruhi would be able to see it as you being a part of the brigade more than the Organization, which I think would probably satisfy her."

Koizumi nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm, she would be happy about having a connection to a shadowy organization, so that may be true enough. Well, thank you, vice commander Kyon, I will continue to put my trust in you."

Nodding, Kyon turned to Mikuru, who had finished half of her pasta and was just toying with the noodles, curling them into complex whorls on the plate. "Are you alright with this, Asahina-san? Aside from what Haruhi and your superiors say..."

"Ah," she gasped, sitting up straight and looking between the two. "Um, well ... my ... superiors and Koizumi-kun's agency don't always see eye-to-eye," she said, shifting her shoulders. "But I don't mind working with him; Koizumi-kun is a nice person."

Kyon blinked, turning a questioning glance at Koizumi, who chuckled slightly. "Um, Asahina-san, I think you may have missed the question a bit," he said.

"Um, no," she disagreed, shaking her head. "I think this is nice. There's more trust between us then there was ... and that's very likable. I feel bad that I can't say more myself because of - of things that are classified," she said, grimacing. Shaking her head again, she gave Kyon an earnest look. "Koizumi-kun wouldn't have been able to speak of things like this so openly in front of me if it weren't for the changes that are happening. Even Nagato-san will be able to speak freely if she wants to. Suzumiya-san may be upset now, but I actually believe that once she has some time to come to grips with ... everything we have to show her and talk to her about, she'll forgive us and be quite satisfied!"

"Forgive us," Koizumi said, his smile fading. "I think Kyon's quite ahead in her regard by that measure now."

"First of all, it's not a race," Kyon said, pushing his empty plate towards the center of the table. "Secondly, she gave you the option to stay in the brigade, so I don't think she actually holds anything _against_ you, no matter how upset she might be at the moment." He glanced to Koizumi, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"No more instances of closed space have been created yet," the boy said, smiling. "And to be honest, the severity of the last one doesn't feel too intense yet."

"Right. So, finally, if the vice commander armband means so much to you, you can keep it and tell Haruhi you lost it. It'll save me the humiliation of having to pin that thing to my sleeve during club meetings."

Koizumi chuckled again, bowing his head to Kyon. "In that case," he said, "thank you, and I will do as you suggest. Though I think we both know that won't do more than slow her down."

Kyon nodded his agreement. "Unfortunately."

"Well, I should be going to meet with my colleagues, and then I imagine I will have a very ... eventful meeting with my superiors," Koizumi announced, rising to his feet. "I'll leave you two to discuss things as you see fit; don't worry about the bill. I'll settle it on my way out."

Mikuru and Kyon nodded their thanks at the esper as he left, and finished their drinks in silence. "Did you want to talk here, or elsewhere?" he asked her after setting down his empty coffee cup.

Smiling shyly, she suggested, "Ah ... let's go for a walk."

* * *

After class had finished, Haruhi restrained her pace to a sedate walk, keeping in step with Kyon. "I should say one thing," she said quietly. "I mean, honestly."

"Sure," he said, not even glancing towards her. "What's that?"

"Um... I guess, all things considered, I want to say thanks for always sticking with me, even when I caused trouble. I just wish you had told me about it beforehand! I mean, if you had-"

She cut off as they reached the stairwell, a smaller first-year student wailing an apology before her compact form slammed into Kyon, nearly throwing him down the stairs. He spun and lunged, managing to save his balance just barely, hanging onto the semi-collapsed form of the other student. "Eeep!" the girl managed, held upright for the moment by his grip. "S...sorry, I- Oh! Sempai!"

"A friend of yours?" Haruhi asked dourly, leaning close to peer into Kyon's face. "You sure seem close!"

"We've never met!" he protested, looking away from the smaller girl's features. Something about her did seem eerily familiar. "At least, not that I remember."

"Ah," the girl whimpered, eyes fixing on Haruhi. "Y...you're here, too?"

"Well, Kyon's memory may be bad," Haruhi decided, crossing her arms over her chest. "But mine's not, and I absolutely don't remember meeting you before."

"Er, I should go," the girl managed, squirming in Kyon's grip, one foot accidentally tripping the boy from his precarious step, sending both hurtling down the stairs headfirst.

Still hanging onto her shoulders, Kyon switched his stance as he fell, throwing himself down the stairs even faster, actually pushing off from the sides of the steps quickly enough to get his lower body underneath him before reaching the bottom. Unable to stop his rush, he spun in place, clutching the girl to his chest and slamming his back into the wall of the stairwell, smacking his head and barely managing to maintain his grip. He collapsed weakly into a sitting position, the first year girl sprawled across his lap.

His wind knocked out, he was unable to keep her there for questioning as she squeaked out another, "Sorry, Sempai! I'll tell you later!" before leaping to her feet and dashing away.

"Hey, you okay?" Haruhi asked, waving a hand in front of his face as he resumed breathing with a choked gasp. "Now, what was _that_ all about?"

"Not sure," he wheezed. "Maybe she's a slider and knows different versions of us from a parallel universe."

Haruhi's eyes lit up. "I'll meet you in the clubroom," she declared, vanishing after the smaller girl.

"I was ... kidding," he groaned, rubbing the back of his head where it had hit the wall. There was no way he would catch up with her while recovering his breath. Sighing, he trudged to the club room, knocking on the door before entering.

Mikuru was already dressed in her maid outfit, and smiled at him as he entered. "Hello, Kyon-kun!" she chirped. "Tea will be just a minute."

"Ah, thanks, Asahina-san," he said, smiling and rubbing at the spot on the back of his head that had hit the wall. He glanced over, glad to see Yuki in her traditional chair, flipping through the pages of another book. He read the title, 'A Stranger in a Strange Land', then took his seat. Koizumi entered just as Mikuru finished brewing the tea.

At a glance, he didn't seem more tired than usual of late, so Kyon hazarded, "No new closed space so far today?"

"An incident occurred around the first break period of the day," Koizumi replied, shaking his head. "It was rather intense, and the Shinjin emerged rather quickly - but thankfully it was one of the indecisive ones, so we had a relatively easy time of it. I gather that Sasaki was brought up?"

"Haruhi asked if I was dating her," Kyon answered, accepting a cup of tea from Mikuru with a quiet thanks. "Is it that obvious that mention of Sasaki was involved?"

"No, just a likely explanation," the esper said, nodding thoughtfully. "Shall we explain closed space to Suzumiya-san today, then?" he asked as he turned to the game closet and pulled the go board and stones out.

"Yeah. Right now that's the most dangerous thing," Kyon agreed. "I don't think even Haruhi would intentionally try and use that as leverage for us to remove her limitations, so we should bring that up soon."

"Oh? Was removing her limitations discussed?" Koizumi's eyebrows shot up questioningly.

"That's right. It was at lunch time."

"Very curious. I would have expected her to be irritated ... but even though I was paying especially close attention to her mood, I didn't feel any negative emotions at that time."

Kyon gave the esper a six stone advantage and raised an eyebrow of his own. "How does that work?" he asked. "I know you mentioned you were aware of her emotional state at one point, but I never learned the specifics."

"Only particularly intense emotions are felt," he answered, staring at the board and placing his first stone thoughtfully. "Even then, it's frequently vague ... it doesn't give me any clue as to where she is, for example, just whatever intense emotion is there. Naturally, this was quite awkward when I first was granted my powers, but I can usually tell my feelings apart from hers, now."

"There, there," Mikuru said soothingly, patting Koizumi's shoulder consolingly as she set his teacup before him. "I know how you must feel, Koizumi-kun."

Kyon held one hand out, palm facing towards the esper as though to deflect a beam attack. "Koizumi, in retrospect my question was a mistake. Please never clarify that last remark to me," he declared, dropping his hand to the board and absently placing a stone of his own.

"Haha, if that's your wish," Koizumi chuckled. "Understood, vice commander. Before I forget, I would also like to thank you for your assistance last night, even with your remarkably ... dramatic entrance."

Without batting an eyelash, Kyon whisked the letter from his future self and a mechanical pencil from his bag on the table. "What time did I arrive?"

"Hmm? It would have been at seven forty, almost precisely," Koizumi answered. "How is it that you don't- Ah, a future instance of yourself?"

"Seems I'll be pretty busy yesterday," he replied nodding.

"We're going back to yesterday?" Mikuru asked, blinking in surprise. "But yesterday you told me you were getting tired of time travelling!"

"Did I? Just after six o'clock, right?"

"Um, that's right. Er ... is it alright for me to tell you that?"

He scribbled another note on the paper. "I should be fine with this," he sighed, putting the note away. "Now, Haruhi ran off in search of-"

The door slammed open with a booming crash. "Caught her!" Haruhi cheered, shoving the first year student into Mikuru, who dropped her empty tea tray and barely managed to keep herself and the smaller girl from falling over.

"Eep," the first year girl squeaked, her face pressed into Mikuru's chest. "Aaugh! I'm in trouble! Someone help me!"

* * *

Kyon looked at the slumbering form of Mikuru, leaning heavily against him on their usual park bench, not far from Yuki's apartment. "Asahina-san?" he called, not to the girl at his side.

"Hehe, am I too predictable?" the older version of Mikuru asked from behind him.

"I suppose that may be the case," he agreed, shooting an annoyed glance over his shoulder. "What do I need to do, then?"

"Ah ... come on a walk with me," Mikuru said. "A friend is waiting to take care of her as soon as we go."

"Someone I trust?" he asked.

"I shouldn't say," she answered, smiling mischievously.

"Lovely," he sighed, climbing to his feet. "Lead the way then, Asahina-san."

Her smile faded a bit, and she frowned worriedly. "Is Kyon-kun angry with me?" she asked, seemingly to herself as she walked down the street, back towards the cafe he had just recently vacated

"I just don't like how you treat your younger self," he muttered, falling into step beside Mikuru as they walked away.

"I have to act within the guidelines exemplified by IATT bulletin 1147 concerning similarly important persons of significance," she answered, frowning. "And respectfully, Kyon-kun, if my younger self didn't experience what she did, she could not have grown into me."

He jolted suddenly, looking at her sidelong and allowing a sad smile to come to his face. "I never thought about that," he admitted. "I suppose it's all predetermined events to you, then. And if no one else can..." He sighed, shaking his head. "Sorry. This probably has nothing to do with why you decided to speak to me."

"It's part of why I'm here," she countered. "And no, our discussion here isn't predetermined."

"What does it mean to be predetermined, then?" he asked, rubbing his chin. "I'm guessing it's just if it's been recorded? As in, if there's no record, then the 'unknown' automatically becomes undetermined?"

"That's absolutely the case! I'm impressed at how quickly you grasped that."

"I get bad grades," he said flatly. "I'm not an idiot."

Mikuru stuck her tongue out and mimed a blow to her own head. "I don't mean to say that Kyon-kun isn't smart," she said, giggling apologetically. "I mean ... these are complex theories. Some can't even be expressed in words. But you understand the important and practical risks, even when you pretend you don't understand the foundations."

"Now you're flattering me," he retorted, unable to keep some color from rising to his cheeks at her comment anyway. "But, thanks." It surprised him that he could easily speak to the adult Mikuru when he stopped to think about it.

"Anyway, I'm here to explain to you why you have authority over my younger self."

"So, it runs out," he surmised, smirking at her. "Since you don't seem to be my subordinate."

"You're _my_ subordinate," she said with a wide wink.

"Am I?" he asked, surprised. "I thought we just happened to work together when it was required."

"Well ... I like to pretend," she said, sticking her tongue out again. "Truthfully, despite what my younger self told you, our theory of projection back into time ran into an unexpected complication. That is to say ... if you consider moments to be flat portraits, like frames of animation or film, and we make a projection onto a single frame, it's fleeting, effectively non-existent."

"Now you've lost me," he mumbled.

"After enough time, even a projected image leaves a mark."

"Like it's burnt into a projector screen?"

"Aha! See? You understand! Even then, there could be other factors, such as Suzumiya-san herself ... but ultimately, even if it doesn't last forever my younger self makes more of an impression on the timeline than I realized at the time. In fact, it is this act, following your instructions and drawing even further into the local time planes that allow us to develop more advanced theories and better understanding of time travel."

He nodded soberly. "I'm not sure I understand that implicitly, but I believe I get the general idea," he allowed.

"And so, I know you're a trustworthy person, and I'd know that even if it weren't predetermined."

"I see," he said, frowning. "I seem to have signed myself up for a lot of responsibilities this time around. Okay, I understand that I help you out ... or I will, at least. So maybe the 'why' is explained. I even know your motives ... but can you tell me anything about what will require whatever time travel is needed to demonstrate your theory?"

"Well ... I can break all kinds of classifications, but I have to say I shouldn't mention anything too specific," she said. "If you do something, and then I tell you what that thing is before you've done it ... that can stress time and damage causality. But I can tell you a little, something that doesn't break any rules because you've probably considered it already."

"Other espers, that smirking bastard, and the Sky Canopy Domain?" he asked.

"And of course, Nagato's superiors," she added, biting her lower lip. "There's a _very_ specific reason for us to disregard so many rules and give you carte blanche with time travel ... and it's not just because you can be trusted. Without the ability to define an event as predetermined, our precious discovery may never have come about. Our expanded realization could be taken away from us, because they pursue their own goals.

"That being said, there's still the possibility of them changing our timeline and moving the future we live in into a parallel track ... something that may as well not even happen. So, you're trusted with this power to preserve our hopes and dreams. I apologize for putting so much responsibility on your shoulders."

"It's only half the burden of dealing with Haruhi," he answered after a moment. "But that does explain to me why it was even possible for us to defy them as much as we have. I didn't think they were as stupid as it seemed."

"Ah, see? You understand perfectly," she said brightly.

"Mmm. Is there anything you're allowed to tell me about the smirking bastard?"

"Ah ... that person... He is not likable. But I can't tell you much because I don't _know_ much. To us, he is a criminal, someone attempting to divert the timestream, much like Nagato's superiors at the moment. It would be quite troublesome if they were to join forces, but ... I shouldn't speak further of that."

"Well," he said, shrugging. "Is there anything else I _should_ know?"

Down a distant street, he heard the squeal of tires on pavement, then a thunderous crash. He turned his head to look, but found his face being turned back by Mikuru's hand. "Pay no mind," she said, somewhat sadly. "I'll give you something nice to go home and forget about this for now. Get plenty of rest tonight, okay?"

Before he could answer, she drew closer to him and his sense was swept away with the sensation of her lips touching his. She released him with a giggle and pointed him down the road to his home, whispering, "I've missed doing that with you, Kyon-kun."

By the time his senses recovered enough to try and question her, she had been long gone.


	4. Chapter 3

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Straightforward Flashback and Exposition Arc I

Chapter Three: It Goes To Eleven

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter One: Expect the Unexpected"_

_"...aside from them, however, there aren't many who can genuinely expect all things and calculate accordingly. So in a practical situations what it really means is: don't be so expectant of something happening, that any other result is a surprise. That's probably the best you can do, anyway."_

_"Roll With the Punches" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

"P...please get your face out of my chest!" Mikuru blurted out, her face coloring red.

The first year student started, realizing where she was, then scurried beneath the table and clung to one of Kyon's legs. "Sempai!" she whimpered. "Save me!"

Placing another stone at the board, Kyon remarked, "I'm threatening your piece, Koizumi; atari." Bending to look at the shivering girl who had grabbed onto him, he added, "I don't think we've been introduced properly yet."

He took a moment to study her features, while she shivered in fright, clinging to him. Her brown hair was shoulder-length, and very curly just at the tips - fairly distinctive, he thought. She was probably as tall as Yuki, but with an even slighter frame, not quite gangly, but not yet grown into her height. Her dark eyes stared up at him pleadingly.

"That all but confirms it," Haruhi declared, clapping her hands together and standing guard at the locked door. "Okay, initiate, state your name and let go of the vice commander, or I will issue a severe penalty!"

"I-I really shouldn't," the girl stuttered. "Sempai! Why aren't you helping me?"

"Alright," Kyon relented. "I'll help you out, but I need to know who you are, first."

"Um! I'm Michikyuu Kanae," she said. "What's going on here?"

"It's my fault," Kyon said, sighing. "Haruhi asked me what was up with you, and I said you probably knew alternate universe versions of us from sliding through dimensions."

"You already know!?" the girl yelped, trying to jump away from Kyon, but only smacking her head and jolting the table, scattering all the pieces across the board.

"Just as well," Koizumi said with a shrug. "I don't think a six stone advantage was going to help me much."

"Wait, you mean you're really a slider?" Kyon asked, eyes widening in surprise. "I was joking!"

"Kyon, Kyon, Kyon," Haruhi chastised him, her grin even wider as she shook her head. "Shame on you! You really thought that kind of thing would be a throwaway comment?"

"...ow," Kanae moaned. "My head..."

"Okay, this is very quickly getting out of hand," Kyon decided. "Nagato?"

The quiet girl had watched everything without remark so far, so contributed, "Quantum displacement agent. Through the accumulation of distortions through the fabric of space-time, she can create a ripple and then ride the wavefront of that ripple into alternate, similar realities."

"So, that means slider?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Michikyuu-san, come out from the table and take a seat. I'll try and keep Haruhi from molesting you. Since you're a slider, please allow me to introduce you to the SOS Brigade," he said, gesturing to the others. "It seems Haruhi has already decided that you've joined the club. Obviously, you're in good company, with one possible exception."

"But don't hold him being a normal person against him," Haruhi added quickly.

"Yes. That was precisely the exception I was thinking," he deadpanned.

"Mikuru-chan! Give our newest member a cup of tea and prepare the accords to record the addition of a slider to our ranks!"

Gathering the loose stones from across the table, Koizumi remarked, "Perhaps we shouldn't record more than her name and that she joined the brigade. We wouldn't want certain information to fall into the hands of others too easily."

Mikuru poured a cup of tea and set it at the table, while Kanae slid a chair next to Kyon and huddled in it, trying to hide behind him from Haruhi's line of sight. "U...um..." she whimpered. "Y...you're not supposed to know who I am so easily! I only meant to tell Sempai."

"Hmm. You must be very close with Kyon in your world," Haruhi remarked, eyes narrowing. Koizumi gave an uncomfortable twitch.

"Eh? Yes! Of course! In every world I've been to, Sempai is always willing to help me when I'm in trouble, even if he doesn't believe my story! And he's always very polite, and so kind..." She coughed, nervously picking up her tea and sipping at it. After a taste, she said, "I'm, um, not usually so impolite. I'm just a bit on edge..."

"'Every world'?" Haruhi echoed, her eyes suddenly turning sympathetic as she stepped away from the door and sat next to Koizumi, opposite the younger girl. "Do you mean, you're lost, Kanae-chan?"

Kanae nodded, frowning. "That's right," she agreed. "And I'm still trying to find my way home. I've been through over a hundred worlds by now, ever since before middle school! But Sempai almost always tells me that it's big trouble for you to know I'm a slider, even when he doesn't believe me." Turning to Kyon, she asked, "Sempai, why is it okay for her to know this time?"

"I told her yesterday," he said, considering. "Michikyuu-san, are you telling me that in alternate realities, I went to middle school with Haruhi?"

"Yes, sometimes," Kanae agreed, smiling. "And sometimes junior high school as well. Mostly in those realities, I think it was because of a zoning change that had one or another of the schools you usually go to removed. Sorry, after so many worlds, I tend to pay more attention to where you are than why you're there. But please, call me Kanae-chan, Sempai."

"Huh," he mused. "There really was a slider."

"There sure is!" Haruhi agreed. "I guess you lose the 'honorary slider' title. Hmm, even though we can help her get home, I'm reluctant to give her up so soon after finding her."

"Y...you can?" Kanae asked, surprised. "B...but, I can't go home yet," she said, shaking her head quickly. "Um, see, I'm not the only slider ... and the others don't like me much."

"I think this is the first time anyone's shown up that hasn't done so specifically to investigate Haruhi," Kyon said thoughtfully.

"She's not just a client who's also a slider," Haruhi warned. "Until it's safe for her to go home, she's a member of the brigade! I'm serious about this."

"Hmm. Nagato, how many queued programs from Haruhi?"

"Eighty seven items in queue currently."

"It's less than a hundred!" Haruhi protested, her expression switching to a scowl. "And just because you control my power doesn't mean you get to dictate brigade policy! You're a vice commander, not the commander! Oh, speaking of which, Koizumi, where's the armband?"

"I lost it," he said with a friendly smile. "My apologies."

"No problem," she said, shrugging, moving to the desk with the computer and pulling another red armband from the drawer. "If you do find it, either give it to Kyon, or burn it - that's a unique badge of office!"

"I feel more lost than usual," Kanae murmured, looking anxiously at Haruhi, then hopefully at Kyon. "You'll take care of me, won't you, Sempai?"

"Of course he will," Haruhi replied absently, writing out the characters for 'vice commander' in permanent marker. "He's totally a sucker for you calling him 'Sempai' all the time. Look at that goofy expression!"

Kyon sighed and hung his head. "No respect," he muttered. "Michikyuu-san, I'm sorry to put this on hold so abruptly, but there's something that Koizumi and I need to discuss with Haruhi."

"That's fine, Sempai!" she agreed. "But, please, call me Kanae-chan."

"Nagato, Asahina-san, would you mind watching over Michikyuu-san for a bit?" he asked.

"It's Kanae-chan, Sempai!"

"No problem," Yuki agreed, while Mikuru offered a more hesitant nod.

"You think you've got something that's going to pull me away from finally getting a question in edgewise to a slider?" Haruhi asked Kyon skeptically.

Koizumi grinned, ducking his head apologetically as he stowed the go board and pieces. "Well," he said, "it does concern the destruction of our world."

"Obviously, we're interested in preventing that," Kyon added. "I'm hoping you're on the same page."

"Of course I am; what do you take me for?" Haruhi groused. "But I meant what I said, Kanae-chan! You're part of the brigade now, and that means it's not just Kyon, but all of us who will watch out for you! So come to this clubroom every day after class, or there will be a penalty!"

"Thank you, Sempai! Thank you, Suzumiya-san!" Kanae cheered. Haruhi's smile slipped a bit.

* * *

After Koizumi had finished explaining his role as an esper, Haruhi nodded quietly, peering into the empty depths of her coffee cup. The three were seated at one of the outdoor tables near the cafeteria. Kyon finished the last sip of his own beverage, and then Koizumi sighed, rising to his feet. "I apologize if this is troubling for you," he said. "But I'm afraid I must go attend the current closed spaces. Hopefully I will be more free tomorrow, and we can discuss what the Organization is and represents."

"Can we go with you and help?" Haruhi asked. "If I caused this, then-"

"Right now, that may not be the best idea," Koizumi cautioned. "I am in a small bit of trouble with the Organization, as they're switching me from a full member to a liaison for the SOS Brigade. Ah, I should be off, though; Kyon-kun can explain more to you."

"Good luck, Koizumi," Kyon said after a moment, nodding at the esper.

Koizumi grinned back and bowed. "You as well, vice commander."

Haruhi heaved a sigh, watching him walk away. "Kyon," she said, quietly, "I'm trying not to be upset about this. Because that just makes more trouble. But more and more, this 'power' I've got really seems to suck! It's too dangerous to use, and just for having it, I endanger the world? Everything I looked for hid from me until you made them show themselves?"

"Don't get too down," he told her. "Remember, closed spaces result from your frustration. All you need to do to make Koizumi's job easier is be happy. As long as you respect the boundaries of other people, I don't see why you can't be that. Especially since you now _know_ you've got a time traveler, an esper, and an alien in your club. Isn't that what you were looking for?"

"And a slider," Haruhi added, struggling to force a smile. "It's like my wishes were granted by a literal genie who was looking for the wording loophole to keep me in the dark ... I mean, honestly, I'm a bit jealous. It seems that you got to do all the fun things while I was unaware!"

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again," Kyon insisted. "The most important thing to me about the brigade is the people in it. There's a lot I don't care about - if we're trying to keep closed space from forming, if we're just hanging out and playing games, if we're working on the anthology... What I _do_ care about is being there with the friends we've formed. Hey, Nagato explained what happened last December, right?"

"Yeah," Haruhi said quietly, frowning. "I guess Yuki must have been _really_ mad about me... She doesn't show much, you know? And of course, something else to be jealous of - she opens up to you, not me."

"That's not it," he countered, shaking his head. "You probably see me as idle and ignorant, but I just try and pay close attention. I think I'd be a terrible person if I didn't pay attention to Nagato after she saved my life so many times. The only person I can never figure out reliably is you."

She smirked at that. "Good," she decided. "If you can solve aliens, time travelers, and everything else, at least there's one mystery left for you to focus on, right?"

He looked away at the sky. "Anyway," he said after an extended moment of silence, "I had to leave that world because the people who made the brigade were there, but the brigade itself wasn't."

"Yeah, Yuki mentioned that... Hey, I want to know something about that world - Yuki set it up for you, you know. What was she like? More assertive? I have a hard time imagining her being pushy."

"Eh ... she was more like a regular girl," he said, shaking his head. "She was quiet, just like now ... but more talkative than she usually is."

"Was she cute?" Haruhi pressed, studying the profile of his face as he stared away.

"She looked exactly the same, just with her glasses on again," he answered with a shrug. "Except ... well, she was more expressive. She had a very pretty smile; Nagato doesn't smile, really. That's one of the three main things that stick with me."

"Hmm," she mused, trying to banish the rising frustration she felt. Her own fault for asking these questions, she supposed. "What are the others?"

"Er... Well, your other self in that world went to Kouyouen and hadn't cut her hair, so when we sneaked into Kitago, I asked you- That is, I asked her to put her hair in a ponytail." She smirked, seeing the faint coloring of his cheeks.

"Oh?" she asked. "Hmm, what do you think about me making my longer hair again?"

He shook his head, looking at her carefully. "It'd be a bit obvious," he warned her. Then he hesitated, considering, "But I guess I can't just say 'no' to everything you want to do. Especially since that one sounds reasonable. What about toning it down a bit and just making it grow faster? Probably no one will notice if it finishes by the end of, say, summer vacation."

She counted the weeks in her head. "Almost a full term away, huh? Well, I'm holding you to that," she decided. Some custodian of her powers he was going to be, if she could play his biases.

"Why do you want your hair longer again, anyway?"

She coughed quietly, looking another direction. "So, what was the other thing that stuck with you?"

He shivered, looking away himself. "Being stabbed."

"Wow, that's pretty short of an ideal world," Haruhi observed, trying not to snicker. "You made it out alright, though, didn't you? Any scars?"

"Of course not," he answered. "My future self and a future Nagato had to go back and... Well, things got a bit complicated. Anyway, Nagato healed the injury. But this was when I was supposed to be in a coma. A scar from a stab wound when I 'fell down the stairs' seems a bit odd, don't you think?"

"True enough," she agreed. "Anyway. I suppose we should investigate Kanae-chan's back story?"

* * *

On Michikyuu Kanae's home world, when she was ten years old, a cataclysm had torn a hole in the sky. Strange sleek metallic things had rained down upon the city in her hometown, hatching into gracefully curved reflective metal creatures, no two quite alike, but all very spindly. All very fast, and quite dangerous.

Her friends had revealed to her then that she was a locus of power of some kind, and that she had to learn to use her gift and flee from the aliens. They had labored for months to keep her powers secret, even from herself, but with the invasion, there had been no choice. In desperation, not knowing if she could ever come back, she'd finally made the step - her first leap.

Landing awkwardly in an alley in an unfamiliar city, her clothes torn and face smudged, not knowing how far her pursuers were from her, she cried for help ... and was answered. A friendly boy claimed he had known her from their elementary school, even though she didn't recognize him. He cleaned her scrapes and cuts, then led her to an unfamiliar school, where teachers insisted they knew her, and then she waved farewell to that kind older boy and was reunited with the parents who she knew, even though her memories didn't match up with theirs.

Over the following weeks, she finally found out the boy's name, but by then, 'Sempai' had become ingrained in her way of thinking, and when everything else seemed strange, he at least listened. He smiled, sometimes he laughed and shook his head, and she doubted he believed ... but when no one else would, he _listened_. So, afraid that those strange, sleek invaders from the sky would appear again, she decided to try and search for someone who could help her find what she needed to save her home, and maybe someone who could help her find her way there.

Sometimes her sempai believed her, and sometimes he didn't. A few times, he told her he was an esper, and they weren't so different. Sometimes, and those were the worst, he wasn't anywhere in the world she could find. A few times, he said he knew aliens, time travelers, and a smaller handful of times, demons and other, stranger things. As the weeks turned into months, and then the months turned into years, she watched as in world by world, his attention shifted to other things, and he warned her away from the strange girl that had appeared by him frequently. In those worlds, he almost always believed her, but said he was powerless to help.

She had long ago lost count of how many worlds she'd been in, how many history tests she'd failed for remembering things correctly ... but differently. That didn't matter to her, though; in the end, he _always_ listened, and because of that, across countless worlds, Sempai was Sempai.

* * *

Mikuru sniffled, listening to the end of Kanae's story. "That's so sad!" she whimpered. "Poor Kanae-chan!"

"It's not so bad!" Kanae said brightly. "Even though everything changes from world to world, I still have my family! Sometimes I even have friends! And most importantly, I almost always have Sempai."

"Ouch," Haruhi said, taken aback. "That doesn't sound like a fun power at all."

"I can't let it get me down," the small girl declared confidently. "I've never been to the same world twice, so with so many out there, I'm bound to find what I need, as long as I don't give up!"

"That's a good attitude! But you don't need to look any further; I'm absolutely sure we can find Kanae-chan's way home and deal with the alien invaders! It'll be easy, won't it? Yuki-chan, you know everything, so how do we help her find her way home to find out about these enemies?"

"Unknown," Yuki replied without hesitation. "I am not capable of traversal to other realities; neither is the Integrated Data Sentience Entity. This ability, much like that of Suzumiya Haruhi, can be termed 'unique'. Until the arrival of Michikyuu Kanae, the theory of other realities could not actually be proved, only speculated."

"Would that mean that they also don't know about Michikyuu-san, and they're still in the dark on this one?" Kyon mused.

"It's Kanae-chan, Sempai," the underclassman reminded him.

"Possibly," Yuki allowed. "Even though it is possible to discern Michikyuu Kanae's method of travel, I am unable to replicate or predict its function."

"Right," Haruhi decided, smacking one fist into her opposing palm. "Then I just need to fix that, right?"

"Let's not be too hasty," Kyon warned. "Michikyuu-san, how does your ability work?"

"It's Kanae-chan, Sempai," the girl replied. "Um ... it's hard to explain, though. It feels like turning a little to one side and pushing against the world, but not quite like that ... until the barrier that keeps us from falling out of the world gives way and I tumble through. But I can't even find my way back; the surface of reality ripples like a drop of water, so it never feels quite the same... I wish I knew better! But like Nagato-san says, I've never found another slider who wanted to help me out."

"You did mention others, though?" Haruhi asked. "So, what are these other sliders?"

"There's three of them, and they seem to travel together," the girl answered, frowning. "I don't even really know their names, but I know they work with my enemies. One of them is a pretty girl with a completely white face and long, long black hair - like a ghost. Other people aside from her friends and myself don't seem to be able to see her, and she moves so fast..." She shivered. "She scares me the most. She's always the last one before the metal shapes come from the sky and I have to run again..."

"Suou Kuyou?" Kyon asked, blinking in surprise, giving Yuki a questioning stare. Yuki said nothing, but to Kyon, her eyes looked troubled.

"Um, another one is a boy about Sempai's age, but he has a very rude manner of speech and gray eyes. His hair is very long for a boy, and he always wears a blue uniform. He uses a very shiny gun of some sort. He hit me with it once before ... it doesn't kill people, I think, but it knocks them out."

"I don't know who that guy is, but he already pisses me off!" Haruhi announced, tapping one foot anxiously. "If he shows his face around us, he's got a big surprise in store for him!"

Kyon frowned. "So, these other sliders are able to follow you, Michikyuu-san?" he asked.

"Ah ... well... Yes, but I think it's because of the third one." Kanae's smile fell as she added, "It's also why I like Sempai to call me Kanae-chan."

"Hmm? It isn't another version of _me_, is it?" Kyon asked, his eyes darkening.

"Haha, thankfully, no," Kanae said, shaking her head quickly. "I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't rely on Sempai. The other slider ... is another _me_."

"Geez," Haruhi said with a wince. "Come on, Kyon, don't be so formal! She's an underclassman, so it's not like people will make anything of it; show some sympathy!"

"Er, sorry, Kanae-chan," he allowed. "Well, I can understand you want help. But I'm not certain how much we can really do."

"I told you!" Haruhi said in annoyance, slapping one palm against the center table. "Yuki-chan! What program is currently in queue?"

"Program one," the light-haired girl said. "Share every lunch with-"

"The next one! Not that one!"

"Program two: Cause Tanaka-sensei to become more interesting."

"...tempting," Kyon allowed. "But denied. You can ignore that, Nagato. Go ahead and clear out the queue again."

"Understood."

"Erg," Haruhi grumbled, grimacing, clenching her eyes shut in concentration. "Um, Kanae-chan can control her sliding better to find her way home and back again." She opened one eye, peeking at Yuki. "How about now?"

Yuki blinked, a tiny crease appearing in her brow as her eyebrows drew the slightest bit closer together. "Unable to process," she finally said. "I cannot determine parameters of dimensional sliding. Because of this, it is not possible to determine the effects of attempting to initiate a change in Michikyuu Kanae's abilities; attempting to alter or tamper with them may cause unforeseen consequences."

"Well, that's okay!" Kanae said, slumping very slightly. "I didn't really think it would be that easy..."

"I'm trying not to get frustrated," Haruhi growled, flinging herself into her seat. "What do we need to do?"

Mikuru wordlessly set another cup of tea before the brigade leader.

"A better understanding of dimensional sliding is required," Yuki answered. "A form of dimensional anchor allowing Michikyuu Kanae to travel away and then return would allow the method to be discerned more completely."

"Eh ... now, where are we going to get such a thing?" Haruhi wondered.

"Is it possible that such a thing already exists?" Mikuru asked, frowning.

Haruhi slumped further in her seat. "I was hoping you could bring one from the future," she mumbled.

"Eh!? No, no, moving objects like weapons and tools from the future is absolutely forbidden!" the time traveler said, shaking her head quickly.

"If even the Integrated Data Sentience Entity wasn't certain that such a thing as alternate realities or dimensions existed ... well, they exist outside of space and time," Kyon noted.

"Correct. Therefore, this does not preclude the creation of tools or theories to interact with unproven facets of reality," Nagato said.

Haruhi and Kyon looked at her in surprise. "You know something?" she asked.

"The Integrated Data Sentience Entity is nearly as old as the concept of information. Tools for the purpose of theoretical interactions have been prepared in the past. However, as the entity is a non-physical existence, that data exists at this point unfabricated; millions of years have passed since the last known creation of any such items."

"Millions of years, huh?" Kyon mused, rubbing his chin. "Like, as long ago as the cave cricket?"

Nagato nodded. Haruhi and Kanae looked at him questioningly, while Mikuru shivered, shaking her head again. Kyon looked at the clock and pulled his now very heavily marked note from his future self from his bag. "Four fifty five," he commented, just before the door slammed open.

"Ya-hoo!" Tsuruya cheered, waving excitedly. "Heya, Haru-nyan! Mikuru-chan, Nagato-chi, and, um, girl I don't know yet! Nice to meetchas!"

He turned his attention to the paper, jotting down some additional quick notes. "Hey, Tsuruya-san," Haruhi replied, smiling back. "What brings you here today?"

"Kyon-kun asked mes!" Tsuruya said, placing her hands on her hips and throwing her head back to laugh. "After running into him yesterday, how could I not?"

"What time did we meet, exactly?" Kyon asked, glancing at her sidelong.

"Hmm?" Tsuruya answered, her eyes focusing on him, though her smile didn't dim. "You forgot? Well, I wasn't looking at my phone, but it was a bit after sunset! And thanks for helping me deal with those pushy fellows! Haru-nyan, don't let Kyon-kun get away! He seems quiet and unenthusiastic, but he's a real ace in the hole when it comes to fights! A regular warrior-philosopher!" She mimed a few boxing jabs, then laughed loudly again. "With an awesome dynamic entrance! Your wushu is pretty strong, Kyon-kun, so I appreciate your help!"

"No problem," he muttered, one eyebrow twitching as he added more to his note. "If it's not too much, did you bring that thing I asked for?"

"Yep!" she cheered. "At four fifty five sharp, just like you said!" She reached into her school bag and pulled out a small metal case, which she set on the table.

"Kyon got in a fight yesterday?" Haruhi asked, taken aback, then turning an intent gaze on the boy in question. "Hmm... I want to hear all about that!"

"You should ask him!" Tsuruya laughed, pointing at Kyon. "He was there!" She stopped laughing abruptly and leaned in to peer at Kanae with a broad smile. "Who's your new friend?"

"This is Michikyuu Kanae," Haruhi said, indicating the first year girl. "Our newest member; a first year."

"That makes sense!" Tsuruya said brightly, nodding. "She's got the same smell as everyone here but Kyon-kun! Well, nice to meetcha, Kanae-chan!"

"U...um, nice to meet you?" Kanae managed. "Um, sorry, what's your name?"

"Aha, sorry, sorry," Tsuruya chuckled. "I forget to say sometimes! I'm Tsuruya Haruka! Well, I just came by to drop this off, but we'll see each other again soon, I betcha anything! So, take care, everyones, and thankie again, Kyon-kun!" The excitable green-haired girl left as briskly as she arrived, closing the door behind her with an equally loud crash.

Muttering to himself, Kyon reached for the case, beaten to it by Haruhi as she snatched it across the table, undoing the metal latches and swinging it open. "What's kept in here, I wonder?" she mused, blinking in confusion as she pulled a metal rod about twelve centimeters long from a foam recess within. "Hmm, it looks like it's covered with engravings ... but they're all connected, like circuitry. You asked Tsuruya-san for this yesterday?"

"I will," he answered her. "Evidently." Turning his attention to Yuki, he asked, "Titanium cesium alloy?"

She blinked, then gave a nod. "Correct," she answered. "Furthermore, this is a lost prototype dimensional anchor."

"Wow," Haruhi allowed, turning the item over in her hand and looking at it from all angles. "How does it work?"

"Kanae-chan points it at enemy sliders and says, 'Dimensional Prism Power, Make-up'," Kyon suggested, smirking.

"Now you're just being silly," Haruhi answered, not even moving her eyes away from the rod.

"I am uncertain," Yuki replied. "I will investigate."

Haruhi handed the rod to the small girl, while Kanae watched breathlessly. "Is this the answer we were looking for, Sempai?" she asked him worriedly. "This will help me find my way home?"

"I have no idea, but I'll apparently think so in the future," he answered. Turning to Mikuru, he added, "Also, thank you very much, Asahina-san."

"Um, what for?" she asked, looking between Kyon and Yuki curiously.

"You'll know some day," he answered, looking bleakly at his note to himself. "I really, really hope that I get some calm days to focus on some normal things, soon. This is getting really out of hand."

"Yeah," Haruhi jibed, rolling her eyes, "you do love taking notes and paying attention in class. Without a good excuse to pay such weak attention, whatever would you do?"

"I beg your pardon?" he asked, quirking one eyebrow higher. "I don't have good excuses, I have _awesome_ excuses."

Haruhi grinned very brightly, chuckling. "That's true," she allowed. "Okay, vice commander, since we're here, and it seems Yuki's going to need some time to figure out the dimensional anchor, let's make sure you at least finish your homework. I'm not about to let your awesome excuses make the brigade look worse with sucky grades."

Some day, Kyon realized, he would need to learn to keep his mouth shut.

* * *

"I have determined the function of the anchor," Yuki announced, just as Kyon was finishing his last math questions beneath Haruhi's sharp gaze. Mikuru had briefly snuck away to the girl's bathroom to change back into her uniform, and Kanae was curled over the desk, sleeping soundly with her school bag as a pillow.

"Excellent!" Haruhi cheered, jolting the first year girl awake.

"Nya..." Kanae murmured, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"So," Haruhi pressed, looking intently at Yuki, "we can go to Kanae's home, now?"

"Negative," Nagato replied, her eyes swinging to focus briefly on Haruhi before locking on Kyon. "We can begin conducting experiments to discern the nature and limitations of Kanae's ability to traverse realities."

Haruhi scowled, shaking her head. "That's no fun," she groused. "How long will it take?"

"Uncertain."

"You know," Kyon noted, packing his homework away, "you're disregarding something here, Haruhi. As I understand it, the Integrated Data Sentience Entity values new data more than anything else. In fact, at times, certain factions of it tried to provoke a response from you ... like the 'ghosts' that Sakanaka-san asked us to investigate."

"Well, it's not like I can 'react' much without you and Yuki-chan approving it, now. Which reminds me... Let me try another one." She clenched her eyes shut, mumbling, "The hair on my head grows ... five times as fast."

"Hyum?" Kanae murmured, blinking as Mikuru dabbed at her mouth and wiped away the drool from her unintended nap. "Oopsie! Thanks, Asahina-san."

"Program loaded," Yuki said, blinking.

"Er ... any side-effects to be aware of?" Kyon asked.

Yuki turned to Haruhi. "Are eyebrows to be included in this program?"

"Ack, no, I don't want hilariously bushy Asakura-type eyebrows," Haruhi said, shaking her head quickly. "Just my hair ... you know, the part that gets styled regularly?"

"Understood. Modifications complete." Turning back to Kyon, she asked, "Permission to proceed?"

"Granted," he said, shrugging. "But aside from this amusing digression, the point I was trying to get to is that if we manage to discover data that is new to the Integrated Data Sentience Entity, they may end up willing to work with Nagato in the future in exchange for this data."

"I didn't think of that," Haruhi allowed, glancing at Kyon. "And hey, Yuki-chan ... that's it? There was no tingle, no glowy lights ... powers are supposed to look awesome, not be invisible! Remember that next time."

Yuki replied, "Understood," and gave her tiny nod.

"Good. Now, Kanae-chan, how long does it take for the other sliders to show up and find you?"

"Usually three or four weeks," the small girl said with a yawn, covering her mouth. "Mmm. If I jump between worlds very quickly, it seems to take them a bit longer to show up. I'd guess probably four weeks from now? I landed badly the last time I jumped - I was about to call Sempai when I got scared by a loud noise and jumped right away ... so that should give me a bit of extra time."

"Ooh," Haruhi realized, grinning. "Hey, Kyon, if Yuki-chan and Kanae-chan can't figure out how it works together, we can capture the enemy sliders and beat the information out of them! They obviously have a way to track Kanae-chan, don't they?"

"And right on their heels, the alien invasion," he countered. "Anyway, it's late; we should be getting out of the school."

Haruhi nodded absently, shutting the computer down and gathering her book bag. "In any case, that gives us a hard cap of around four or five weeks to get it sorted out."

The other club members rose and gathered their things, Mikuru offering Kanae a hand when the younger girl wobbled tiredly on her feet. "Understood," Yuki said softly. In the corridor, while Haruhi turned around and locked the club room door, the quiet girl slipped him a note. He pocketed it with a frown. Mikuru studiously pretended not to notice, while Kanae was looking the other way drowsily.

* * *

After parting with the others at the train station, Kyon wasn't entirely surprised to see a familiar black taxicab pull from a side-street, stopping nearby. Koizumi leaned over and opened the back door, so with no hesitation, Kyon climbed in next to him.

"How did it go?" he asked, before the esper could volunteer anything.

"It was a bit rough," Koizumi replied, still smiling. "It could have been much worse, though. As I have mentioned before, one of the most stressful parts about this is simply getting to where the closed space is in a timely manner. Quite fortunately, all the spaces were within the coast of Honshu, so there was no need to travel extremely far."

"I hope it wasn't too much trouble. Hmm, I realize this isn't a critical issue, but out of curiosity, how much does it typically cost to deal with a Shinjin, anyway?"

"That's entirely dependant on how much travel time is involved," Koizumi replied, shrugging. "Hokkaido or Okinawa are of course going to be more difficult to reach, while Tokyo is relatively simple, thanks to the bullet train. However, you are correct in that this isn't a critical issue." He nodded his head at Arakawa, in the driver's seat, and explained, "As I am now a liaison, not a full member of the Organization, this has been arranged to give you an update on the progress of closed space, and somewhat more to request an update from you on the events within the brigade meeting after my departure."

"Hey, Arakawa-san," Kyon said, nodding slightly. The older man grunted a wordless reply, giving a tiny nod of his own, his eyes fixed on the road. "I'm a bit surprised that Mori-san isn't here."

"She's still a bit ... um ... intimidated by your last meeting," Koizumi said, his smile turning apologetic.

Kyon blinked, wondering what he was going to have to have done. "Okay," he allowed. "In summary, we discussed Michikyuu Kanae and her abilities as a slider, the fact that she's being pursued by sliders who want to capture her, and that her home world was invaded by aliens. Possibly related to the Sky Canopy Domain."

Koizumi paled, shivering. "My," he allowed. "That's ... less than comforting."

"Yeah. Kanae-chan is also lost, and doesn't have much control over her ability to slide; she's trying to find her way home, and someone who can help deal with the alien invasion. Surprisingly, we also discovered a limit to Haruhi's power. Namely, that she can't affect other worlds reliably, or the ability to travel to them."

"Is it possible that the limitation was Nagato-san's?" Koizumi asked after a moment.

"It's possible," Kyon agreed, frowning. "That hadn't occurred to me. On that subject, Nagato also explained that the Integrated Data Sentience Entity doesn't have the ability to travel to or observe alternate realities, either. They made a dimensional anchor, which was lost millions of years ago. Naturally, Nagato is using that to try and help Kanae out. It's my hope that any new data that Nagato discovers with Kanae's help can be used as a bargaining chip to get back on the good side of the entity."

"I see..."

"On _that_ note," Kyon added, turning his attention to Arakawa, "would it be possible to request that the Organization watch over Kanae as well? She's an important person in all of this, too."

"I will pass that request on to Mori-san," the older man allowed. "If you will permit a personal observation, I'm rather surprised you trust us so much."

"Well, you've never threatened to kill Koizumi for displeasing you," Kyon said with a shrug. "You've never intentionally treated him poorly because you thought that's the way things needed to be. As far as I know, anyway.

"More importantly, you haven't given me a reason not to trust you yet. Sorry if I, um, frightened Mori-san," though he boggled at the thought he could intimidate someone with such a smile, "but after all is said and done, I'd like us to be able to work together. Ultimately, isn't your goal the stability of the world, and the safety of Haruhi and the people important to her?"

Koizumi worked his jaw for a moment, his smiling masked wiped away in a look of open-eyed astonishment before a real smile came to his lips.

"I will pass that on as well," Arakawa said, nodding.

"Is there anything else?" Koizumi asked.

Kyon shook his head, realizing they were only a few blocks from his house. "Just that I'm sorry for the closed spaces so far. I'll do my best to keep Haruhi in good spirits."

"That is all we can ask for," Koizumi said, nodding. "Thank you very much, vice commander."

* * *

After enduring a haranguing lecture from his mother and missing dinner, Kyon went to his bedroom and checked the note Yuki had given him. It read simply, "Call me."

Shrugging, he picked up the phone and did as he was told, dialing her number from long memory. She answered instantly, her trademark quiet breathing the only response until he spoke. "What's going on, Nagato?" he asked.

"I am in need of assistance," she said quietly. "I am requesting your aid immediately."

"Okay," he said, glancing around his room. "I'll do whatever I can to help. I can be there in twenty minutes, so-"

"Acknowledged. Standby for transfer."

"...what?" he managed, as the world around him violently exploded away, revealing a yawning chasm full of stars, brightly colored gaseous clouds as though from distant nebulae, and myriad bolts of violently crackling energy in every direction. When he came to his senses, he was laying on the floor of Nagato's apartment, staring dazedly up into the girl's eyes.

Looking around, he saw a shell-shocked Mikuru wearing nothing more than a towel about her midsection, and another wrapped around her head, seeming fresh out of the shower, and Kanae, sprawled on the floor near Nagato's table in pajamas and snoring contently.

"Um," he managed, sitting up and turning his eyes away from Mikuru. He wordlessly pushed his jacket at her, since he hadn't even had time to change out of his uniform. "What's going on, Nagato?" he added, closing his cell phone.

She set down the receiver of her own phone and said without preamble, "An error is likely to occur imminently."

"Mmm, Sempai," Kanae murmured in her sleep with a quiet giggle.

"Okay," he said, running his hands through his hair and trying not to look at either Mikuru or the sleeping girl who was dreaming about him with a blush on her cheeks. "We have been relying on you too much. What can I do to help?"

"I have already received permission from Suzumiya Haruhi to borrow you," the quiet girl said. "With the help of the dimensional anchor, Michikyuu Kanae's ability to slide, and Asahina Mikuru's ability to traverse time, I will attempt to create a sealed alternate reality where my error can be expressed without causing any damage to the reality we currently dwell in."

"Do we need to bring Haruhi into this?" he asked. "I mean, she has to start whatever it is I authorize now, right?"

"Negative," Nagato answered. "I have deconstructed all previously queued requests and reassembled them to form data structures that can be executed with your permission. They are 'junk data' that I cannot destroy; I must find a way to execute them to prevent long-term damage or undue stress to the fabric of reality."

"Um, well, I want to help you," he said, nodding. "As long as Asahina-san and Kanae-chan agree, then I can't think of a reason not to."

"Er ... could I ... borrow some clothes, maybe?" Mikuru asked, her voice strained with embarrassment. "I don't mind doing whatever Kyon-kun needs, but this is a little... Erm..."

"Hmm?" Kanae drawled, sitting up. "Oh? Eh? What's..." She blinked, looking around with a furrowed brow. "Did I slide in my sleep?" she asked curiously. "Sempai? Asahina-san? Nagato-san?"

"Er, Nagato's having some ... trouble," Kyon allowed, trying to keep from staring at Mikuru, now wearing his coat and a pair of towels, her face dark red.

"Can I help?" Kanae-asked, rubbing one eye sleepily.

Yuki gave a tiny nod in response. "I will attempt to construct a world based on our collective needs," she answered. "To prevent long-term physical or mental stress, I will initiate an encoded pulse with physical and mental mapping. Estimating forty minutes to error."

"What do you need?" Kyon asked quickly, rising to his feet.

"Wrist."

Kyon nodded knowingly and presented one hand for Yuki to take before she bit his wrist, injecting him with nanites.

Her attention turned to Kanae, and she repeated the demand. At Kanae's uncertain, questioning glance, he assured her, "It's fine. If she says it's for our own protection, I believe her." Kanae nodded uncertainly and followed suit.

With a whimpering sigh, one hand clutching the coat closed across her chest, Mikuru also offered her wrist. "State your needs," Yuki added, turning her attention to Kyon.

"Um, needs?" he asked. "I don't know ... I guess I need to learn martial arts, according to Tsuruya-san. That and to be able to help you, whatever that ends up requiring."

"I'd like to be able to slide better, and know how to get back!" Kanae added, offering a tiny smile.

Mikuru winced. "Really, some clothes would be just great," she mumbled.

"Initializing," Yuki replied.

Then the world around Kyon exploded away again, for the second time in the last half hour.

* * *

Author's notes: Kanae is based off the description of the girl from novel 9. We know now that K:BDH Kanae has ... pretty much nothing to do with the novels, so she's an OC-stand in replacing Yasumi. Apologies, novel 10/11 fans!


	5. Chapter 4

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Straightforward Flashback and Exposition Arc II

Chapter Four: Epileptic Plot Tree

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Twelve: As in Training, As in Life"_

_"...but just as in the training world, you will inevitably take some blows. That's the purpose of practice, isn't it? Perfection may be a myth, but success is not. So train to be good enough, and most importantly, when you get hit, learn to take it."_

_"Roll With the Punches" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

After a brief window of inaction, Kyon awoke to the sensation of impending peril, one hand shooting out from beneath the covers and grasping his sister's descending elbow before she could strike his midsection. "Urk!" she whimpered. "You blocked!?"

"Is it time to get up?" he asked tiredly, sitting up and releasing his sister's arm.

She pouted, rubbing at her elbow. "No," she admitted sullenly. "I got up early to get you up, because it's fun."

He stared at her, then gave a broad grin. "You're a hundred years too young to try that on me," he said defiantly, glancing at his clock and preemptively turning off his alarm.

"You win this round!" his sister cried with mock rage, grinning back and sticking out her tongue. "Next time I'll be the victor!"

"I'm sure," he answered, knuckling back a yawn and climbing out of bed. "Come on, let's get cleaned up."

Despite that initial surge of energy, once he reached the school, Kyon found himself drowsing, continually awoken by Haruhi's mechanical pencil jabbing him in the back just as he was about to drift off.

* * *

Haruhi frowned at the boy in front of her. Why was he so tired? Things were finally getting interesting - really interesting... Well, she couldn't entirely blame him for trying to ignore the class; he did have better things to think about. But it was no excuse to get a bad grade, especially after all the effort she had put into helping him with his homework.

After finishing with the assignments in class, she decided to make a quick study guide, something that would actually make him learn what he'd need for the upcoming test. He might be some kind of hero, but she was the one with the power to reshape reality, and he'd either let her teach him, or she'd persuade Yuki to _make_ him pay more attention in class.

Despite his protestations. He may be in charge of a lot, but he also would need a reminder that she was the supreme commander, and he was just a vice commander.

"I am exhausted," he declared to no one in particular, when the lunch chime rang.

"Oh? Time traveling?" she asked him, teasing. "Maybe fighting off more thugs to protect Tsuruya-san's honor?"

Kunikida paused mid-step as he was about to approach Kyon, then suddenly seemed to think better of it after hearing that remark and moved to an empty seat near Taniguchi. "Farewell forever, dear friends," Kyon sighed. "Chased away by fear of Haruhi and being caught up in our madness."

"Idiot," she retorted, smirking. "Come on, if you're going to insist we can't talk about important things here, let's go to the clubroom for lunch."

"Naturally," he returned, rising to his feet and falling into step beside her. "There's no way _that_ comment could be misconstrued."

She snorted and gave him a sharp look, but admitted internally that she was pleased. He usually remembered his position, only usurping hers in times of dire emergency, or the occasional times when he ignored her position as his superior entirely and engaged in shameless flirting. Though that hadn't happened since shortly after Valentine's day, when she thought back on it. Well, it was kind of cute-

She paused, mid-way through pummeling the thought into submission, and made herself face it head on. Alright, she admitted to herself. Kyon could be cute. There was no shame in admitting that, though; even though he was a 'normal' human, it was only on a technical level. He didn't have powers, but he was pretty cool. He handled the abnormal with a level head and a placid expression. That was respectable, at least. She nodded decisively.

"Something on your mind?" he asked, knuckling back another yawn.

"Just wondering why you never have any energy," she commented, opening the clubroom door. Yuki was in her normal seat, already halfway through a thick paperback titled, 'The Life of Pi'. Seated at the table near Yuki, Mikuru was tiredly resewing her maid costume. "Oh? What happened to the costume, Mikuru-chan?"

"Got a lot on _my_ mind," Kyon muttered, pulling his seat out and collapsing into it. "Even if you don't. But, man am I _hungry_."

"It wasn't torn or anything," Mikuru answered, smiling. "But this one seam scratched a tiny bit ... I realized how to restitch it to make it more comfortable."

"Well, I like that enthusiasm!" Haruhi said, nodding her approval. "Hmm, I didn't know you knew a lot about sewing?"

For some reason, the older girl looked vaguely haunted. "Yes, I know rather a lot about sewing," she mumbled, lowering her face and focusing on her needlework.

"Oh? Maybe I should get some supplies, and you can sew new costumes?" Haruhi suggested.

"I don't know how to design costumes," Mikuru answered evenly. "Maybe I will tomorrow. Otherwise, if you bring me a pattern and cloth, I'm sure I can make it."

"That's good ambition!" she approved. "Hey, Kyon, learn from her example, huh? Have a good reason to be tired. You were _totally_ dozing off during history. Luckily, I'm looking out for you, so I took some notes you can check out."

He blinked at her as she flourished the small stack of papers, taking them with a grave seated bow, made comical by the chopsticks he held in his mouth. "Thanks," he managed around the utensils.

With obvious effort, he focused his eyes on the pages of notes she had taken, setting his chopsticks down. While he was distracted, she snagged his bento and the chopsticks, smirking as she finished the rest of it off. That'd teach him; next time he'd learn not to be so tired!

He frowned at a particular line, turning his head sideways as he studied it. "I don't think 'exactly like Genghis Kahn' tells me much," he said, glancing at her and then rolling his eyes when he saw his demolished lunch. "Urg. Anyway, just saying something is like something else doesn't tell me anything when I don't remember the original reference."

"You absolutely do," she challenged him. "Didn't you say that I imposed order like Genghis Kahn, once?"

"What, wiping out all opposition in a bloody march with no quarter offered, replacing the older system with a regimented and cleanly run organization of your own devising?" he asked, squinting. "Something like that?"

"Exactly like that!" she replied, beaming. "Man, you are so book dumb sometimes!"

"I guess I did say that," he murmured, mildly disquieted. "I must have perfected sleep-learning, or something."

"You will improve with practice," Yuki remarked, flipping to the next page.

"Anyway," he announced, rising to his feet, "I'm still really hungry, so I think I'll see if there's anything left at the cafeteria."

"There isn't," Kanae answered him, opening the door and ducking her head slightly. Koizumi stood behind her with a large paper bag in both hands. "I was really hungry after last night, too, but I guess I took too long to get there - I had to run off campus and stop by the bakery a block and a half away. Thankfully, Koizumi-san helped me out!"

Kyon blinked, frowning as he glanced at the pair, then sighed and sank back into his chair. His stomach gave an unsettling growl, and Haruhi began to feel a little sorry that she'd taken half his lunch ... but then, the cafeteria was empty, and _she_ was still hungry, too.

"I didn't expect a lunch meeting," Koizumi said cheerfully. "But when I saw Michikyuu-san heading out of the campus, I thought I'd see if she needed help with anything." Kanae pulled out a chair for herself and another for Koizumi as the esper closed the door behind him with one foot, then set the bag on the table. "I hope no one has any problems with pork buns?"

"And chocolate cornets!" Kanae added. Blushing slightly, she handed one of the buns to Kyon, adding, "Thanks for last night, Sempai."

Haruhi couldn't help when one of her eyebrows twitched. "Excuse me?" she asked, distracted from the free food by that last comment.

"It was the first time, I... I mean..." Kanae blushed more brightly. "It wore me out quite a bit, but with Sempai and Nagato-san, I don't mind at all!"

"Kyon!" Haruhi screeched, standing up so quickly the chair beneath her rolled across the floor until it crashed into the wall behind her. "What is the meaning of this!?"

"I'm pretty worn out from last night, too," Mikuru added, covering her mouth as she yawned.

Koizumi winced, actually making a tiny whimper as he turned his gaze towards Kyon and begged, "Please tell me that this is a misunderstanding?"

"I don't know what she's talking about," Kyon said defensively. "I'm pretty sure I spent almost all last night learning martial arts."

"That's amazing, _Neo_, now what does it have to do with you wearing out an underclassman!?" Haruhi demanded, glowering down at him.

He stared up in befuddlement for a long moment before understanding dawned in his eyes. "It is _not_ like that!" he insisted, jumping to his feet and dismissing his exhaustion to protest hotly, his own chair sliding backwards into the clothing rack. "I swear to you - I did absolutely nothing inappropriate!"

"Then what _happened_?" Haruhi growled, her eyes narrowing.

"Er, I said something wrong, maybe?" Kanae said with an embarrassed chuckle, sticking her tongue out and miming a blow to her head. "Last night I got to practice sliding! It took a long time, but I think I'm finally starting to learn how to control it a bit better, thanks to Sempai and Nagato-san! Asahina-san was there, too, but a lot of it gets really fuzzy..."

"T...that's all that it was, though?" the brigade chief pressed, still glaring at Kyon.

"Er ... um ... Asahina-san, do you think you could help, here?" he asked, turning a pleading gaze on the tired upperclassman.

"Kyon-kun was a good boy," Mikuru answered sleepily. "It's Nagato-san's fault for teleporting me straight out of the shower."

"I...it seems that a rather large closed space has appeared," Koizumi said in a mournful tone. "I'm afraid I will be absent for a while..." He bowed apologetically towards Haruhi, then nodded at Kyon, adding, "I will leave everything else up to you."

As the esper marched out of the room, Kyon sighed and rubbed at his eyes, calling out, "Good luck, Koizumi."

"Yuki-chan," Haruhi said, before biting back her protest. Well, she _had_ agreed that the other girl could 'borrow' Kyon. But what did she need with Mikuru and Kanae?! "I'm expecting an explanation for this!" Come to think of it, what were the practical limitations of 'borrowing', anyway?

Yuki raised her gaze from her book languidly. "Last night," she began, without preamble, "I neared overload due to queued data-creation and modification requests from you. To prevent overload, as per the instructions given by him and yourself, I undertook to dispose of all junk data and error-causing behaviors. After preparing all three subjects with nanites for preservation, Michikyuu Kanae attempted to slide to an alternate dimension, simultaneous to the activation of Asahina Mikuru's time travel device, while I engaged the dimensional anchor with a modified temporal anchor function.

"The resultant actions, guided by stored data from yourself, were sufficient to create a semi-stable permeable reality governed by myself that was outside of both space and time, allowing me to ground myself from the negative attribute data that would cause error behavior. This same space was also used to simultaneously allow Michikyuu Kanae practice sliding between nested pocket-dimensions and Asahina Mikuru to undertake her requested training in sewing. Per his own instructions, he undertook martial arts training and assisted me with ... personal issues."

Yuki blinked once as Haruhi absorbed everything.

"After spending sufficient time to resolve internal issues, I restored all of us to the baseline physical reality and undid the time-based changes in physical age, as well as clearing out all non-necessary mental data to prevent unintentional corruption or trauma of hosts by acquired data."

"You mean," Haruhi said, struggling, "everyone spent last night training on stuff, and then you wiped it all out?"

"Negative. The results of training remain, even if the specific datum of acquisition are no longer present. Additionally, physical conditioning is preserved, even though aging was reversed. In this way, muscle memory and skill can be preserved memetically."

"How long did we actually spend there?" Mikuru mused. "It's strange, since I can ... kind of ... vaguely remember it, but not really _specifically_ recall much. Even so, I know much more about sewing, now." She gave a tiny shiver. "_Much_ more. If I'd known, I'd have suggested something more serious..."

"One year of relative time was spent in training," Yuki answered.

"That'd explain it," Kyon said, shaking his head and settling back into his seat. "I remember all of the basics of what I learned, and I felt strangely light this morning. And, weirdly enough, I felt like I really, really missed-" He coughed suddenly, staring into his half-eaten pork bun. "But, yeah. That's what happened. It's funny, though ... I know a full year of training in martial arts ... which is pretty much enough to realize I've got a long way to go." He sighed, shaking his head. "Anyway, sorry about that, Haruhi. I guess it did sound a bit strange, the way Kanae-chan said it."

"Hehe... My bad. Sorry, Sempai," Kanae added, still blushing as she half hid her face behind a pork bun.

"I'll say," Haruhi agreed, feeling oddly deflated. "But, that's no fun! Why am I left out?"

"Your presence would create more data," Yuki answered unapologetically. "I would be more likely to enter an error state. This is undesirable."

"Yeah, but I don't have to like it," Haruhi grumbled.

Kyon winced. "You could try," he said, somewhat pleadingly. "If not for us, then for Koizumi, who is working overtime for you, now."

"Cornet?" Kanae offered Haruhi sympathetically. "Even though it felt like it was that long for us, Sempai still came back here with you the next day, right?"

"I guess," Haruhi agreed reluctantly, taking the pastry and biting the head end absently. "But there better not be any fooling around in these dream-training things! And I don't care how busy you are, I'm _still_ making you pay attention in class, Kyon."

"At least I've got that," he grumbled. "Man, why am I so hungry?"

"You will require more protein to generate the mass your conditioning has come to expect from your training," Yuki answered, turning her gaze back to her book.

"Yeah? I guess that makes sense. My own fault for asking for martial arts." Then he shook his head sharply, taking another bite from his pork bun before adding, "Though it seems I'll need that to help Tsuruya-san a few days ago."

"Huh? Yuki-chan, I would have expected you to take better care of him!" Haruhi protested weakly, trying to remember that she needed to control her frustration.

Yuki looked up from her book, for a moment the merest hint of confusion flickering in her eyes. "I thought you would wish to do that yourself," she said quietly.

"Delicious pork bun," Kyon mumbled, devouring another and studiously ignoring the conversation. "Thanks again, Kanae-chan."

Haruhi felt her face color as she nodded. "Right," she decided. "Come on, Kyon, grab another bun and let's get back to class before the bell, okay?"

"Sure," he agreed, taking the notes she had made for him and following her out of the clubroom. "And, thanks for the help with my schoolwork."

"No problem," she mumbled while they walked down the stairs. "It's not as neat as training you in martial arts in your sleep, though."

"It's something I can talk to my parents about without being sent to an institution," he told her, smirking. "Isn't that something?"

"What's with you trying to be so nice?"

"It's no good seeing you when you're feeling down," he said, shrugging apologetically. "Didn't I already tell you that?"

"Hmm," she mused, giving a weak smile. "Well, that's something."

* * *

After class finished, Kyon cracked his neck, unconsciously stretching his muscles and joints while switching stance from foot to foot, as though in preparation for a fight. Suddenly knowing basic martial arts was strange, if very convenient from a practical standpoint. Knuckling back another yawn, he turned around to follow Haruhi to the clubroom, surprised to see her ordering a stack of note paper, still sitting at her desk.

"Here," she said, thrusting the papers towards him without meeting his eyes. "You're exempted from the club meeting today. Go home and get some rest. If you're not too tired tomorrow morning, we'll go over the homework before class."

"...thanks," he managed, frowning. "Um, Haruhi, are you upset with me?"

"Not with you," she said, grimacing. "Anyway, I need to have a talk with Yuki-chan and Mikuru-chan."

He blinked away some of his exhaustion. "If there's anything I can help you with-"

"This is something I have to figure out for myself," she said, shaking her head. "Really, just get some rest. We're going to have a lot to talk about tomorrow."

"Okay," he allowed, wishing that either of them were smiling at the moment. "Well ... take care, then."

She nodded before breezing out of the classroom.

"Trouble in paradise?" Taniguchi mused, drawing close.

"And what's this about you fighting thugs for Tsuruya-sempai?" Kunikida asked, following with a concerned expression.

"Yeah," Taniguchi said, nodding seriously. "Suzumiya talking about nonsense like time traveling isn't going to raise too many questions, but people attacking a sempai, and you getting into fights? I hate to tell you that you should back off, since you and Suzumiya seem to be heading toward 'item' territory ... but if she's losing it, I don't think you want to get dragged down with her."

Kyon looked down to the stack of note papers in his hand. "Thank you, Taniguchi," he said, struggling for an earnest tone. "I should be honored to have a friend like you, trying to spare me the indignity of being dragged into a whirlpool of depravity and academic success."

Kunikida chuckled weakly. "To be fair, Kyon," he said, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably, "even if it wasn't worded diplomatically... Well, perhaps it would be better to say that you're generally a respectable person. If you're, ah, pursuing companionship solely for help in studying, wouldn't Sasaki-san be a better choice?"

Struggling to think of an acceptable response, Kyon frowned and cracked the knuckles on both hands, prompting his friends each to take a step back. "What, precisely," he asked, "has changed? Haruhi hasn't become somehow worse, or really that different than she was last year."

"Yeah, well ... she's rubbing off on you," Taniguchi said, spreading his arms in a helpless gesture. "It was great when you somehow were taming the shrew. Don't get me wrong, it was nothing short of a miracle that you were able to reach her! But now she's turning you a bit crazy."

"I'm not sure what's gotten into you two," Kyon decided. "But I haven't been resting well lately. Maybe I seem more docile because I'm tired, but you're probably making too much of it. What does a joke between Haruhi and myself have to do with the rest of us going about our business as normal?"

"Well, if it was just Haruhi, that'd be fine," Taniguchi said, shaking his head. "But Tsuruya-sempai mentioned you getting into a fight on her behalf, as well. She's too well respected to be considered responsible for it, and she's not the type to spread baseless rumors, so naturally..."

"It's just that the general consensus is, grades aside ... if you're getting into trouble, Haruhi must be behind it," Kunikida finished. "Especially since she mentioned it earlier ... that pretty much seemed to confirm that it wasn't a joke. You don't want a reputation as a delinquent, do you?"

"Tsuruya-sempai thinks I'm a delinquent?" Kyon asked skeptically.

"Well, no, she said you were a warrior-philosopher, or something else silly like that," Taniguchi said, shaking his head and making a dismissive gesture with one hand. "But what else do you call someone who solves problems with violence?"

"A problem solver?" Kyon asked. "Anyway, I don't know what else to say, here. I appreciate the warning, I guess, but if it comes down to it, I'm at Haruhi's side until the end - so, sorry." When Taniguchi opened his mouth to say something else, Kyon raised a hand to forestall further comment. "I'm really tired. I'm going home to get some rest. Maybe this whole thing is a product of inadequate sleep, and we'll all feel better about it tomorrow."

"That seems very peaceable," Kunikida agreed, shooting Taniguchi a warning look as Kyon's hand dropped to his side.

Unsatisfied with silence, Taniguchi said, "Well, be careful at least."

* * *

Haruhi reached the clubroom second, Yuki somehow being there first, as she usually was. "Not visiting the computer research society much these days?" she asked the slighter girl, who had almost finished her paperback.

Yuki blinked slowly, then gave a minuscule shake of her head.

"Yuki-chan, we need to talk about Kyon."

The smaller girl gave a tiny nod and closed her book, turning to look at Haruhi expectantly.

For her part, the brigade leader walked to her desk, turning the computer on to give herself a brief distraction. "You like Kyon, don't you?" she finally blurted out.

"Yes," Yuki answered softly, her eyes still fixed on Haruhi.

"Um, anyway, Yuki-chan ... I _did_ say you could borrow him when you needed to," Haruhi admitted, frowning. "But I'm having a hard time figuring things out right now."

Yuki said nothing, merely staring in silence.

"I... I mean, Kyon and I..." She hesitated, uncertain what to say. Eventually, in a very quiet voice, she managed to ask, "Are you going to start dating Kyon?"

After blinking once, Yuki answered, "I do not seek to initiate courtship rituals or physical intimacy with him, though I will reciprocate if he demonstrates an obvious inclination. However, as has been observed previously, my understanding of his genuine desires and emotions is faulty; I can therefore not safely assume that such demonstrations have occurred without verifying them through a third party."

Haruhi stared at the smaller girl hard, furrowing her brow. "You're telling me," she said slowly, "that you can't tell if Kyon likes you, and you don't want to mess things up? So you'd need to ask someone else if he really liked you and wanted to date?"

Yuki's face tilted upwards slightly, as though she were considering the statement. "Yes," she answered after an extended pause. "That third party must be trusted; I would like to nominate you."

Drumming her fingers on the desk, glancing at the monitor as the OS screen flashed past and the generic blue background appeared, Haruhi asked, "You want me to help you hook up with him?"

The smaller girl's gaze lowered. "Uncertain," she answered. "Our behaviors do not conform to typical models among humans. I am unable to determine how this would change the interactions between the group definitively, but there is a significant probability that committing to such a course of action would result in dissatisfaction among most others."

"Yeah," Haruhi sighed, rubbing at her temples. "If only there was a way for everyone to be happy, huh? But there's only one Kyon to go around..." She brightened suddenly. "Ooh! Hey, Yuki-chan, what about, um, making a bunch of copies of Kyon!"

She stared at Haruhi blankly for a minute, then pointedly turned her attention back to the book in her hands.

"Yeah, you're right," Haruhi grumbled with another resigned sigh. "Don't even let Kyon know I suggested that; he wouldn't like it... Maybe I should just resign myself to letting him choose whoever he wants ... I mean..." She trailed off, staring at the ceiling and musing absently until she was distracted by Kanae and Mikuru walking into the room.

"Hello Suzumiya-san," Mikuru said sleepily, collecting her sewing kit and the maid costume from where it had been left to finish her repairs.

"Hey, Mikuru-chan, Kanae-chan."

"Hi, everyone," the younger girl mumbled. "Oh, no Sempai...?"

"Close the door, Kanae-chan," Haruhi instructed. "Lock it, too. Koizumi's ... working because I'm problematic, and I sent Kyon home to get some sleep."

"Um?" Mikuru noised, as Kanae followed her orders and took Koizumi's normal seat at the table. "I...is something wrong? Suzumiya-san, if you and Kyon-kun aren't getting along-"

"It's nothing to do with him and I," she said crossly, rubbing at her forehead and spinning her chair to face the window, adjusting herself to sit cross-legged on the seat. "Because, Mikuru-chan ... you like Kyon, don't you?"

Mikuru yelped quietly, looking up in alarm and sucking the fingertip she had pricked with her sewing needle. "Er... That is... Of course! He's a very good friend!"

"You don't have to act clueless and moe right now," Haruhi grumped. "I mean, romantically. If I weren't being an obstacle to you, you'd try and date him, wouldn't you?"

"Er... Uh..."

"Be honest!"

"It's ... forbidden," Mikuru said quietly. "I...if you must know, then ... yes, I do like Kyon-kun ... he's reliable, and doesn't have ulterior motives. But I'm not _from_ this timeplane; I can't have, um, relationships with anyone from here. S...so, please don't think of me as a threat, Suzumiya-san! And you can't ask me to think of him without you being in the picture; if it weren't for _you_, I never would have been sent back and been able to meet him anyway! I don't want to come between the two of you!"

Haruhi stuck one foot out and turned the chair around to face her club members. Kanae rubbed at one eye and peered at Mikuru in bemused fascination, while Yuki's eyes were fixed firmly on Haruhi. Mikuru herself merely gazed at her sewing project with a bowed head, her hands not moving, her expression downcast.

"I'm not a threat to you," Mikuru repeated quietly. "I never could be."

"I don't like that answer," Haruhi mumbled. "It's just like an action movie where the hero dies. Or where the hero likes two girls, so one isn't quite as pure-hearted or kind as the other, and is killed to make it so the hero never has to choose. Yuki-chan likes Kyon, too. Augh! This is frustrating, really, really frustrating!"

"P...please don't get frustrated!" Mikuru begged. "There's nothing to worry about from me! Kyon-kun and I ... will never be more than friends."

Haruhi sighed, pushing the keyboard away from her so she could cross her arms and rest her head there. "Maybe I'm thinking about things too hard," she forced out. "Maybe, really, I should be asking who _he_ likes, right?"

"This got really serious," Kanae said, shivering. "Um, what's going on?"

"I'm trying to sort things out," Haruhi answered. "Kyon didn't mention it ... but for a while I thought maybe he liked me ... then I thought about it more and realized, maybe he's just being so nice to me because he _has_ to be."

"That's not true at all!" Kanae said firmly, shaking her head. "I've been to a lot of worlds, and in some of them you have a power, and in some you don't. But Sempai likes you in a _lot_ of them. That can't be just coincidence."

"He does?" Haruhi asked hopefully, turning her eyes to the underclassman. "It wouldn't be so much of a problem if he would just admit it and make the first move!"

Kanae nodded quickly. "Absolutely," she said cheerfully. "It makes me a bit jealous; most worlds I jump to, he wants to help me but has to take care of you, more..." She shrugged, her smile slipping momentarily before she forced more cheer. "But ... that's what's great about Sempai! He doesn't have to want to ask me out to care about me and want to make sure I'm okay. And that's ... fine ... for me."

Haruhi drummed her fingertips on her desk absently. "You really think so?" she asked quietly, wondering about Kanae's actual feelings. Fleeing constantly through alternate realities, with Kyon as the only reliable person she knew... That situation seemed oddly familiar.

"I think so," Mikuru said earnestly. "Don't let yourself get down, Suzumiya-san! If Kyon-kun ... didn't like you, he wouldn't have tried so hard when he asked you to help Nagato-san. He would have found a way to break things off with you at the same time, or give up your powers for good! He didn't, so..."

Haruhi's fingers drummed the table again. "I still don't like that answer," she mumbled.

* * *

In a dark mood, Kyon strode out of the school grounds. He paused a few steps out of the gate as a mature woman in a sharp suit approached him, giving a terse nod. "Mori-san," he greeted her neutrally, struggling to keep the irritation his classmates had instilled from his face.

"Sir," she greeted him, somewhat stiffly. "I'm here for our meeting, as you requested?"

He took a deep breath and gave the woman a slow nod of his own. "Is Koizumi in trouble?" he asked.

Her expression eased slightly as she shook her head. "He's just busy at the moment, Sir." He spent an idle moment wondering what the hell his future self was going to say to this woman that had made her so deferential to him. "This way...?"

The familiar black cab awaited a short distance down the street, and he shrugged at it in bemusement. It would get him home faster, letting him bypass the train. Which in turn, most likely meant that he _should_ get more sleep once he got home... He got into the back seat, Mori opening he door on the opposite side and sitting next to him. Arakawa wordlessly started the car up.

He didn't feel like trying to puzzle through whatever it was that his future self had arranged, so he decided he'd try relying on raw bluster: "If you'd care to begin...?"

"Very well," she agreed. "While en route to his current assignment, Koizumi-kun relayed an update on the situation with Suzumiya-san."

"Okay. And...?"

"So far," Mori said evenly, her eyes turning to fix on some distant point outside of the car window, "everything regarding Suzumiya-san has matched your predictions. Assuming you're correct, and tomorrow morning is the peak of closed space creation for the two week period that we established, then we'll accept that you have the situation under control." Her eyes hardened and shifted to his; he felt he should be trying to return her hard stare, but could only gaze back lethargically.

Hopefully, he told himself, the lack of excited reaction would convey some sense of confidence to her. Surprisingly enough, it seemed to, and she quickly looked away again. "In the meantime," she continued, unprompted, "we're also following up on your request to ensure that Michikyuu Kanae is provided the same protection you are afforded. Naturally, since she's joined Suzumiya-san's club, this makes her a person of interest to us anyway."

"Of course," he said, nodding. Why had he thought to request that from Arakawa? It made sense the Organization would watch over anyone in the Brigade _anyway_, if only to determine who they were and what powers, if any, they might have. Stabbing blindly at the next conversation topic, he asked, "And the puppet Student Council?"

"Well, as you said, Sir," Mori sighed, "there's not much we can do about Kimidori Emiri. However, she was never part of our equations anyway; in fact, we typically tried to hide our agenda from her because the IDSE and ourselves have our own goals. If she's an enemy, I don't hesitate to lay that problem firmly at _your_ feet, since you've started this mess. That being said, we had nothing planned within the next two weeks anyway."

"Right," he said, committing the details to memory. This would absolutely have to be written down if he was to manage whatever madness he was going to do last Sunday. "Good. Did Koizumi mention the potential IDSE bargaining chip we had on the table?" Those words sounded good ... right out of an intrigue filled political drama. Doubtless Haruhi would be thrilled to hear this story later.

"New data?" Mori asked, giving a small nod. "Again, that falls firmly into the area of 'not our problem'."

"I know," he said patiently. "But if we're working together, well, as I mentioned before, I'd like us to be on friendly terms. My plan isn't something inane, like, 'bite off more than you can chew and chew it anyway'. While I am doing my best, I don't have the arrogance to believe I'm infallible."

Mori turned her face back to him, her eyes softening as she raised her eyebrows. "More and more, I'm starting to like you, Sir," she said with a wry grin. "You remind me of myself at your age. Well, in that case, the only thing that occurred to me is that ... this entire thing, every action you've taken so far, could be an IDSE orchestrated ploy. That is to say ... for all we know, they've arranged things from behind the scenes specifically so that you would 'collar' Suzumiya-san and thus restrict their precious 'data creation' to a safely controlled vector."

The thought chilled him deeply, to consider he could have been manipulated so perfectly. If it were true, had Yuki betrayed him? Or was she, too, just a puppet? He didn't like the idea of anyone being a puppet for anyone else... Resolving to ensure that Haruhi endured less harsh restrictions from himself in the future, he gave a thoughtful nod he didn't quite feel.

"Then again," he said, realizing that thanks to exhaustion, his expression hadn't changed despite his alarm, "this also connects to the other theories of the Organization; Haruhi is God, for example." He'd never believed that one... Able to warp reality, sure, but God? Even Koizumi said he hadn't bought into that one, and he was the closest thing to a Haruhi-worshiper Kyon had ever met. "I don't think I'm going to ask Haruhi to create a rock she can't move anytime soon ... but we can't exactly prove this, can we?"

"We can't," Mori agreed. "I'm guessing you had already considered it, then?"

"Not really," he admitted. "The theory's sound, but I don't believe any of us are predictable enough for the IDSE to risk it. I can easily see them wanting Haruhi controlled to provoke reactions safely, but threatening Yuki? After what I told them? That's like giving a monkey a chainsaw and hoping that it'll create a new form of art. It might work, but probably it's just going to get messy and end poorly."

Eyes widening in surprise, Mori laughed aloud; from the front seat, even Arakawa snickered. "Your argument is as compelling as mine," Mori allowed, recovering. "Neither can truly be proven yet. Very well, Sir. I hope for all of our sakes, you're able to do as well as you claim. In the meantime, is there anything else your plans will require?"

"Nothing serious, for the moment," he said dismissively. "Maybe a coffee machine for the club room, at the rate things are going."

"If everything works out after tomorrow, it will be a small price to pay, Sir," Mori agreed as the car pulled to a stop. "Koizumi-kun has made that request many times. Thank you again for your candor, and good luck with your objectives."

"Don't mention it, Mori-san," he replied, somewhat bemused as he opened the door and stepped out of the car, waving at the pair as the vehicle drove away. Did the clubroom actually have a coffee machine coming to it...? That would be amusing ... but he'd feel guilty if it got back to Haruhi as any kind of abuse of his authority.

He saw his sister approaching, looking over her shoulder at the vanishing car curiously. "I even said I wasn't serious," he mumbled to himself. "Well, it's not like everything I say I want will come to me. If it were, I'd wish that Haruhi and I could really get along, and she'd find a way to be happy."

"Haru-nee-san isn't happy?" his little sister asked, drawing close enough only to hear the last part.

"Oh, you know," he said with a yawn. "She wants me to study harder."

"So does Mom!" his sister said brightly. "She's always telling me to study harder than you, since you set the bar low!"

"That's swell," he grumbled, rolling his eyes and heading into the house. "Here's an easy bar to clear: I'm going to take a nap."

"What does setting a bar mean?"

* * *

His eyes slowly blinked open from his nap, staring upward into Yuki's eyes as she peered down at him. He forced back a yawn and sat up, glancing around her apartment. Looking somewhat irritable and wearing a bathrobe, Mikuru knelt at the table, mumbling about getting phone calls first. Kanae was sitting next to Mikuru, working on her homework and evidently unperturbed.

"Hello?" he said by way of greeting, looking down at himself ... he was wearing his dress shirt and slacks, too tired to change into his pajamas or strip. Though, that last thought was thankful, in retrospect.

Kanae blinked at his voice and looked around. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "This isn't my room! I didn't even feel the slide!"

"I did," Mikuru said with a sigh. "Nagato-san, are you trying to embarrass me?"

Yuki turned her gaze to Mikuru without changing expression. "No," she answered. "With your permission, we shall proceed again."

Shifting his shoulders, Kyon sat up and nodded. "Is this going to be a nightly occurrence?" he asked, trying to keep annoyance from entering his voice.

"Unknown," Yuki answered. "The amount of time Michikyuu Kanae will require to master her ability to shift dimensions is as of yet undetermined."

"Oh, right," Kyon realized, blinking. This wasn't _just_ about Yuki dealing with her 'error' data. "Well, in that case, I'm ready, Nagato. I think I've got a way to go before I finish what I chose to learn ... and I can't travel back to last Sunday until I finish it."

"More sliding practice!" Kanae cheered, throwing her hands into the air excitedly. "I've never been so fortunate in any world I've jumped to!"

"Um, I should keep a positive attitude, too," Mikuru contributed. "If it's not too much trouble, Nagato-san, could you call me before teleporting me here next time? I'd really like to arrive dressed ... if Suzumiya-san were to hear about, um, me arriving in such a condition on a regular basis, she'd probably become even more upset."

"She's upset right now?" Kyon asked, frowning. "That's no good; what's wrong?"

Yuki looked away, adopting an expression Kyon hadn't seen since he asked her what happened to people after they died. "I should not say," she eventually answered.

"Well," he said, frowning, "I already _know_ that there's supposed to be a huge closed space incident tomorrow. Do you have any advice on that front?"

Her eyes ponderously swung back to meet his. "Seek happiness."

"Er, um," Mikuru managed, her face turning red, "you should ... make the first move. Suzumiya-san is just ... stressed that... Well, I probably shouldn't say, either. But I trust you to sort things out!"

"Go Sempai!" Kanae cheered again. "I'm confident he can do it!"

"If you are ready to proceed?" Yuki asked, turning her gaze to Kyon again.

"Yeah," he agreed. "No need to put off your error correction any further than required."

"Understood. Initializing," Yuki announced, and for a moment, Kyon wondered how Kanae could not have noticed being teleported as the world exploded away around him.

Again.

* * *

"Kyon!" Flashes of light, crackling energy dozens of orders of magnitude lower than the ones in the spaces that Yuki had pulled him through with her teleport echoed through his field of vision before his eyes snapped open to see Haruhi kneeling over him. She was wearing her school uniform, and he guessed without checking he was too.

He blearily blinked and sat up, squinting at the gray sky overhead. "This again?" he asked, stretching.

"Sorry," she mumbled, unable to meet his eyes. "I thought I was having a pretty bad day, then ... it got worse."


	6. Chapter 5

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Straightforward Flashback and Exposition Arc III

Chapter Five: The Requisite Haruhi-and-Kyon in Closed Space Together Again Part (You Know The One)

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Seven: Practical Considerations for the Apocalypse"_

_"...if that happens, and there's nothing else to be done, the next question is going to be survival. There are things more important than food, water, or even reasonable shelter. There's no reason to try and survive alone, unless you're just a die-hard, and even then you're still probably clinging to hope. So make sure you're not alone, or else there's not much reason to keep on going."_

_"Clearing the Event Horizon: How Close is Too Close?" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

"It happens," he said casually, seeming unconcerned. Glancing at their surroundings, he observed, "I don't see any Shinjin. Back in the school again?"

"I don't even understand how you can see this and not be alarmed," she said with a sigh, looking up at the sky with him. "So ... you said that this happened last time when I got too frustrated, and then I accidentally almost destroyed the world?"

"That's what I've been told," he agreed. "But we've got a little time, I think."

"I can't help but feel a bit simple-minded if all it took for you to snap me out of this last time was..." She trailed off and looked away. "That wasn't an invitation," she added in warning when he lowered his gaze to study her.

He raised an eyebrow at her and said nothing before he shrugged, leading the way into the school building. He moved to the same locked door he had smashed the window of last time, but she stopped him with a shake of her head. Didn't he understand? This was the world she was constructing ... not even meaning to ... and he'd gone and told her what she was, here. "I have the keys," she said, willing them to appear in her skirt pocket.

Naturally, they did, and he followed her, nonplussed. After a moment, she realized he was holding one hand out, very slightly toward her, though he didn't actually look at her directly. Fighting her own hesitation down, she took his hand in her own, and they walked together to the club room. "You can take my arm," he suggested, just like the last time they had been in this strange space. "It makes for a better mood."

She shook her head at that, then unlocked the door, wondering why she had bothered with keys ... she could just have willed the door open, after all. He flipped on the light after releasing her hand and went to the window, gazing outside. "Well?" she asked, breaking the silence and closing the door behind her. "I'm sure you've got something to say."

"I could say I'm sorry," he told her, shaking his head. "Would that be enough?"

"It's not your fault," she sighed. "I'm just ... really stressed out."

He shrugged, turning around and fiddling with the tea kettle for a minute. "My tea still sucks," he warned her. "It may not be deadly, but I can't promise anything."

"You have to change the leaves," she observed. Then she shook her head again. "Are you serious? Here we are on the verge of me destroying the world - again! - and all you can think to do is make tea?! Gods, if aliens arrived, what would you do, apologize for being out of crumpets and discuss the Hanshin Tigers?"

He snorted, carelessly dumping the old leaves into the trash and eyeballing a replacement fill of tea leaves from one of the metal cannisters that Mikuru had bought. "I'm not actually a fan of the Hanshin Tigers. Setting aside the aliens we've already met... After dealing with some of the things I have ... last February, I guess it was? Anyway, a while back I told the universe, though in more words, that it could bring any trouble it wanted," he said resolutely, his attention focused on the kettle as it heated up. "As long as we had the brigade together, I'd be able to handle it. With you in front of me, the others at our sides, and Tsuruya behind us ... I could deal with the smirking bastard, the Sky Canopy Domain... Whatever the world brings, as long as we're a brigade, what did any of that matter?"

"But you get to have _fun_," she protested. "And all I do is make _trouble_. That's not fair for either of us!"

"Now you're being too hard on yourself," he said, straightening up with a frown. "And that's not like you. Maybe I made a mistake telling you what I did."

"And you only did it because of Yuki," she muttered, turning away. A glowing figure appeared on the distant skyline, and she focused her will on it, desperately wishing it would go away. After a shuddering heartbeat, it did, vanishing into motes of light. Kyon seemed not to notice, though he was watching her.

"I would have done the same thing for Asahina-san or Koizumi," he returned levelly. "And if I thought I could help, Tsuruya-san and Kanae-chan as well, even though we've only just met her."

"What about me?" she asked quietly. "I understand that I'm the leader of the brigade, but does that mean that I'm just that?"

"That question," he said darkly, grimacing. "You have no idea how long I've struggled with it. I asked myself last May, 'what is Haruhi to me?' You ... probably remember the answer I came up with."

She felt her face color and nodded stiffly, turning away again. "And that's what's bothering me," she admitted. "I guess I can't keep it bottled up, or I'll blow up the world as we know it. But reality bends itself the way I want it to. It's not right that _you_ do, too. How can I feel I'm achieving anything, if I'm cheating without even meaning to?"

He said nothing for a long minute, pouring the water into the teapot over the tea leaves and ruminating. "You're still being too hard on yourself," he decided, when pouring was complete. "If I could only pick one thing to blame myself for, it would be for revealing things to you that changed who you were so much. That, honestly, I do regret. I don't regret saving Nagato. I don't regret being honest with you. But causing you pain because of what you know... That, I never wanted at all. Please believe that, if nothing else."

"I still don't know why you're so nice to me," she mumbled, staring at the floor.

"I am an endless fountain of support," he agreed heartily. "Telling you when I think your ideas are stupid, being unhelpful when you're starting to drag us into problems, sabotaging baseball tournaments you haphazardly coerce us to join even when I risk destroying the world by intentionally antagonizing you... That's me, alright! An all around great guy." He shook his head with a roll of his eyes. "I'm not sure what's gotten into you, Haruhi, but I'm not as perfect as you act right now, and you're nowhere _near_ the villain you make yourself out to be at the moment."

She stood up straighter and looked at him closely. Seemingly unconcerned, he filled two cups with tea and handed one to her. "You are unreasonably reasonable," she accused, unable to keep a tiny smile from forming on her lips.

He inclined his head to her very slightly in acknowledgement as he took his seat.

"Alright, mighty philosopher Kyon," she decided, "riddle me this: what do I do now? I'm stressed out because of all this power I have that's too dangerous to play with, and the idea that I'm forcing people around me against their will - if I'm not outright breaking it. If there were a flaw that you could point out that I needed to fix, what would it be?"

"You should seek happiness," he said without hesitation, sipping at the tea and making a face. "Ugh. And don't drink that tea, I think it turned out pretty nasty."

"I'm trying to be serious here!" she yelled. "This is the end of the world as we know it!"

"And I feel fine," he said back in a sing-song tone, smirking. "Come on, Haruhi. I mean it; you should seek what makes you happy. As far as your flaws, well, I could whine all _day_, but to be honest, the one big thing you do is have no real respect for other people's feelings. No empathy." He raised a hand to forestall her protest and added, "Even so, you've come a _very_ long way since we first met on that count, so who am I to judge?"

"Oh," she replied, deflating.

"What, you wanted the boxed shoujou-romance answer of, 'Never change, you're perfect the way you are'?" he asked, dropping his hand to the table. "Well, we're real people in the real world, not characters in a television drama or manga. I know you'd be happier with _me_ if I had more energy and got better grades. None of us are perfect."

"You sure aren't," she retorted, smiling again as she took her seat at the desk and sipped her tea. "Ugh! You're right, next flaw, your tea is terrible."

"I warned you," he said gravely, shrugging and sipping his tea anyway. "Truth in advertising, right?"

"Yeah, well," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I don't like ... not knowing where we stand with one another. I guess that's selfish... Damn it, I want..." She struggled for words, unable to meet his eyes.

"You want to be in charge?" he asked, leaning his face on one hand. "You are the brigade leader, you know."

"Yeah, but..." Shifting her shoulders, she said, "I'm not happy being a tsundere character. Just like you said, we're real people ... right?"

He nodded, frowning slightly. "I did say that, but I don't know what 'tsundere' means."

"Stereotypical anime relationship?" she asked. "Girl likes boy, boy likes girl? Girl hits boy, boy mouths off to girl? You could change the order of operation, but it all works out the same."

"Oh ... well, that's not a real relationship," he agreed. "Just a mechanic to let the viewers know that a relationship exists while artificially keeping it from developing, since it's a minor point at best in the role of the show. Should have known you'd know the proper term for it."

"Don't give me that!" she snapped playfully. "I bet you can name a dozen more characters that fit the stereotype than I could!"

"Probably true," he acquiesced. "But I think we're both avoiding the main issue here. That's not us; you don't intentionally cause me trouble, and you listen when I complain. Sometimes, anyway."

"W...well... I'm not satisfied with your suggestion to make myself happy," she said, her smile fading. "I mean, I know I _could_. Just," she snapped the fingers of her right hand, "_make_ ... things perfect. Clouds of sakura petals on demand, constant appropriate music somehow always surrounding us, no misunderstandings ever..."

"You'd get so bored of that," he said with a sigh, shaking his head. "Actually, probably so would I."

"Or, I could," she snapped her fingers again, "_make_ myself happy with whatever happened, so that I was just satisfied all the time no matter what happened."

"I don't buy that," he disagreed, sipping his tea again. "It'd be just as true of your last suggestion, but the person who looked like you would not be Haruhi if you did that."

"Wouldn't it be better for the world, though?"

"Honestly? I can't say that for certain," he said, shrugging. "Look, I was given ... advice before I came here. And I don't mean to make you feel like this is less important than it actually is, but ... I haven't become the future self that travels back in time to last Sunday, yet. As strange as it all may sound, I'm confident that we get through this alright. Even without that knowledge, I'd still believe it to be true, though."

"I ... want to be the person who can make you happy," she mumbled, her face coloring. "I want to be able to draw you into the mysteries around us, and explore all of the fun things that happen ... but _together_."

He nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "That sounds fine to me. There's no conspiracy trying to keep things hidden from you, anymore."

"What I really wanted," she said softly, "was to some day be the ... girl that ... you would confess to."

Looking away with a grimace, he sighed. "I get that," he said quietly. "And don't think it hadn't crossed my mind. But ... and don't take this the wrong way, but what could myself, who has never had an actual girlfriend, offer to someone with your confidence? Your dating history?"

"I'll have you know that our first kiss in May was my first kiss," she protested hotly, her face turning red. She felt Shinjin forming, smashing apart distant buildings, and struggled to disperse them. "I wanted to _meet_ people, I am _not_ that kind of girl! Hell - you didn't even _ask me for permission_!"

He winced, ducking his head. "Sorry; I didn't think you were! I just meant ... you know about relationships and how they're supposed to work. You show almost unlimited confidence. What am I able to or supposed to bring to the table? It's not that I wouldn't like to try, but... What do I do when I fail you? When it's not enough? I want to try my best, but I _am_ just a normal person with extraordinary friends. Being dragged along behind you while weakly protesting is one thing ... but being rejected because you're bored with me..." He trailed off and looked away, his face displaying a raw vulnerability she didn't think she had seen on it before. His eyes were shining, as though...

He wasn't so great an actor that he could be faking it; he might maintain an impassive facade at times, but assuming some other emotion? She spent a long time mulling over what he said, studying that expression before she forced herself to act. "Okay," she acquiesced, nodding. "I guess ... I can see your point of view. So," she said, her voice shaking a little bit, "I need to forget about my power."

He blinked at her, taken aback.

"Or, not entirely forget, but ... um ... rewrite how I remember it a bit. I want to have a power, but I want something I can have fun with that doesn't mean destroying the universe on an accidental whim." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Here it goes," she decided. "I trust you, Kyon ... if I can't trust you, I can't trust anyone. So ... I'm going to have a minor power to affect things ... objects, anything more I'll need Yuki-chan's help with, until I can learn to be responsible with that power."

"Haruhi," he said, with the sound of his chair scraping across the floor as though he were standing up, "you don't need to do this-"

"Shut up," she ordered tersely. "My power's going to be more limited so I _can_ play with it without hurting or scaring people. I'm going to make myself ... a tiny bit more open-minded ... with regards to you. Don't say a word! You will thank me for this later! And then, um, I'm going to believe that if we all work together, like you believe, we can make the world a better place."

She nodded decisively, then opened her eyes. "B...because I trust you, I'm going to try not to remember this when I wake up," she added. "And ... you can tell me you're John Smith again if you need me to know everything, for some reason." He was standing close to her, one hand on her desk as he peered at her intently.

"You're sure about this?" he asked anxiously. "You're ... still going to be the same Haruhi I know?"

"More than I have been lately," she agreed, nodding. "I hope, anyway. Why else would I be giving you an emergency reset codeword? I may not have a mind like Yuki's, but I can still think ahead!"

She rose from her seat smoothly, still gazing up into his face. "So ... just in case I get this wrong, I want you to do what we did last time, so I'll have a good note to go out on."

He stared at her for a moment before a slow smile spread across his face. "I'm going to do my best, Haruhi," he promised her, his hands rising to her shoulders, then sliding up to gently cup her cheeks. She let her eyes drift shut as her head tilted back and her lips pursed, the last thought through her mind as everything turned into light that he would probably notice the small change she had made in him, as well... But he probably wouldn't mind too much.

* * *

Kyon leaped out of bed with a handspring, landing in a crouch before the opening door and lunging instantly into the forbidden little-sister-submission-tickle-strike, completely foiling her attempt to sneak in and wake him up first. Only after he had reduced her to a shrieking, laughing pile, and his mother was tiredly staring up at the pair of them from the bottom of the stairs did he relent.

"T...tickle-ninja!" his sister protested, her face red from laughter. "No fair!"

"When you wake up with as much energy as I do," he told her sternly, "no surprise attack is going to be effective enough."

He grabbed his sister's wrists and hauled her upward, leaving her to dangle a few centimeters over the floor before gently lowering her to stand and releasing her. She stuck her tongue out at him, giggling, then ran down the stairs to their mother.

"Mom!" she yelled. "Kyon-kun had his brain eaten by a pod-person! The alien that's replaced him wakes up in the morning without needing help!"

"That's very nice, dear," he heard his mother say as she bustled back into the kitchen. "Maybe he'll get good grades, too. Now wash up before breakfast."

"Hmm," he mused, his smile fading as his dream and the vague, uncertain memory of Yuki's 'training' session replayed themselves in his mind. The training was a headache, and he had thought oddly draining... Maybe Yuki just hadn't perfected it, the first time? Even so, it was hard to grin when he considered what Haruhi might have done to herself that night.

Even if his future self would evidently find nothing worth mentioning to him via the letter he had passed to Haruhi, or a hidden message elsewhere. After washing, gobbling down everything his mother put in front of him and still feeling hungry, he told his mother and sister, "There's a math test tomorrow; I'm headed in early to study."

"Pod-person!" his sister yelled, as he left the house.

* * *

She woke up, staring at the ceiling of her room and blinking. She'd had a dream... She knew it was important, but the details kept slipping just out of her reach. She got out of bed and went about her morning routine, concentrating on the hazy recollections. Kyon was there ... and it was at school.

Something had been different about it, she was certain, but all she could remember was the kiss. And she'd had _that_ dream before. Before Kyon's revelation to her that she had a power. Remembering that she could do such things, and ensuring no parents were around to witness it, she closed one eye and pointed at a toothbrush, pleased as it wobbled unsteadily out of the holder and drifted to her hand.

Good, she thought. _That_ hadn't been a dream ... even if kissing Kyon had been. She felt her face warm up as she remembered the conversation she had with Yuki and Mikuru the day before. Even Kanae had some input, despite her relative newness to the group.

"I said I'd help him with his homework," she realized aloud, hurrying her pace and rushing to the kitchen. No parents around, still, which was good for today. That meant she could cheat. He always gave her a long-suffering sigh and mumbled about responsibility when she did, but what he didn't know, he couldn't whine about.

So, under her dutiful eye, she watched utensils and ingredients dance across the kitchen, laboring as intently as a quartet of herself ... or a single eight-armed girl, she supposed, but that thought caused her control to wander. Focusing more intently, she watched as preparations finished, then spent an annoying ten minutes combing through every cupboard and pantry door in the house until she found her old bento and the spare. "He'd better appreciate this," she mumbled, wrapping them both after packing them unreasonably full.

That done, she tucked the packages into her bag and settled on stuffing the remaining portion of rice and assorted bento ingredients into a single plastic container. Inelegant, but she could eat while drilling him on his homework. She hurried out the door and to school.

Stopping just before the gates, she realized she hadn't thought so specify where he was to meet her, so flipped her phone open and called him. "Kyon!" she barked, the second he picked up. "Why aren't you here yet?"

He said nothing in response, merely stepping from behind the gatepost he had been leaning against with a raised eyebrow. "Well-played," she allowed, flipping her phone closed. "For once, you dodge a penalty!"

"You're in a good mood," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he closed and pocketed his own phone. "Have a good dream last night?"

She fought to keep her face from coloring, and quickly jogged past him so he couldn't see her expression. "Wouldn't _you_ like to know," she said with a chuckle. "Come on, let's study in the club room."

* * *

"Pathetic," Haruhi told him between bites of her delayed breakfast, observing Kyon's progress through his homework.

"Thanks for the morale boost," he grumbled, struggling with another answer. "Okay," he declared, finishing one of the many problems he had remaining. "I'm not going to make it. I'll focus on the classes that happen before lunch, and finish the rest later. Math's an afternoon class, so..."

She nodded dubiously, then turned around and put something in the club room's mini-fridge. He flipped through the history notes she had written, paying special attention to where she had underlined specific dates or names. History was defeated quickly, thanks to the accuracy of Haruhi's notes, and the sketchy grammar notes she had left were more than enough to bolster his own knowledge in that regard. It may not have been much, but at least he had one good subject...

"You hungry?" she asked.

He nodded, glancing briefly at her before turning back to his homework. "A bit," he admitted. "Just don't feel like I'm getting enough these days. Constantly ravenous... And I slept through dinner last night." He sighed, breaking from his homework to stretch his arms overhead. "I really need to stop doing that."

"Nighttime heroics?" she teased him, smirking. "Alright. If you finish your homework for the periods before lunch, I'll let you have my leftovers during break. It's a good deal, you know! But the brigade chief can't just hand out rewards with no rhyme or reason, so, be sure to earn it!"

"Sure thing," he agreed, finishing up the last few lines he needed before he was done. "Lucky there's no essay," he added, clenching and unclenching his right hand to relieve the writer's cramp he'd started to develop. After a glance at the clock, he started packing his homework and the notes Haruhi had made for him into his schoolbag. "But, seriously Haruhi ... thanks for helping me out with my homework."

Her face colored very slightly, but she puffed out her chest and lifted her nose to sniff imperiously. "I told you once, and I'll say it again," she insisted, "no vice commander of mine is going to settle for bad grades when they can obviously earn better!" She relaxed her stance a bit, stealing her own glance at the clock but not moving to collect her bag. "But..." After a brief hesitation, she blurted out, "I'd help you even if you weren't the vice commander," without meeting his eyes. "I'd do it for any member of the brigade ... you're just the only one that doesn't do well."

He winced, realizing that it was true... Koizumi was smart enough that he was placed by his own merit, not Organization manipulation. Yuki's average was only short of being perfect by the four percent of answers she simply didn't bother completing. Mikuru struggled for her grades, but diligently did her homework despite brigade duties. Haruhi, naturally, was Haruhi. So he had no real excuse for poor grades except for being unintelligent. His head sank, considering that. He couldn't even think to try and seek solace in Kanae's grades, whatever they were. It just didn't seem right to judge himself against an underclassman.

"Yeah," he allowed after a moment. "It's a bit sad being the dumb one."

"You're not dumb," Haruhi retorted with an instant roll of her eyes, snickering. "You quote string theory and ancient philosophy offhand. I've seen your grades for grammar - and English. Obviously, your issue is motivation. You don't _really_ need my help with your homework ... it just seems that if I don't help you, you don't _do_ it."

She had him there, he realized, grimacing. "Touche," he allowed, smirking. He decided to take a stab at something, unsure what Haruhi had let herself remember of the 'dream' the night before. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she said quickly, nodding at him. "But, we should head to class."

He rose from his seat and hefted his bag, while she shoved her own collection of papers into her bag. "Haruhi, if I can ask you to be honest about this ... when you say you would do it for anyone in the brigade ... don't you really mean any of your friends?"

She made a choking noise, dropping the container on the floor. It remained sealed, and she hid her expression from him while she stooped to collect it. "W...well, if you're going to be so blunt about it," she managed, her face dark with a blush. She stomped one foot on the floor and waved the container menacingly. "Why are you asking me this now?!"

"It was something Kanae-chan mentioned the other day," he said with a shrug, opening the clubroom door. "She said she was occasionally 'lucky enough to have friends'. I just sometimes worry that you forget that your fellow brigade members are friends, too, not only subordinates in the club."

"Man," Haruhi grumbled, closing the door then hurrying to Kyon's side, "you make it sound like I can't stand having equals!" She playfully punched him in the shoulder, though he was surprised that it didn't sting in the slightest, even though he felt it. "What, do you think that just because you're getting your homework done, now, I've turned stupid on you? Or weak? You know, if you had the chutzpa for it, you could have formed the SOS Brigade and I would have followed..."

He glanced at her sidelong as they stepped into the stairwell. "Really?" he asked, raising one eyebrow. "I find it hard to imagine..."

"That's because you're laaaazy," she said, drawing out the sound and sticking her tongue out at him. "If you had actually made the club instead of just giving me the idea... But that's also why you're not an idiot, even if you do dumb things sometimes."

"Sing on sweet angel;" Kyon retorted with a roll of his eyes, "mine ears ache for thy faint praise; damning though it be."

She snickered at him, narrowing her eyes as though she knew something he didn't. "Oh, and now the refuge in sarcasm," she chided him. "Sometimes, you are sooooo predictable. Hey, when did you pick up poetic verses, anyway? The haiku is kind of new."

"Felt a little left behind when you and Tsuruya were passing back and forth those poems you memorized a while back," he admitted. "I read up on the style, but didn't feel like destroying precious brain cells to memorize anything."

"That's exactly what I'm saying!" Haruhi protested, stomping one foot on the floor as he slid open the door to the classroom. "You're _lazy_."

She fell silent at the sight of the classroom, all other students already seated, glancing over their shoulders at the pair. Everyone quickly looked away, though at a glance, Okabe-sensei hadn't arrived yet either. Shrugging, Kyon closed the door after Haruhi stepped through and went to his desk.

"Anyway," Haruhi continued in a semi-hushed tone, eyeing the other students in the room, "what's going on, here?"

"No idea," he tossed back just as quietly. His eyes scanned across Kunikida and Taniguchi, but both of them kept their eyes oriented directly forward. "Seems a bit odd, though."

"Eh," Haruhi mused, tapping a fingertip on her desk thoughtfully. "Well, I'm sure it's nothing ... probably."

Kyon nodded, getting out his homework for the next period as well as the detested, unfinished math. If there was no teacher around...

* * *

After the first period chime rang, Haruhi leaned back in her seat, sticking her feet out straight off the floor to stretch her calf muscles, and extended her arms over her head, balancing precariously. She felt something in her lower back pop into place and smiled slightly, turning her head to Kyon as she leaned forward, her toes touching the floor once more. Before she could speak, she saw Sakanaka rise from her seat two desks to the right and pad cautiously toward the door, beckoning Haruhi to follow.

After only a moment of consideration toward Kyon, who seemed to be behaving by working on his math homework, she tapped his shoulder and handed him the container of leftovers. "Keep up the good work, subordinate," she encouraged him, climbing to her feet and striding into the hallway to see what Sakanaka wanted.

"Hey," she said to the other girl, once they were in the hallway and out of earshot from the other students. "What's up, Sakanaka-san? Is JJ still okay?" She made a mental note to try and visit Sakanaka sometime relatively soon ... since Yuki had fixed the problem of 'haunted' dogs, Haruhi hadn't had a chance to play with the terrier.

"He's fine," Sakanaka replied, smiling weakly. "Um, Suzumiya-san, I don't mean to alarm you ... but ... um... W...well, I feel I owe you honesty after everything you did for Rousseau. I'm sorry to be the one who bears this news to you, but..."

"Well?" Haruhi asked, restraining the urge to tap one foot through sheer will alone. What news could Sakanaka have that would be important or critical? Given the powers of the SOS Brigade, what could even really be a concern? Though, she made herself realize, there was no way anyone outside of the SOS Brigade could know that.

Unable to meet her eyes, Sakanaka blurted out, "Suzumiya-san, there's a rumor going around that Kyon-kun is two-timing you with Tsuruya-sempai!"

Haruhi blinked, staring at her classmate, and tried to suppress the smirk she felt forming. "Really?" she asked. "That's ... pretty funny. So, where did this rumor start from?"

"Er ... that is..." Sakanaka visibly deflated, staring at the floor. "Tsuruya-sempai said it herself. R...really, I wouldn't believe a rumor spread about you offhand. But, others may, and... Well, I feel you should know the truth!"

"She..." Haruhi blinked and waved a hand dismissively. "What _exactly_ did Tsuruya-san say?"

"I ... don't really trade in rumors, so I only overheard it from Yanagimoto-kun," Sakanaka allowed. "But she insists that she verified it with Tsuruya-sempai herself."

"Yanagimoto," Haruhi murmured, concentrating. "Oh, yeah, I remember her from when I joined the rhythmic gymnastics club. She sits in front of Goto-kun, right?"

"Right," Sakanaka agreed. "I don't ... want to cause trouble. I just thought you should know."

"Well, it's a misunderstanding," Haruhi said with a shrug. "Last I heard, Kyon trashed some goons who were giving Tsuruya-san some trouble." Though, he was time traveling at the time, and technically, hadn't done it _yet_. "On Sunday, right?"

"Um, maybe that's it," Sakanaka agreed with a weak shrug, trying to smile. "There is ... another thing about Kyon-kun..."

Haruhi raised an eyebrow. "What else is it? And who's spreading all these rumors?" she asked.

"Aside from him ... um ... spending time with Tsuruya-sempai yesterday, he got into a fight with Ryuguu-san from class 3-4," Sakanaka added in a very hushed tone. "No one is certain why, but, um, Ryuguu-san hasn't come back to school yet today. This fighting ... Kyon-kun's gathering a bit of a reputation as a delinquent."

"Seems kind of sudden for him," Haruhi mused. "But, hey, as long as he doesn't get in trouble with the school, what does it matter?"

Sakanaka blinked, her eyes wide. "Y...you don't care that he could be a violent person?" she asked, astounded. "That he spends time with other girls?"

Haruhi shrugged, shaking her head. "Nah, I'll give him a stern talking to, let him know he should watch his reputation," she said in answer. "Him spending time with other girls _would_ bother me ... but Tsuruya-san's an honorary member of the SOS Brigade. How can I get mad at him for taking care of brigade business with her?"

"I'm glad," Sakanaka decided, giving Haruhi a bright smile. "I worried for nothing, then; sorry to trouble you, Suzumiya-san!"

"No trouble at all," Haruhi returned, nodding at the other girl. "Thanks for the update anyway. It's good to know where the brigade stands in the scheme of things..." She glanced down the hallway, where their next teacher was approaching. "Well, maybe we can chat later; I want to give Kyon a few choice words before class."

She hurried back in and took her seat, unsurprised to see Kunikida and Taniguchi shoulder-to-shoulder at the side of Kyon's desk. Watching quietly, she caught the tail end of whatever conversation they were having, Taniguchi shooting her a nervous look before saying, "Anyway, Kyon ... I'm just saying you should watch yourself."

Kunikida gave a matching solemn nod with his taller, more perverted counterpart, then both boys moved back to their own desks. Kyon shook his head, watching them leave, then hurriedly shoveled the last few bites of leftovers into his mouth as the teacher strode into the classroom. While the teacher was setting up his notes, and the other students' final murmurs began to die down, she whispered, "Kyon!"

"Yeah?" he asked, not quite turning around.

"Take note! You're going to go back to yesterday and help Tsuruya out with something after school."

"I gathered," he sighed, taking a fresh sheet of paper and writing notes to himself.

Haruhi nodded thoughtfully, though he wouldn't be able to see the motion. It was a real pity she couldn't time travel herself, but at least she could be a significant contributor to Kyon's efforts in that regard.

* * *

After the lunch chime rang, Haruhi ordered Kyon to report to the clubroom, then immediately took off in search of Tsuruya. She skidded to a halt in the corridor before the girl's class, watching her walk out of her room with Mikuru just behind her. "Oh! Haru-nyan!" Tsuruya said cheerfully, waving the hand that wasn't carrying her lunch. "Good to see you!"

Haruhi smiled back, unable to keep her cheer down. "Good to see you too, Tsuruya-san," she agreed. "Oh, a bento? You and Mikuru-chan should come have lunch with us in the brigade room!"

"Yeah!" Tsuruya agreed, nodding vigorously. "I wanted to thank Kyon-kun for his help yesterday!"

Haruhi grinned, turning her attention to Mikuru, who seemed less tired than the previous day. "Feeling better rested, Mikuru-chan?"

"Yes," the time traveler agreed hesitantly, looking around at the surrounding students. Haruhi was annoyed to realize that the other students had gathered around, defining a circle around the trio, almost as though they expected Haruhi and Tsuruya to fight. "Um ... what's everyone looking at us for?"

"Jealous over our good looks," Haruhi replied without hesitation, ratcheting her grin wider. "Anyway, off to the clubroom!"

The sensation of excitement thwarted from the other students was practically palpable. "Idiots," Haruhi grumped, once they were underway to the clubroom, out of earshot.

"Eh? Goons giving you a hard time too?" Tsuruya asked sympathetically.

"Huh? Oh, just ... there's some rumors going around," Haruhi said with a grimace. "Stupid stuff. Evidently some people are saying that Kyon is two-timing me with you."

"Haha! That's not right!" Tsuruya said with a chuckle. "I'm borrowing him for my investigation! Oh, he said you were okay with it, but I never got to ask you... You don't mind, I hope?"

"Doesn't bother me," Haruhi replied.

"T...two-timing!?" Mikuru yelped belatedly, realization settling in. "N...no! Suzumiya-san, Kyon-kun would never-"

"Actually, Mikuru-chan," Haruhi overrode the time traveler, "we'd need to be _dating_ for him to cheat on me. So if he would or wouldn't doesn't even matter - technically, he _can't_."

"W...well..." Mikuru tried to begin. "Um, even so..."

"I think I agree with what Mikuru-chan is trying to say," Tsuruya said, shrugging helplessly, still grinning. "Kyon-kun wouldn't do that to you, Haru-nyan."

"That's entirely not the point," Haruhi countered, though she couldn't help the little glow she felt inside at the reassurances. "Moving away from _those_ rumors, I'm more interested in the ones about Kyon behaving like a delinquent."

"Eh!?" Mikuru protested, her eyes wide. "Kyon-kun?"

"Delinquent?" Tsuruya followed, actually clapping one hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter. "Him!?"

"I know, right?" Haruhi said, smirking as they topped the stairs to the clubhouse and she reached for the doorknob. She wrenched it open as she usually did, catching part of a conversation between Koizumi and Kyon, both seated at the table. Yuki was seated in the corner, flipping through yet another book silently.

"...greater self-contro- Ah, sorry," Koizumi said, breaking off with a grin, turning to look at her. "Hello, everyone! Are we going to be meeting for lunch regularly, now?"

"Not a bad idea," she agreed, closing the door once everyone else was in. "Hmm, where's Kanae-chan? Ah! Kyon, once you finish eating, go find her, will you?"

"Yeah, yeah," he replied with his standard lack of enthusiasm, bolting his last few bites away. "You happen to know her classroom?"

"Um, 1-7," Mikuru offered helpfully, taking a seat at the table.

Kyon rose and nodded, while Tsuruya slipped into the seat he had only just vacated. "Thankie again for yesterday, Kyon-kun!" the cheerful girl called out.

"No problem," he replied, heading toward the door. He paused with one hand on the knob and added, "Though, if you want to update Haruhi on the situation, that'd save me some work."

"You got it!" Tsuruya said brightly, grinning. Once Kyon was out the door, she turned to face Haruhi and asked, "Did he tell you what he did on Sunday?"

"You mentioned it," Haruhi said, pulling a bento from the refrigerator and pushing her chair around the desk to sit at the table with the others. "But I was helping Kyon with his homework, so we didn't have a lot of time to discuss it. Why?"

"Well," Tsuruya said, her eyes narrowing as she peered around. "There's a dark conspiracy underway," she said in a very quiet voice. "Some peoples are doing unsavory things in the background! Naturally, I tried to investigate them so that I could takes care of them! But unsavory things are done by unsavory peoples, so ... on Sunday I found out the peoples responsible, but they were a bit rougher than the kind you can talk things out with! They outnumbered me and Kasai, and I thought I was in big trouble for sure when they knocked him down!"

"Kasai?" Haruhi asked.

"Yeah! My bodyguard," Tsuruya said, nodding quickly. "Anyway, Kyon-kun saved the day, so Kasai is goings to make it, though I was worried for a bit! That would be very bad, to have him be permanently injured for a little investigations on my part ... it'd make me look bad, too!" She mimed a jabbing motion with one fist, grinning. "I gots some training, but Kyon-kun was like a can of carbonated Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan that got all shook up! Bam! Pow! No joke, Haru-nyan, there were twelve of those bad guys still standing when Kyon came in, and there were none when he was done!"

Haruhi raised one eyebrow. How much had Kyon actually learned from Yuki? At a glance, the girl in the corner only turned the pages in her book, nearly silently, not even looking up.

"K...Kyon-kun ... fought people?" Mikuru asked, her face turning pale. "W...was he in danger? Wait! Tsuruya-san - were _you_ in danger!?"

"I'm fine, Mikuru-chan! Kyon-kun was there!" Tsuruya said brightly, sticking her tongue out before unwrapping her bento. "Anyway, after helping me get Kasai to the hospital, Kyon-kun found out about my investigations and said that he wouldn't take no for an answer - he had to help me out with it, especially since Kasai was injured, and I wouldn't haves a bodyguard for the next few weeks while he was recovering."

"W...weeks?" Mikuru managed, wobbling unsteadily in her seat.

"I gather that these weren't just random thugs," Koizumi murmured, one hand stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Tsuruya-san, I don't mean to be rude, but were they Yakuza?"

"Ooh! Naturally," she agreed, nodding brightly. "Yous are a sharp one, huh?"

"H...hehe..." Mikuru wheezed, slumping in her chair in a faint.

"That girl has got to get some spine," Haruhi muttered. "What about yesterday, though?"

"Oh, that," Tsuruya said with a chuckle. "Well, my investigation's still top-secret, so I can't say anythings about it to anyone but Kyon-kun until it's resolved."

"You really think I would be satisfied with that?" Haruhi asked flatly. "I could easily revoke your Kyon-borrowing privileges, you know!"

Yuki blinked and raised her eyes from her book, though her expression remained unchanged.

"Not you, Yuki-chan," she added, glancing at the shorter girl.

Nodding very slightly, Yuki turned her attention back to the pages before her. Haruhi glanced at the title, 'The Mirror of Her Dreams'.

Tsuruya's usual smiling expression had faded to a look of worry. "Um, please, Haru-nyan, it's very importants, you know... I made Kyon-kun promise that no matter what, he wouldn't reveal what he knew to anyones - even you - until the investigations was complete! But don't blame him; I made him promise! I...if you insists that he can't help me anymore, then ... I guess that's SOS Brigade rules, so I can't do much about it."

Haruhi grimaced, realizing that very likely, with time travel involved, Kyon made the promise because he had traveled back from some time after Haruhi already _knew_ what the investigation results were. "Alright," she agreed decisively. "Next time I'd prefer you were more straightforward and brought requests like this to me directly! So I'll allow it this time, but I will need accurately recorded receipts accounting for all times and locations that you're utilizing Kyon in."

"Ah, that's no problem," Tsuruya said brightly. "I can even tells you where we were yesterday! I just ... can't says why yet."

"So, where, then?" Haruhi pressed.

"Yesterday, I met Kyon-kun on the way to your club," Tsuruya explained, her smile returning full force. "I guess he was just leaving; he said he was dismissed for the day and could help me out! Hmm, he didn't mention anything ... is there a rental fee or a deposit for Kyon-kun's help?"

Haruhi blinked, then considered. She had suggested renting Yuki to the Computer Research Society once ... Kyon had adamantly vetoed that, but he wasn't here to veto this, and he'd somehow gotten roped into helping Tsuruya out anyway. But, then again... "Well, you're a good friend, so you can skip the deposit," she decided. "I guess it wouldn't be fair to charge you after you shared your winter home with us, and invited us to the flower viewing. Just realize you're getting a great deal!"

"For sure, Haru-nyan! Kyon-kun's super handy!"

After knocking, Kyon opened the door, his expression more sour than usual. A faint line of blood trickled down one cheek, and Kanae stood at his side, holding his free hand and looking downcast. "Kyon!" Haruhi yelped, rushing to his side and peering at the cut - more of a deep scratch, really. Even so, she dragged him to the nearest chair and sat him down. "What happened?"

"You're still bleeding?" Tsuruya asked, blinking in surprise. "But I put a bandage on that for you yesterday!"

"Long story," Kyon said, shaking his head and grimacing.

"I'm sorry, Sempai," Kanae managed timidly, releasing his hand and taking a seat by Koizumi.

"Don't worry about it- Haruhi, Asahina-san and I need to take care of something relatively quickly." Mikuru stared, snapped out of her faint only to see the scratch, blood dribbling down Kyon's cheek to run along his chin.

"Wah! Kyon-kun!" she wailed, dashing to his side and dabbing at the injury with a handkerchief. "I'll take you to the nurse's office, right away! Please don't die!"

Haruhi nodded, unhappy with how things were playing out, but understanding at least what went on. Time travel really explained quite a bit. "Mikuru-chan," she said, waggling a finger, "it's just a scratch. Kyon is made of tougher stuff! Now, remember yesterday, while we were in the club meeting. We were all in by ten minutes after class got out, right? Make sure he gets there alright."

"W...what?"

"Ah, got it," Kyon said, nodding sagely. "Anything else?"

"I've agreed to let you help Tsuruya-san out when she asks," Haruhi added, drumming her fingertips on the tabletop. "But I expect a full report from both of you when the 'investigation' is complete!"

Kyon nodded again, not reacting much except to look more thoughtful. Well, Haruhi admitted to herself, he really _was_ good at this time travel stuff... Sadly, he was probably just the role-model Mikuru needed.

"Right, I'll see you in class," Kyon decided, checking the clock on the wall and climbing back to his feet.

"The nurse's office, Kyon-kun," Mikuru insisted, taking Kyon's hand and leading him into the corridor, the boy reaching back to push the door shut behind them.

"Okay!" Haruhi declared, turning to the downcast Kanae. "What happened with Kyon? Why did he get cut getting you for lunch?" And speaking of lunch ... she hadn't even managed to give Kyon the bento she had made! She didn't know who Tsuruya was investigating, but she was certain she'd make them pay!

"I...it's my fault," Kanae said meekly, hunching in on herself.

In the corridor, Mikuru yelped something indistinct, moments before there was a strange thudding noise and an eerie silence. "Lunch with the brigade is exciting," Tsuruya decided, while Kanae sniffled meekly and blew her nose on her handkerchief.


	7. Chapter 6

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Heroic Antics Begin Arc I

Chapter Six: Finally, Some Action

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter One: Crossing the Threshold"_

_"...eventually, this means that you can reach a point where words no longer suffice. Civility is all well and good, but sometimes the simple message of overpowering force is the one that the situation requires. Use your judgment on when this moment is, but keep in mind that I call it a ____last__ resort for a reason; once you initiate violence, you're committed until victory or failure."_

_"The Last Resort: Violence and You" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

After the lunch chime, Kanae had decided that she would return to the club room; if she were lucky, Sempai would be there! And if she weren't lucky, well, Sempai's friends were her friends, too, so that would be fine.

But she had only made it a few steps down the hallway before a taller third year boy approached her, tape across his nose and a bruise marring his face deeply around one eye. He raised a hand in greeting before glancing around, then asked, "Are you Michikyuu Kanae-san?"

"Um," she managed, a bit unnerved by the delinquent-looking student before her. "Yes? Are you looking for the SOS Brigade, maybe? I'm just a new member, so I don't know much yet."

"No, no," he said, glancing around nervously, then breaking into a smile that she really didn't trust; the kind of expression she'd seen on the rude boy who chased her across dimensions. For a panicked instance, she considered sliding away ... but she couldn't do that! Not with Sempai here, and for the first time in hundreds of worlds, someone who could help her learn how to slide better! What if she couldn't find her way back? It was still very hard, even with the practice that Yuki helped her get...

"Hey," he said suddenly, "you know ... Kyon, right?"

"Sempai?" she asked, smiling. Was this boy some sort of friend of her sempai's, asking for help? Maybe that was it... "Yes! Is something the matter?"

"Eh, no, I just heard..." He trailed off and glanced around again, though the only ones around them were other students heading to their lunches, occasionally pausing to look at her or the taller boy. "Well, there is one thing," he allowed. "Could you come with me for a bit...?"

"I... I think I'd better go see Sempai first," she decided, shaking her head.

The boy's face twisted in annoyance before he shook his head and declared abruptly, "I need you to come with me; your 'sempai' is causing a lot of trouble to us!"

At this point, all of the surrounding students had stopped moving, turning attention to the pair. Kanae backed up a few steps anxiously, and when the upperclassman moved towards her, she sprinted away as quickly as she could, managing to make it halfway to the clubroom before he seized her shoulder and brought her down to the hallway floor. She whimpered, her lunch spilling out of her bento all across the walkway, while more students crowded around. "Help!" she yelled, cowering when the boy, huffing for breath, grabbed her wrist and hauled her unceremoniously to her feet.

"Shut up," he snapped, glancing around and dragging her away from the spilled lunch, "come with me before-"

"You," a voice spat, using the rudest, most informal form of the word. The boy dragging her stilled, tightening his grip on her wrist as her sempai strode across the messy remnants of her lunch, eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Let her go."

"Sempai!" she cheered, though her voice shook nervously.

The boy holding her jerked her roughly back when she tried to break free. "Oh, yeah?" he asked. "I don't think so, not after yesterday! You're getting in way over your head, and you're about to learn a thing or two about screwing with the wrong people!"

"Really?" her sempai asked, stopping a handful of steps away from the other boy, almost within distance to reach out and grab her. He shifted his feet, rising slightly to balance on the balls of either, while constantly shifting his weight back and forth a minute distance. "I think you're the one who's going to be in more trouble; causing a scene like this? With so many witnesses? The question in my mind is what you might hope to accomplish." He glanced around at the surrounding students and added, "Though, I'm going to admit a certain share of disappointment in the other students that none of them even _tried_ to stop you."

All of the boys in the crowd shifted their gazes to their feet, while the girls began a low murmur.

"Where's all the fight you had yesterday?" the boy sneered. "You swore up and down that if I dared to lay a finger on any of your 'subordinates' that you'd crush me - any time, any place. Well, I don't like being played like a chump, no matter how badass you think you _are_. You don't get the jump on me, this time."

"If I said it, it must be true," her sempai allowed, his gaze constantly flicking about the other boy, occasionally meeting hers. "But if you're any kind of man, you'll let her go and we can settle this properly."

With a sudden growl, the boy released her wrist and shoved her towards her sempai, hard. Her sempai rolled back on his feet, both arms going about her as he flung himself backwards, twisting to take the other boy's kick on his side and shielding her with his body. He landed in a slide, releasing her and then rolling to his feet in a single smooth motion, crouching just over her head while the crowd around gasped quietly.

"Kanae-chan," he said, not looking at her, "are you okay?"

"I'm okay," she said shakily, thinking she might have been bruised, but certainly no worse.

He nodded, then straightened up, stepping towards the middle of the hallway, his eyes locked on the other boy. "Alright, you," he said, using the derogatory 'kisama' again, "what the hell is your problem?"

The other boy growled, then surged forward, swinging a powerful punch towards her sempai. He leaned to one side, seizing the thug's extended fist and spinning, turning all of the larger boy's force into forward momentum, flipping him completely upside-down before slamming to the floor on his back in the scattered bits of her lunch. Her sempai danced away a half-step, light on his feet, hands loosely at his sides. Kanae quickly hopped to her feet and scurried away. Almost immediately she found herself contained in a protective circle of the girls standing on the sidelines, people she didn't know offering murmurs of sympathy and asking if she was okay. She tried not to laugh or cry at the absurdity of the situation.

So far, only her pride and her lunch had been lost.

Coughing, the other boy climbed to his feet, eyes shadowed with rage, his breathing ragged and furious. "You utter bastard!" he spat at her sempai. "I don't know where you get this sudden attitude, but you are in _way_ over your head! If I don't stop you here, things are only going to get worse for you!"

"In that case," her sempai suggested in oddly reasonable tones, "why not just give up? If you want me to suffer, wouldn't it be easier to ignore me and let your bosses, presumably people more competent than you, deal with the situation?"

The boy growled, then sank to his knees. "I'm powerless," he moaned, wrapping his arms around himself and hunching in.

Shifting his shoulders, her sempai gave a terse nod and clenched one hand into a fist tightly, the crackling, snapping noises from his tendons clearly audible in the hallway. "Good," he judged. "Now see that this never happens again." He relaxed his stance and turned to Kanae; her protective circle backed away seamlessly to let him approach her, the other girls looking at him with shy smiles or bashful grins. "You're certain you're okay?" he asked, putting one hand on her shoulder and focusing his full attention on her, seemingly unaware of the other students.

"Sempai!" she shrieked, a moment too late, as the other boy produced a knife from his coat and charged abruptly at her sempai.

With speed she didn't think was possible, her sempai snapped his head back and threw himself to the floor, a potentially lethal stab to the side of the head reduced to a short, shallow scratch on one cheek. Rolling with the momentum of his evasion, her sempai quickly righted himself and lunged, grabbing the other boy's wrist and yanking him violently backwards, just as he reached for Kanae again.

This time, her sempai was more brutal, adding the boy's sudden momentum to a fierce kidney jab, a leg sweep, then a swift kick to the hand holding the knife, sending it clattering across the hallway through her ruined lunch, the uneasy silence of the surrounding students punctuated with a sickening crunch. The other boy howled, clutching his injured hand in agony and rolling around on his back, tears streaming from his eyes.

"You," Kyon declared, using a more polite form and pointing at the nearest watching boy. "See that he gets to the nurse's office." He held one hand out to her, adding, "Let's get out of here, Kanae-chan."

She nervously nodded, her heart settling a tiny bit when she took his hand and he led her down the hallway.

* * *

"...and that's what happened," Kanae concluded unhappily, sniffling. "Somehow, I caused Sempai to get hurt."

"Ah," Tsuruya said, her smile vanishing. "Well, he had that cut yesterdays, so that's not your fault," she assured the smaller girl. "Really, I'm the one who needs to apologize! If I weren't borrowing Kyon-kun, they wouldn't have thought that you'd be a target!" She rose from her seat and gave a full ninety degree bow to Kanae. "I'm sorry," she added.

"A share of the blame is mine, as well," Koizumi added, grimacing. "We are supposed to be watching over Michikyuu-san ... but obviously, we missed this."

"Logically," Yuki said, not raising her eyes from her book, "this is a predetermined event. If the effect precedes the cause, responsibility becomes difficult to determine."

"I'll have to ask Kyon about that later," Haruhi murmured. "He's good at that stuff. Anyway, Tsuruya-san, Kanae-chan, I'm confident that Kyon will be just fine - but now I _really_ want to know what this investigation is about!"

"Sorry," Tsuruya said again with a weak chuckle, only managing to smile a tiny bit as she straightened up and sat down. "That's still top secret... Um! Kanae-chan, it isn't much, but you can have my leftover lunch, since yours got spilled! This doesn't make up for what you've suffered, but please consider it the first step of my apology!"

"I'm not very hungry," Kanae said, shaking her head uncertainly.

"You have to eat properly or you won't finish growing," Haruhi chastised. "Hmm, I made an extra bento for... Er, well, I made an extra bento. There should be enough to go around."

Kanae nodded uncertainly, offering the other girls a weak smile. She was right to trust in her sempai, she decided. And these other new friends, while not very familiar, were the best friends she'd had in a long time...

"Right, right!" Tsuruya said brightly. "And tomorrows, I'll escort you from your class to this clubroom for lunch! That way they'll have to deal with mes instead of you!"

* * *

His cheek still stinging, Kyon resolved to have it healed later - though by Tsuruya's unintentional hint, he knew he had the scratch before he went to help her. As much of a pain as it was (quite literally), it did establish a reasonable baseline for when he traveled back, which meant that he didn't do all of his time traveling in one big block at some future date. Though, that might build up into a daunting task...

"It's like homework all over again," he grumbled, stopping before the Computer Research Society's room, and turning to face Mikuru. "Asahina-san, can you take us back right here to ten minutes after club started yesterday?"

"What!?" she yelped, before blinking, bowing her head. "O...oh, right... Um, yes, but shouldn't we go to the nurse's office first?"

"It'll be fine," he assured her. "According to Tsuruya, she bandages this cut herself, so..."

"Okay," she agreed anxiously, raising her hands to place them on his shoulders, her face reddening as she turned to gaze away. "Um ... please close your eyes..."

He did as she instructed, and time around them collapsed. It felt like part of the nauseating lurch that Yuki had invoked when she made her training dimensions, but only a small part, and when his feet steadied, he looked around recognizing the hallway easily. "We made it?" he asked, as Mikuru hesitantly lowered her hands, her face still red.

"Y...yes," she agreed, checking her wristwatch. "W...what do we do now?"

"Ah ... I think you'll want to hide," he suggested, considering that he didn't want to make Mikuru watch him fight. Hell, he didn't particularly want to fight! But that boy... "Do you think the calligraphy club would mind you dropping in for a day?"

"N...no," she agreed. "I suppose they wouldn't..."

"Good," he decided. "You should be safe there." After a moment of thought, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, turning it off. If his memory was correct, his past self should just be leaving the school to enter the car with Mori. He didn't remember receiving any calls, but better safe than sorry.

She gave a hesitant nod and dashed down the hall to the classroom in question, shooting a worried glance over her shoulder at him. Just as she vanished from sight, Tsuruya finished her own dash up the stairs into the clubroom corridor, her eyes widening excitedly. "Kyon-kun," she caroled, but in a quiet voice, drawing out the honorific. "Hey, hey, would it be okay if I borrowed you a bit for helps with my investigation?"

She blinked suddenly, pausing to stare his cheek, then frowned sharply. "Ooh, you better come with me, first of all," she decided, seizing his wrist and leading him back into the school. He followed in bemusement until they reached her locker and she produced a first aid kit, cleaning his wound and then applying a bandage. "There," she said, once her treatment was done, grinning again. There was a twinkle in her eyes as she added, "Don't get a scar, unless you gets another one to make it cross-shaped. That makes you way more rugged and bish!"

"Yeah, that's not the part I'm worried about," he said, smirking, though the expression vanished the moment his cheek pulled at the cut. "Anyway, Haruhi won't mind me helping you out; I've been dismissed from club activities today."

"Oh! Perfects! We can keep on with our investigation!" Tsuruya said excitedly, glancing around to make sure that no one was within eavesdropping distance. "Okies, here's what I've found out so far ... those pushy fellows from Sunday, they have a contact in the school, a third year named Ryuguu Ryo-san. He loiters around on the campus behind the gym after school to make his deals. I want to questions him, but he's a big fellow, and Kasai's out ... so if you don't minds, could you be my muscle for a bit?"

"Sure," Kyon agreed, realizing that the boy he had just fought with (from his perspective) must have been Ryuguu. Well, the informal 'you' would still serve for him. "So, any plan? Maybe a little good cop, bad cop?"

Tsuruya giggled, leading the way to the shoe lockers and changing. Kyon checked his locker, but of course, the only shoes there were yesterday's indoor shoes.

"I should have remembered that," he grumbled to himself. Shaking his head, he followed Tsuruya out of the school building and around to the gym, to the shady side where the physical education storage outbuildings were. The stereotypical location for illicit romances within the school, delinquents hiding out...

"Now, I don't know Ryuguu-san, because we don't share a class together," Tsuruya warned in a whisper, "but how many people are there hanging out around here?"

It took a moment, but Kyon was able to pick out the boy in question, somewhat unfamiliar without tape across his nose and one eye blackened. "That's him," Kyon told her with a nod. "I've seen him before." Tsuruya leapt into a thicket of bushes and he followed, almost landing on her, murmuring a quick apology beneath his breath as they crept forward to watch Ryuguu and his allies.

One of them Kyon knew - Yamane, from his own class, a shady looking character in his own right. Physically, the boy was as intimidating as Kunikida, and had large, round glasses and shadowed eyes, cursing him with the appearance and bearing of a sad otaku. The other one was a taller, thin first year with blond hair. Both were carrying cameras and speaking with Ryuguu in low tones.

He couldn't pick out more than the occasional tone of voice; words weren't carrying at this distance. At a glance, Tsuruya was staring intently, mouthing occasional words to herself and giving slight nods. Kyon was taken aback; could she read lips? "Okay," she whispered, when Yamane shook his head sharply and turned away, leaving the older boy with the first year in tow. "Once they're gone, let's go talk to him, okay?"

"Do you know what they were talking about?" he whispered back.

"I'm not that goods yet," Tsuruya said apologetically, giggling very quietly. "But I got that Ryuguu-san is mad at the other twos. Somethings went wrong, probably what we did on Sunday, so Ryuguu-san's having trouble, and the other two... Hmm. The one with glasses said something about not caring about Ryuguu-san's problems, and that he still wanted money. I guess Ryuguu-san must owe him something... The first year student was just following along, doing what he was tolds; he doesn't seem to be as high up on the food chains."

"The one with glasses is Yamane-san, from my own class," Kyon said helpfully. "I think he's in the photography club? I know he takes a lot of pictures during school events."

"Hmm, so he's probably a foreman or one of the workers," Tsuruya mused, eyes sharpening. "Okies, they're gone; let's get Ryuguu-san before anyone else shows up or he leaves."

Kyon nodded at her, and the pair stood up, walking out of the bush and brushing leaves off. Ryuguu saw them emerge and jolted a bit, then crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. "What?" he snapped, the moment they drew within hearing range.

Uncertain of his role, Kyon just took up the loose, relaxed stance he had used when fighting Ryuguu last time, and said nothing.

"How's business?" Tsuruya asked, suddenly politely professional.

Ryuguu frowned, then said, "Shouldn't be any of yours... But... Well, I heard you were a bit ... strange, Tsuruya-san. So, you want to buy?"

"Maybe," Tsuruya allowed. "Whatcha got?"

"If you don't know, I'm not selling."

"Oh, I knows what you're selling," she said evenly. "Hum... Anything from this year's students?"

"A bit," Ryuguu allowed, dropping his hands to his sides. "Now, look, I'll sell to you, but only because my normal distributor is having problems. Understand that this is top-shelf stuff, meant to be shipped to the highest paying customers and then resold. So that's the kind of price I'm looking for. No copy protection, no censorship - this is the real deal."

Kyon blinked, wondering what the hell was going on, but deciding he already didn't like it. He tried to keep his expression neutral.

"So, what's the price?" Tsuruya asked, grinning. "I didn't bring a checkbook with me, nyoro~!"

"Right now I've got three SD cards, sorted by year," Ryuguu said, shifting his speech pattern from 'thug' to 'semi-competent salesman'. He fanned out the three cards between his fingertips, turning them back and forth to show Tsuruya both sides of the small digital chips. "First year, twenty thousand yen, second year, fifteen thousand, third year, fifteen thousand."

"And these are sources?" Tsuruya pressed. "Originals, so there's no copies?"

"What, you want them exclusively?" Ryuguu asked, quirking one eyebrow up in a smirk.

Tsuruya nodded quickly. "Think about it," she said. "If I'm paying to be a reseller, what's the point if the next guys comes along and buys them then undercuts me? Yous got to be a sharp businessman to make it here, don'tcha?"

"Double the price," he said, shrugging. "Then, sure, I'll give you everything and exclusive distribution. Only caveat is that I'm absolutely keeping personal copies."

"Hmm," Tsuruya replied, touching one fingertip to her lips and gazing upward, musing. "Well, one hundred thousand yens is rather a lot, don'tcha think? Especially since I'm trying to see if I'm in the third years?" She turned to Kyon and asked, "Should we apply our discount?"

"Yeah," Kyon agreed, nodding. "I think we can negotiate a better price."

"Oh, don't even think about it," Ryuguu retorted, waving a hand dismissively. "I'm the one holding the cards here, so to speak. There's no way that-"

Tsuruya's hand darted out, lightning-fast, and she snatched two of the cards from Ryuguu's grasp before the boy could react. Immediately his face went red, and his scowl turned murderous. He launched a punch towards the tall girl in retaliation, growling from low in his throat.

Already waiting for such an opening, Kyon grabbed the extended fist as Ryuguu attacked, while Tsuruya ducked away. Giving an unbalancing wrench to the captured appendage, Kyon pulled Ryuguu off balance and spun him around before shoving the boy violently forward, his arm pinned behind his back at an awkward angle. The third year boy's nose smashed into the equipment shed behind him, making a loud crunch and sending a spray of blood out.

"Gwah!" Ryuguu choked out, his free hand scrabbling at the wall of the shed. "What the fu-"

Kyon jerked him away from the wall and shoved him forward again, resulting in another meaty smash. "Free is sounding like a good price to me right now," he managed, struggling to calm himself and keep the fury from his voice. "You," he said, gladly falling back onto the course informal version of the word, "need to understand something here.

"You are not the biggest business in this school, or this town. There are certain people in this school you _do not_ screw with. If you ever even _think_ of laying a finger on any of my subordinates, or interfering with any of them in any way, believe me, this is going to be the _least_ of your worries. Any time, any place - I will not allow it." He pulled the boy back, spinning him around, and when Ryuguu belatedly tried to punch with his free hand, he tilted his head to one side, narrowly dodging the blow and returning a much stronger one, which sent the upperclassman smashing back into the shed, eyes rolling up before he collapsed.

"Yow," Tsuruya allowed, eyes wide. "You okay there, Kyon-kun?" Despite her question, her attention was on the prone boy as she crouched, rifling through his pockets and pulling out a small stack of mini-discs and SD cards. "We could have gotten more answers out of him, you knows..."

"Still can," Kyon pointed out, cracking his neck and expelling a long sigh. "Sorry. This guy ... really pisses me off."

"Understandable," Tsuruya agreed, turning her attention to the bag at Ryuguu's side, pulling more media and a digital camera from within, transferring everything to her own bag. "So, I don't think good cops bad cops will cut it here..."

Tsuruya tapped her chin thoughtfully, then pulled off the prone Ryugu's belt and tightly bound his wrists before him. "Okies!" she said decisively. "We'll go with bad cop worse cop! You be worse cop, so just stand over there and look real angry at him! I betcha that'd scare most anyones."

Kyon took a breath and did as she instructed, having no trouble maintaining his glower at the prone boy as Tsuruya cheerfully slapped him awake, ignoring the blood flowing from Ryuguu's nose. "Wakey-wakey!" Tsuruya called, stepping back when Ryuguu jerked awake and tried to fumble for her. "Okies! Now, you want to answers some of my questions, or maybe let Kyon-kun heres give you some more manual attitude adjustments?"

"Wha," he managed, wincing. "What are you... Hey! I don't have to take this! I've got friends high up! You do not know who you're messing with!"

"Neither do you," Tsuruya retorted. "But, like Kyon-kun said, there are some peoples you just don't mess with! And some of those peoples are the Tsuruya family! Which means you've already screwed up!"

Kyon obligingly cracked his knuckles slowly, one at a time, his gaze locked on the upperclassman's eyes.

Ryuguu shivered, then blurted out, "Fine! Take everything I have! I'm just a middle-man; it's all on your own damn heads if you piss off my big brothers! But because I'm just a middle-man, I don't know anything! I collect and distribute, but that's _it_! I don't know how everyone works; they do their own things, and as long as we get our goods, we don't ask questions!"

"That first years you were talking with," Tsuruya said primly. "What's his name?"

"T...that... Manabe Satoshi, class 1-7," Ryuguu said, sweating nervously.

"Good! Good! And who else...?"

"Just him and Yamane Jun, class 2-5," Ryuguu whimpered. "I swear! They handle everything else! I'm just a go-between!"

"Hmm, hmm," Tsuruya noised, nodding. "And on the other sides? You collects from those two, who do you sells to?"

"T...that's... They aren't around anymore," Ryuguu said, sweating. "They got arrested on Sunday! I'm still looking-"

"_Wrong_!" she yelled in his face.

"W...was looking," Ryuguu allowed, shaking, "f...for a new distributor to sell to!"

"'Was' is right," Kyon interjected. "I think we all understand that you're _done_ with this, if you know what's good for you." Though, given what he already knew was going to happen tomorrow...

"Alright," Tsuruya said, nodding as she rose from her crouching position to her feet. "Kyon-kun, put him to sleep again."

Kyon nodded, stepping around Ryuguu's weakly flailing arms and easily wrapping the boy's neck in a choke-hold, which he held until Ryuguu passed out. Once the upperclassman was prone on the ground, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, double-checking to see that the bigger boy still had a pulse. "Sorry," he told Tsuruya, opening his eyes as he rose and giving her a weak smile. "This is... It's..."

He was surprised when Tsuruya leaned into him, giving a tight hug. "It's okay," she said soothingly, patting his head. "This kinds of detective work is enough to turn even someone like you hot blooded! And that's fine; Haru-nyan is in good hands! Since you're helping me out, I am too!"

He hesitantly hugged her back, realizing the source for the 'two-timing' rumor. Obviously, someone was within range to see all this... "Thanks, Tsuruya-sempai," he managed, the upperclassman's friendly embrace banishing his anger. "A...anyway, like I said, any time you need help with this investigation, let me know."

"You got it!" she enthused, breaking the contact and grinning at him. "I'll start investigatings those other two! But it's a lot bigger than just the two of them... Which one do you think we should go after first?"

"Kanae-chan is in class 1-7," he said, frowning. "I'm a bit worried about her..."

"You got it," Tsuruya agreed. "Satoshi-san should be easier to shake down than Ryuguu-san, here."

He followed Tsuruya back to the school entrance, nodding at her. "Okay, you take care," he told her. "I've got to get back ... uh ... to Haruhi."

"I thought you were dismissed from the club today?" she asked, raising one eyebrow and smirking.

"Oh, yeah," he agreed, frowning. "Well, I have to head back in anyway, since ... I forgot my shoes. Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow, alright, Tsuruya-sempai?"

"Hehe, you can just call me Tsuruya," she said with a wink, glancing at his indoor shoes. "I'd let you get away with more, but I don't want Haru-nyan to get the wrong idea!"

"How about Tsuruya-kun?" he asked, smirking before the twinge from his cut reminded him why he shouldn't.

"I like it!" she approved, nodding vigorously. "We're working on this investigation togethers!"

"You got it," he agreed, nodding back. "Take care, Tsuruya-kun."

"You too, Kyon-kun!" she called back, waving as she strode towards the school gates.

After scraping as much of the mud and dirt from his indoor shoes as he could, Kyon trudged wearily to the club house, taking the longer route to avoid encountering anyone being released from the club meeting. He knocked on the calligraphy clubroom door, pleased when Mikuru answered, bowing and excusing herself from her impromptu meeting with her former club members.

"How did everything go?" he asked, once they were alone in the hallway.

"Fine!" she said anxiously, peering at the bandage on his face. "The nurse said you were okay?"

"I'll be fine," he assured her, grinning. "Okay, um, we need to return to tomorrow ... can you take us to the clubroom, say ... two minutes before the bell at the end of lunch? That should be enough time to get back to class."

"Okay," she agreed, her eyes unfocusing briefly before she turned to face him, placing a hand on either shoulder. "Close your eyes," she reminded him, as always.

* * *

After completing the temporal transition, Mikuru lowered her hands from his shoulders, and Kyon's eyes opened, glancing around the clubroom. Unsurprisingly, Yuki was the only club member still left in the room. She closed her book and rose, moving to Kyon's side and raising one hand to his cheek briefly. He blinked, then grinned at the girl, tracing his fingertips across the bandage but leaving it in place. "Thanks, Nagato," he said, nodding at her. "And thank you, too, Asahina-san."

"It is no problem," Yuki returned smoothly.

"No trouble at all," Mikuru agreed, even though she had butterflies in her stomach just from remembering Kyon bleeding. It wasn't as bad as the time she'd seen him _stabbed_, but she didn't have to like it one bit!

A knock sounded on the door, and Kyon turned around, pondering, "Who could that be...?"

After a heartbeat, the door opened and Koizumi peered in, sighing with relief as he saw Kyon, though there was still tension in his gaze. "I'm afraid I have some bad news, Kyon-kun," he said, smiling weakly. "Ah ... school administration would like to speak with you ... though it seems that some strings were pulled, and the issue was somehow moved down to a meeting with the Student Council President. There's an emergency session now, so..."

"Really?" Kyon asked, surprised. "I'm not sure what's stranger. That the Student Council can handle cases like this, or that they get to skip classes for it. Well, whatever."

"Don't forget, Kimidori Emiri will be there," Koizumi warned with a frown. "Which probably explains _how_ the Student Council was given authority for this meeting."

"I will go," Yuki declared, her eyes fixed on Kyon.

"M...me too," Mikuru managed, wishing she could sound as confident as Yuki.

"And naturally," Koizumi agreed, bowing slightly, "I will be at your side as well."

"Okay, let's go," Kyon decided. "Haruhi's going to burst into the middle of the meeting and be really pissed off about not being involved."

"Ah... You're certain?" Koizumi asked.

Kyon nodded, turning his cell phone back on. "She absolutely will if you send a text to her just before we enter the Student Council room," he said. "That should give Kimidori-san enough time to state her goals and reasons, but not to actually _do_ anything before Haruhi shows up. And despite what they've done so far, I doubt that Kimidori-san is stupid enough to try something in front of Haruhi."

"Good strategy," Koizumi agreed, preparing the text message and falling into file behind Kyon as he led the way to the club room. Yuki stood perfectly at his side, taking every step with the boy, and Mikuru fought down another surge of jealousy at the interface's confidence.

Kyon marched to the door and flung it open without knocking, startling the Student Council president as he shuffled through a short stack of papers. Kimidori Emiri sat in a chair to one side, her pad of paper and pen ready, though she seemed coolly expectant. Kyon strode to the middle of the room and stood in an arrogant pose, arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at the president with an expression of clear boredom. Yuki stood a half-step behind him on his left, eyes fixed on Emiri. Mikuru tried to take up a flanking position on his right, but was beaten by Koizumi, so settled for closing the door and standing next to Yuki.

"Well?" Kyon demanded, when the president spent a long moment staring. "I'm here."

"I don't..." the president began, frowning and scanning across the group. "I expected you to bring her along, if you were going to appear in force."

"Yeah, okay," Kyon allowed, relaxing his arms and taking on his more normal demeanor. "So, do you have anything for me, President, or is this Kimidori-san's call?"

Emiri smiled awkwardly and set her pen down. "Currently, everything here is within the technical limitations of the Student Council's jurisdiction," she explained. "I do not plan to usurp the president; I'm merely a secretary."

"I really have no patience for intrigue, just now. I'm in the middle of an investigation that I'm honestly ashamed to find out you're doing nothing about," he said pointedly, staring at Emiri.

Emiri looked confused and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand..."

"This attitude doesn't become you," the president added with a frown at Kyon. "My job is to keep Suzumiya-kun in line, not _you_. Koizumi-kun, what's this all about?"

"Difficult to explain quickly," the esper said with a bright smile. "For the moment, however, I answer to Kyon-kun as my superior ... and realistically, you probably should as well."

Emiri blinked several times, her awkward smile slipping.

"Really?" the president asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, in that case," he asked sardonically, turning his attention back to Kyon, "what's the plan?"

"Let's start with how much trouble I'm in for protecting Kanae-chan from that pervert," Kyon suggested.

"Technically none," the president admitted. "It's a behavior issue, but all accounts indicate you in self defense, or in defense of a classmate. Ryuguu-san is already being expelled just on the grounds of bringing a weapon into the school and assaulting fellow students ... though he was taken away in an ambulance. In any event, because of that, orders were handed down from the principal to discuss your behavior... I have the authority to demand a meeting with an advisor for you - several if I believe that your behavior is likely to become problematic. Okabe-sensei is your advisor, right?"

Kyon grimaced. "Don't get me wrong, he's a good guy, but I'm not exactly eager for that," he said. "My family?"

"Already notified," the president said, almost apologetically. "The administrative staff did that first thing."

"Figured. Alright. So, I'm going to tell you right now, when this is over, you're actually going to thank me for what I did today, and what's going to happen in the coming days." Turning his full attention to Emiri, he added, "Seeing as I'm not up for intrigue at the moment, can you cut to the chase and say _why_ you've pulled the strings you have to arrange this?"

Emiri sighed, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably. "You are becoming a bit troublesome," she allowed, shaking her head. "I wanted to relate to you in clear terms that all else aside, the entity has not deviated from their chosen course of action."

"That's a real pity," Kyon sighed. "I didn't want us to be enemies."

"Well, you made your decision," Emiri said with an apologetic shrug. "I, personally, mean you no harm. My role has naturally changed, as I am denied administrative access over Nagato Yuki. For the time being, despite our differences concerning this issue at large, I wish to remain as neutral as possible to function as negotiator between yourselves and the entity. Until such time as you inform me otherwise, I will assume that you continue to maintain your stance. However ... should things change and you decide to side with us, the entity also holds no enmity against you."

The student council president blinked and looked at his secretary sidelong, obviously very confused.

"I don't really believe that last part, but it's nice of you to say." After a breath, Kyon warned in a low voice, "I just want to point out, though, that a challenge against any one of us is a challenge against _all_ of us, so even the entity may have bitten off more than it can chew."

Before anyone could respond, the door crashed open with a reverberating smash, Haruhi stomping in and taking point in front of Kyon, shooting a dark glare at the president. "Trying to pick us apart by calling out my underlings when I'm not around, eh?" she challenged, bristling with fury. "Well, you've got a lot to learn! A challenge against one of us is a challenge against _all_ of us!"

Mikuru blinked, catching Kyon's smirk at the girl in front of him as she echoed his words of only moments before. Emiri's expression had returned to blank neutrality, with small traces of surprise showing as she picked her pen back up and began jotting notes down.

"Really, you are the lowest example of politician!" Haruhi spat, shaking her head at the president.

For his part, the bespectacled boy gave her a cool look, pushing on the bridge of his glasses with two fingers, flashing bright reflective light off them perfectly into Haruhi's eyes as he adjusted the lenses. He instantly re-assumed his role in Haruhi's presence, his expression gleaming with cold malice. The chief of the SOS Brigade didn't flinch, her angry smile only growing wider.

"Even using underhanded tactics like calling my vice commander in during _classes_?" She paced back and forth shaking her head sadly. "I thought you were a rival, maybe someday even an equal, but you're just a sad little man who hides behind whatever political tricks he can to cause trouble for people he doesn't like personally! Trying to make things difficult for Kyon when he defended a fellow student from a crazed pervert?! Don't make me think that Kitago is a school unworthy of its reputation!"

"You overreact," the president said in a frosty tone. "Marching in with your pompous attitude and blatant disregard for policy... I invite you to check every step of the proceedings of this inquiry; you'll find that each and every one was in complete accordance with official guidelines and policies! The only breach here is that Kyon-kun was summoned alone. There was no request for Koizumi-kun, Nagato-kun, Asahina-kun, or yourself to be here.

"Really, storming your way into an official meeting that doesn't involve you personally? This matter has absolutely nothing to do with your so-called club, that unofficial organization that I refuse to acknowledge! This is a personal matter between the student council and a single student. Your show of force is both unseemly and needlessly exaggerated."

"Ooh!" Haruhi exclaimed, standing still to stomp one foot on the floor and shoot a murderous glare at the president. "Nice try," she retorted with a sneer, "but if it smells like a load of crap, looks like a load of crap, and acts like a load of crap ... then it's a _load of crap_! One of my brigade members was attacked by a crazed student! Another of my brigade members did his civic duty not only as a member of the brigade you don't acknowledge, but as a _citizen_! An upstanding _student_ of this school!

"You're all high-and-mighty behind your desk, proud of the fact that you get to pick on my crew just because you don't like them! What about all the other students who just _watched_ a crazed upperclassman with a _knife_ haul away a defenseless first year student? Not one of _them_ is worthy of reprimand?"

The president's face was a mask of contempt and barely concealed rage. He slowly lowered his head, allowing the mirror-bright shine of his glasses to reflect to the floor and his eyes to become visible. "Very well," he grated out, in the tone of someone who was having a tooth pulled without anesthetic. "In light of the greater failing of the student populous in general, we will dismiss the _gross_ disciplinary issues in Kyon-kun's behavior ... _this_ time. After all, my quarrel isn't with your underlings, but you. Now leave, Suzumiya-kun, before my good graces run out."

Haruhi allowed herself a single imperious sniff before turning on her heel and grabbing Kyon's hand, hauling him out of the room. Mikuru hesitated, walking in step with Yuki when she finally left, though the shorter girl's eyes had been fixed on Emiri the entire time. Once they were in the hall, the time traveler released a shaky, explosive sigh. "Scary," Mikuru moaned. "And now we're late for class!"

"No problem, no problem!" Haruhi said brightly, seeming charged with her victory over the student council president. "Tell your teachers to take their complaints to the student council! They hauled us out of class for this, after all." Turning to Kyon, she added in a more serious tone, "You need to be careful, Kyon! I can't always bail you out when you get into trouble like this! And you owe Koizumi-kun a thanks for texting me that this was even happening!"

"Oh, yeah? Thanks, Koizumi, glad you're so on-the-ball." The esper maintained his eternal smile, nodding slightly. "Anyway, Haruhi, would you be mad at me if I was confident enough in you to say that you could bail me out again?" Kyon asked her.

Haruhi made a squeaking noise and dropped Kyon's hand as if burned, her face turning pink. "W...well, that may be the case!" she allowed, nodding and looking away. "But, just because I can pick up the pieces doesn't mean you should rely on that!"

He gave her a weak grin. "Sorry, but I may have to a bit before this investigation finishes," he said apologetically. "Um, but I'll talk with Tsuruya-kun - she probably won't mind letting you take our final report to the student council president. Trust me, that'll be a _huge_ bargaining chip to use against him."

"Bah!" Haruhi groused, as they entered the walkway to the second year classes. "I don't like that at all! I didn't do any work, and I don't even know what it's about! How am I supposed to use that?"

"It's something completed entirely by your vice commander and an honorary member," Kyon assured her. "That makes it a part of the SOS Brigade, doesn't it?"

"Oh, well, I suppose that's true..."

Mikuru smiled, shaking her head and waving as she turned to take the walkway to the third year classes.

Kyon caught the wave and gave her a grin, waving back before turning to face Haruhi. Even though she had no idea what Kyon had needed to travel to yesterday for, she was glad she could help with it. And she couldn't help but feel glad when he had said that the brigade was a team, and no single one of them could be attacked without the others. Maybe, she decided, she was a greater asset than she had let herself believe previously. Cheered by that thought, she was able to smile when she entered her classroom and apologetically informed the teacher she was late due to student council business.

* * *

During the next break after lunch, Haruhi pulled the half-eaten bento from her schoolbag and wordlessly poked Kyon in the back with it. He turned and accepted it with a raised eyebrow. "I'm really lucky to have such a considerate brigade chief looking out for me," he said, before she could point it out for him.

She tried to scowl, but could only manage a knowing smirk. "You'd better believe it!" she told him, nodding studiously. "Oh, did you finish your math homework?"

"Barely," he allowed, before digging into the bento. Haruhi wasn't at all surprised when Taniguchi and Kunikida rose to approach Kyon, and evidently he expected it as well, since he just grunted wordlessly before polishing off the bento and asking, "What this time?"

"Ah ... well," Kunikida temporized, chuckling guiltily, "I wanted to apologize to you, Kyon ... it wasn't right to make those judgments."

"Mostly, I just wanted to ask when you took a level of badass," Taniguchi contributed. "And to tell you I'm a bit jealous of you getting yet another A minus into your club. Mega points for saving her bacon from the jerk - a few more stunts like that and you're going to have your own fanclub!"

"'A minus'?" Haruhi echoed, frowning. "What's that mean?"

"Eh," Kyon sighed, shaking his head. "Taniguchi's a living perv-wiki. He's rated all the girls on a grading scale and only learns the names of those who get an 'A' or better."

"Well, I know where I must stand on that scale," Haruhi allowed, shooting Taniguchi a sharp glance. "Which is funny, because on my scale, Taniguchi isn't quite rated fifteen minutes."

Taniguchi grimaced. "Nevermind that!" he protested. "This is about Kyon the delinquent and his rise to school celebrity!"

"That's great," Kyon returned. "Because I don't care to discuss it. I already had to explain my situation to the student council, and Ryuguu's getting expelled. As far as I'm concerned, it's a closed issue."

"Yes, but he cut you and you don't even seem to care," Kunikida said, grinning. "It's hard not to be a bit in awe, you know?"

"I'm sure you can find any number of rumor-mongers who are willing to tell you whatever you want to hear," Kyon replied.

"Yeah, I hear Yanagimoto's got a bunch of them to trade," Haruhi added. "Of course, it's really hard to believe any of them for me, but if you want baseless rumors, go nuts..."

"Will do!" Taniguchi said cheerfully. "A 'B-plus' isn't too far off from an 'A-minus'!" Turning around, he stepped over to Yanagimoto's desk and immediately tried to strike up a conversation.

"Sometimes, I worry about that guy," Kyon said, shaking his head.

Haruhi thought about it for a minute, then said, "I don't think his chronic stupidity is likely to hurt him too badly. And it's not like he could get _dumber_."

"Aha ... well ... I'll leave you two to be, then," Kunikida decided, drawing away with a short bow.

"But, hey, how about that, Kyon? You're a school celebrity! This is going to be _great_ publicity for the brigade! Man, if only you'd aspired to become vice commander sooner!"

"Yeah, it's gonna be great fun talking to my parents about that tonight," Kyon agreed, grimacing.

Haruhi snapped her fingers decisively. "I'll go with you and we can bring Kanae-chan," she declared. "This is big, so we can skip the club meeting for today. Problem solved! Unless your parents are aliens or worse, there's no way they could hear her explanation for what happened with her extra-moe face and speech without giving in! It's a tiny bit annoying, but that worshipful 'Sempai' of hers is guaranteed to melt the hearts of anyone!"

"Yeah ... I guess," he allowed, nodding. "Feels a bit weak to always be relying on girls to take care of my problems for me."

"Oh, like the way you hid behind Kanae-chan in your fight earlier?" she giggled. "Or the way you meekly hid behind Tsuruya while she fought off a dozen Yakuza?"

"Hmm," Kyon mused, handing the empty bento back to her. "That's a good point! Thanks, Haruhi."

She nodded, catching another gesture from Sakanaka and turning her head in time to see the other girl wink at her and make a small 'victory' sign. Haruhi couldn't help but grin at her friend and return the sign.


	8. Chapter 7

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Heroic Antics Begin Arc II

Chapter Seven: Rise To Delinquency; Requisite Angst Spots

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Two: Excuses"_

_"If you can't come up with a legitimate excuse, you have two fall-back options. First, you can take refuge in audacity and say something so outlandish you're dismissed (bonus points if you tell the truth with a straight face). And if that doesn't work, place the burden of justifying your whereabouts on someone else. If neither of these options pan out, run far, run fast."_

_"Cover" - Author Unknown_

* * *

Kyon fidgeted uncomfortably, watching the sparks fly between Haruhi's eyes and his mother's. He wasn't certain what would amuse him more; his mother being terrified of Haruhi, or Haruhi being terrified of his mother. The idea of it being funny faded when he realized that, ultimately, any leftover irritation would spill soundly onto his head. He spared a silent prayer of thanks for the fact that his sister had been sent to her room to avoid witnessing the current confrontation, even though she would inevitably hound him with questions about it later.

Kanae finished her explanation, the story delivered with embarrassing shoujou-romance panache, complete with descriptions of some uber-bishonen action-hero that trailed flowing sakura petals wherever he moved, and a villainous Ryuguu Ryo that literally slobbered over the hapless damsel in distress. She even embarrassedly referenced swooning into Kyon's arms as the bishonen figure that he gathered was supposed to be him carried her to safety, when the villain was left defeated and shamed.

Naturally, Haruhi ate the description of these over-the-top antics up with a _spoon_, nodding in confirmation to every point, as though she'd actually been there. Just as naturally, Kyon's mother didn't believe it for a second.

"Really," the woman said after a moment, her cool eyes breaking from Haruhi's long enough to touch on Kanae's, then away to Kyon's, where they hardened into twin orbs of pure menace, the like he had only previously seen from Haruhi herself. Deciding it was a woman-only-power that they all accessed at various levels of maturity, he gave it up as a lost cause. He could at least take consolation in the fact that he'd - somehow - manage to cow Mori into acting subservient, even if there was no way in hell he'd pull the same off with his mother, Haruhi, or probably his sister.

"I'm a bit disappointed in you, Kyon," she finally said, tuning out the girls that argued on his behalf. "Getting into fights? That is _not_ how you were raised!"

"I also wasn't raised to look the other way when a crime was being committed," he said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat on the couch beneath his mother's gaze. "Kanae-chan may have ... embellished ... a little bit, but what she said is generally true; I only did what I did to protect her." He'd taken off the bandage on his face shortly after leaving the school; Yuki had repaired the damage already, and he didn't know if his mother was certain of the severity of the actual combat.

"And you couldn't find a teacher, or someone who could deal with it? You didn't call the police?" his mother countered. "Yes, there is an expectation that as a good young man you'll do the _right_ thing, but you're not some television hero! You are not judge, jury, and executioner! We live in a society of rules and laws, and those are meant to be followed - aside from which, that boy had a _knife_! What if you'd been hurt?"

"Yeah, but... Ryuguu Ryo was expelled," Kyon said, shaking his head. "I was reprimanded. I acted in self-defense, and to protect Kanae-chan. You think it's bad that I could have been hurt? What if _Kanae-chan_ was hurt?"

His mother raised her eyebrows. "You're acting like a delinquent," she judged, which he couldn't help but wince at. Jabbing a finger into his chest and leaning forward to shoot him a look of dire intent, she added, "Here's your ultimatum, Kyon. If you can't clean up your act - by which I mean 90 or better on _every_ test and assignment from this point forward, then I'm pulling you out of that trouble-making club and sending you _straight_ back to cram school! Sasaki-chan's mother called me a few days ago, you know! So don't think I haven't been keeping my eyes open for such opportunities - I won't let you throw your chances of a successful career after college away for some fleeting highschool flings and juvenile lapses in judgment!"

Kanae blinked, looking stung. Haruhi flinched at the mention of Sasaki, and Kyon could feel her trembling through the couch at the rest of the ultimatum. "That won't happen!" the girl swore, jumping to her feet in agitation. "Kyon and I have been working together on his studying habits! He's going to do _much_ better on tomorrow's test!"

"I'm sure," his mother said dryly, standing up straight and staring down her nose imperiously at Haruhi. "You've already accomplished miracles for him so far."

Kyon took a deep breath, watching Haruhi closely. His mother had previously always maintained a careful distance from his friends, respecting his boundaries. This was an entirely new facet of parental interference... But not, he admitted, entirely unexpected. And he really didn't want to see Haruhi get into a fight with his mother.

"Mom," he said, pulling her attention from Haruhi's now watering eyes. "Look, I'm not actually in any _trouble_ at school, and if I were, it had _nothing_ to do with Haruhi or the SOS Brigade."

Her eyes locked back on his, while Haruhi continued to tremble. "And?" she asked him. "I'd really like you to be a positive role model for your sister and make a stronger showing that you care about your future!"

"I care a lot more about the future than you think," he couldn't help but grumble. "And I think you're overreacting. If you have to yell, fine, yell - but don't take it out on my friends. They didn't do anything to deserve this."

To Kyon's surprise, his mother took a half step back, eyebrows raising. "You have your terms," she decided, shaking her head. "If you really care, I think this would be a good time to start studying for tomorrow's test. And I'd _better_ not hear from the school again!" With that, she turned and stalked away, shooting one last dark glance over her shoulder before loudly banging pots and pans around in the kitchen, despite the fact that dinner was hours away yet.

Looking between Kanae and Haruhi, Kyon climbed up from his seat and shook his head. "Haruhi," he said softly, though his gaze was out the window, "I'm in a bit of trouble. Would you be willing to help me study?" It was the _last_ thing he wanted to do ... but it was also the only thing he could think of to calm Haruhi, and more closed space... What the hell had brought Sasaki's name up again? First Kunikida bringing it up off-hand a few days ago, then his own mother? This didn't seem to be coincidence.

He resolved to ask Yuki about it later.

"Yeah," she answered, her voice a little rough, unable to meet his eyes. After a moment of hesitation, he placed one hand on her shoulder. She flinched, but didn't shy away, leaning ever so slightly into the contact. "U...um. I'll ... wait in your room, if that's okay?"

He nodded at her, then turned to Kanae. The younger girl had her head bowed, her own eyes shadowed. "Do you want to join us?" he asked, forcing a smile he didn't feel. "We can help you with your homework; I'll consider it a much needed review."

"Um! Y...yeah, of course!" Kanae nodded quickly, glancing nervously in the direction of the kitchen. "If I can help Sempai, then absolutely!"

He watched the two girls head up the stairs to his room and braved the kitchen, enduring his mother's steely-eyed judgment while filling a pitcher and collecting a trio of plastic cups. When he got into his room, Haruhi had already set out all of her own notes, and was digging through his schoolbag for his textbooks. Kanae was sitting on the edge of his bed, rifling through her own bag, though the younger girl broke off her work to give him a shaky smile.

"S...so," Haruhi said, shifting her shoulders, "I guess if I can't ... help you out enough, you can probably get ... Yuki-chan to fix things for you, right?"

"Hadn't thought of that," Kyon admitted, setting the pitcher on a tray next to the cups. "Guess I could, but it seems like cheating... And, anyway, Nagato takes care of things that I can't feasibly learn otherwise. That'd be abusing her power. Weren't you just telling me I was smart, but lazy?"

"Yeah," she admitted with a small, but heartfelt smile. She glanced at the door then closed one eye, concentrating, and to Kyon's surprise, it swung shut. "Is it okay if I practice?" she asked him, a trace of nervousness in her voice.

"Sure," he said, nodding. She had mentioned something about changing her power ... if only she'd thought to let him know how! Haruhi stared intently and levitated a handful of things from his desk drawer - a ruler, some paper-clips that he'd long ago stuck together into a chain, and a ball of assorted rubber-bands.

"When did you learn to do that?" Kanae asked, intrigued. "I thought you needed Nagato-san's help to use your power?"

"Just the big stuff," Haruhi said, shaking her head, the arrangement before her wobbling unsteadily. "I can move things ... when I get really stressed it helps me calm down."

Kyon pondered, then turned his attention to his homework, glad that Haruhi had given herself a constructive outlet. Certainly, he hadn't gotten any texts or calls from Koizumi or Mori, which seemed to be a good sign.

Kanae occasionally interrupted him to ask him to look over her work, and he usually had to ask Haruhi to help him out ... embarrassingly enough, homework from a year ago _was_ a critical review for him. After playing with her telekinesis long enough for Kyon to finish his homework, she put everything but the paper-clips away, studiously unchaining them one-by-one, then stacking them neatly in the drawer.

"Okay," Kyon declared, glancing at the clock then rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "Time for a break! I have limits." He rose and stretched, Kanae bouncing off the edge of his bed and mimicking his movements, sticking her tongue out a bit in concentration.

Haruhi snickered at the first year student, saying, "Kanae-chan, you're going to need a bit more practice before you just launch into martial kata."

Kyon blinked, realizing that Haruhi was right ... and he hadn't even realized he was going through a basic series of martial forms. Learning things subconsciously ... or without the specific memories of learning it was not without certain flaws. It might be for the best that he didn't try and learn his class that way, unless there was no other option.

"I know," Kanae admitted, giggling. "But maybe I should ask Nagato-san to learn martial arts, too? Then I could defend myself better, and Sempai wouldn't have gotten in trouble..."

"Ryuguu was a pretty big guy," Kyon disagreed, shaking his head. "Martial arts is mostly about subtlety over force, but he had a knife, too; he could have hurt you pretty badly if you fought seriously. If you really want, you can probably ask Nagato later, but I thought you needed more practice sliding?"

She ducked her head, giggling. "That's true! I guess I'll have to depend on Sempai for now..."

"That's what we're here for," he assured her.

Haruhi poured herself a glass of water as Kanae settled back to the bed and Kyon finished the final form of the kata he had started, sinking to sit before the study materials again. Maybe he should ask Haruhi to make him a more avid studier, he thought with a sigh. "Hey, Kyon," she said, holding the cup by her face, peering intently into its depths.

"Yeah?" he asked, flipping through his own poorly written and generally incomplete notes.

"I'm sorry about this..."

"It's not your fault," he said, shrugging as he reached the end of his notes, and the beginning of Haruhi's. "And, anyway, while my mom doesn't usually get mad at me, I haven't gotten into a fight at school since..." He paused thinking back. "I don't think ever, actually. So, I can kind of see where she's coming from."

"Y...yeah, but if this makes you quit the brigade-"

"Haruhi," he said sternly, looking up from her notes, "if I won't let aliens, enemy organizations, or that smirking bastard let me get split off from the brigade, do you really think my mother is going to stop me? It's no good seeing her mad at me, but she'll get over it as long as I come through on getting my test scores up. And even if I do fail, well... I don't think it's any good relying on Nagato or Asahina-san to fix things, but unless I somehow get expelled from school," and that he _would_ cheat to fix, if he had to, "then it's not happening. Despite everything, my record with the school should be decent. I have bad grades, and I got into one fight that everyone acknowledges wasn't my fault. It's not the end of the world, is it?"

Haruhi nodded, setting her cup on the tray. "I just don't like it when things entirely outside of my control can cause problems I can't fix ... even though they'll be problems for me," she said. Then she shook her head. "That sounds really selfish, doesn't it?"

"Well," he mused, as Kanae put away her homework, "that may be true... But when you're talking about wanting a friend to do well so you can be together, then while it's a bit selfish, it's also because you care about your friend, isn't it?"

Haruhi shifted her shoulders and looked away, her fingertips fidgeting nervously. "I guess," she allowed.

"Suzumiya-san," Kanae began uncertainly, "are you unhappy to be friends with Kyon?"

"W...what?! Of course not!" Haruhi yelped, staring at the younger girl as though she had sprouted an extra head. "Why would you think that!?"

"Y...you just seemed nervous," Kanae said, flinching back. "Um, I'm sorry!"

"M...maybe I'm a little ... unused to having ... friends," Haruhi admitted, pouting at the floor. "I ... kind of scared people away for a while... So I got used to having to do my own thing, and not caring about other people. And ... maybe that's not the best way to look at the world."

"Is that so?" Kyon asked, raising an eyebrow. "I always thought you were at your strongest when you were doing things for others."

"Yeah?" Haruhi asked, brightening. "Like when?"

"Like when you and Nagato filled in for the band members at the cultural festival," he suggested. "Or the time that you insisted I visit Nagato because you thought she said my name. Maybe the time that you helped Sakanaka-san out with her dog? What about the time you insisted that Nagato meet the boy who thought he was in love with her, because you said everyone deserved a chance?"

"Yeah," Haruhi agreed, chuckling. "I guess you're right! Oh, man, that letter was so pathetic, too! I kind of felt for the guy, though..."

"I didn't," Kyon retorted. "When he called to tell me how much he was in love, his explanation was so bad I thought he was trying to confess to _me_!"

"I didn't hear that story!" Kanae said, giggling herself, a tiny blush coming to her cheeks. "Ooh, Sempai with another boy! Such a naughty thought!" Her eyes turned distant and her blush deepened. "Hum, Sempai and Koizumi-san..."

"Stop that train of thought _right there_," Kyon insisted, holding one hand out and grimacing. "I invoke my vice commander powers to revoke your speaking privileges! Not funny, Kanae-chan!"

The girl giggled again, grabbing Kyon's pillow and hiding her face behind it, trying to stifle her laughter. "Alright," Haruhi said decisively, "enough break time! Kanae-chan, help me cut up some paper to make flashcards. Kyon, get us- I mean, could you get us some more water?"

"No problem," he agreed, giving Haruhi a smile before taking up the empty pitcher and steeling himself to face his mother's ire once more.

* * *

A grueling flashcard session was eventually followed by a tense, uncomfortable dinner. Afterward, Kyon gleefully escaped the house on the excuse of walking the girls to the train station, chased by the promise of talking with his father once the man came home.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful today, Sempai," Kanae said before stepping through the turnstile to board her train, ducking her head. "But thank you for being my friend. And thank you, too, Suzumiya-san! It makes me very happy to have found this world!"

Haruhi hesitated until the smaller girl was out of sight, then turned to face Kyon. "Um," she began, uncertainly, before faltering. He could sense that she wanted to say something, but was unable to force it out. "W...well, come to school early tomorrow... If your mother is upset, I'll bring you something so you can eat properly, and we'll work on all the flashcards you had trouble with, okay?"

"Absolutely," he agreed, nodding. He watched her walk away, unsettled when his cell-phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket, surprised to see he had a voice-mail ... but no missed calls. Confused, he pressed the button to retrieve it as he strolled back home, his steps freezing when a very familiar voice spoke:

"Call Mori-san, tell her to meet you _now_, then turn off the phone. Also, 'hi' from tomorrow."

"_Damn_ it, future-me," he growled, ignoring the stares the nearest passers-by gave him and searching quickly for Koizumi's number. The esper picked up after two rings, attentive as always.

"Hello again, Kyon-kun," he answered cheerfully. "What else can I do for you today?"

"Get Mori-san to call me," he snapped. "It's urgent."

Without waiting for a response, he hung up, staring at the phone balefully. Less than a minute later it rang, an unfamiliar number displaying on the screen. He answered without hesitation, "Mori-san?"

"Sir?" the woman asked him cautiously.

Before she could continue, he said, "I need you to meet with me right now - I'm at Kitaguchi station."

"Understood, Sir," she replied, disconnecting. Guessing that his future self needed to use the phone, he grumbled and turned it off.

Done for the moment, he went to a bench before the station and waited.

Unsurprisingly, Arakawa's familiar black taxi pulled up within five minutes, Mori opening the door and gesturing him in. He climbed in next to the woman, irritated to realize that thanks to Haruhi and Kanae coming home with him, he hadn't even had time to change out of his uniform. This was becoming a bizarre habit.

"Thank you for responding to the situation so quickly," she said, breaking the silence as Arakawa accelerated the vehicle into the night.

"Can I get a summary of what you know so far?" he asked, staring fixedly out the window, away from Mori. Why would his future self continually shove him into situations blind like this? Well, it wasn't that far off from his total lack of guidance to himself the week that Mikuru had been kidnapped ... though, with his new skills and connections, he should be able to prevent _that_ from happening again.

He caught the motion of her nod in the reflection off the window. "Currently, as you have anticipated, today was much better than this morning. A few of our espers noted a sensation of increased tension earlier today, and it hasn't died down completely, but no closed space has actually formed."

He nodded at that. "Glad that's working," he allowed. "But then, I've always thought Haruhi had the capability to be more reasonable than she usually chose to be."

"You are absolutely the expert in that regard, Sir," Mori replied. "We've got assigned watchers following her as per standard; she shouldn't be in any danger. The same for Michikyuu-san, now. Ah, but I'm side-tracking. While Tsuruya-san is affiliated with our Organization, her family has a strict policy of non-interference, which we respectfully work both ways - they don't mind us, and we don't mind them.

"I was a bit hesitant to infringe on that, but the Tamaru brothers are watching her, as you insisted," she continued. "You're positive that it was safe to pull them from surveillance on Asahina-san?"

"I've got someone on that," he answered, making a mental note to kick his future self. Obviously, his future self was getting to enjoy time with Mikuru, while he was pitching himself headlong into another act of delinquency. "What's Tsuruya-kun up to right now?"

"Ah ... well ... it doesn't look good," Mori said glumly. "This could seriously damage relations between ourselves and her family if it comes out, so ... moving forward with our strict policy of letting you handle your own problems, we'd like to remain as uninvolved as possible."

"What doesn't look good?" Kyon asked, realizing they were heading straight into the heart of Nishinomiya's shadier low-rent and high-crime district.

"She's visiting someone we don't have files on. Probably a Yakuza or just some shady character ... most likely not anyone of interest to our Organization or the others. If you don't mind me saying so, while it seems a bit suspicious, there's no real indicator that this is something she's unfamiliar with. I don't know her personal habits, but it's entirely possible she's simply collecting something of personal interest to herself."

"While that's possible, right now Tsuruya-kun is a person of interest to the brigade," Kyon countered, tearing his eyes from the window to give Mori his most stern look. She met it without flinching, only pursing her lips slightly. "Specifically, she and I are involved in an investigation concerning something that ... unless I miss my mark ... even the entity itself is unaware of. I wouldn't expect Asahina-san to know, but I'm surprised you seem unaware."

"What?" Mori asked, taken aback. "What are you insinuating? Is this about that scuffle you got involved with at school this morning?"

"And yesterday," he agreed.

"No, that's not possible," she objected, shaking her head. "We watched you all day; you didn't leave the house after we dropped you off."

"Use a bit of imagination."

Mori frowned, squinting at him. "You're working for the time travelers?" she asked, her voice turning slightly bitter.

"They work for _me_," he clarified.

She stared at him doubtfully, then gave a slow nod. "Okay," she allowed. "That may account for some things. Then, what's this investigation you're undertaking? If it's something even the entity is unaware of-"

"Classified," he told her with a shake of his head. "Sorry. You'll get disclosure when the investigation is complete. Koizumi can give you a full report."

"Alright," she allowed again, frowning as Arakawa stopped the cab. "From here," she said, pointing, "one block that way, take the alley to the right. On the left side of the alley there's a steel door with a viewing portal - the kind with a steel plate across it. The secret knock goes like this." She demonstrated, tapping one fingertip against the back of Arakawa's headrest. "I'm afraid that's all the information I can offer."

"Good enough," he decided, climbing out of the car. "I may end up leaving with Tsuruya-kun; if you're trying to keep her from seeing you, I won't really be able to notify you."

Mori smiled, a tiny hint of that menacing smile she sometimes offered returning with a sharp gleam. "I've got my eyes on you," she assured him.

He nodded again, then jogged down the street, nervously ducking into the alley that Mori had indicated before freezing, nearly stumbling over a trash bag as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dark. Moving more carefully forward, he studied the walls of the buildings until he found the steel door and pounded one fist on it, following the pattern that Mori had given him.

Seconds later, the eye-level steel plate snapped back, revealing a furrowed brow and a pair of angry eyes. "What?" a surly voice asked him, before taking in his uniform. "Oh, local color, eh? You here to buy, or sell?"

"Buy," he answered, shifting his shoulders.

"Alright." The plate slammed back into place and then Kyon heard the sounds of several bolts being thrown before the steel door ponderously opened inward. The man behind the door was a bit shorter than him, but stocky, with the build of a practiced fighter and numerous small scars across his face. He was wearing a brightly colored cherry-red suit with a lime green tie and a loud blue shirt - a screaming advertisement of his Yakuza status. "In," he grunted, gesturing Kyon forward with one meaty paw.

Kyon nodded and stepped in before the short brute laboriously shoved the door shut behind him. The room was square and dimly lit, a single other doorway visible on the opposite side of the room. "It's okay if I...?" Kyon began, gesturing at the doorway.

"Go," Brute replied with another sour grunt. "Watanabe-san is with some other customers, so watch your mouth."

Nodding absently, Kyon stepped through the doorway, entering a long, rectangular room. The outer perimeter was completely lined with boxes of varying sizes, all the way up to the ceiling. At the far end of the rectangular space was a makeshift desk made out of sturdier boxes and a length of board. Computer equipment had been spread haphazardly around, most notably a row of four monitors, which lit the back wall with a flickering series of glowing lights, mostly a fleshy pink tone and soft blue.

Five other people were in the room with him. He spotted Tsuruya first, standing not far from himself on one edge of a shabby red carpet, wearing a skirt and blouse - not her uniform or the kimono he had previously seen her in. Beyond her was a boy that it took Kyon a minute to place - Manabe, from Kanae's class, slightly unfamiliar in casual clothes, but his blond hair stuck out. Manabe was bowing nervously to the man behind the desk, a thirtish looking Yakuza in proud color, much more understated white and powder blue. Deducing that he must be Watanabe, Kyon mentally labeled the other two yakuza thugs as Scar, for the giant jagged silver streak that ran vertically across his face and through one eye, and Hat, for the fedora he angled low over his eyes.

Manabe rose from his bow and said, his voice breaking very slightly, "We apologize again for the issue with Ryuguu-san, Watanabe-san. But, as we have said ... his issues are not our issues, and he was merely a middle-man. Production has not been affected in the slightest, as you can see from the latest batch..."

"The money we make from distributing these isn't bad," Watanabe allowed, his eyes flicking across the monitors. "However, what you don't understand is that the money is also trivial compared to our proper businesses. It is, at best, a semi-lucrative sideline. We are businessmen, and we act professionally."

Watanabe pulled a cigar from a box on the desk. Scar wordlessly produced a clipper from a pocket and snipped one end, and Hat wordlessly produced a lighter, which Watanabe used to ignite the tip. After a few thoughtful puffs, Watanabe's eyes drifted across the room, lingering briefly on Kyon, then on Tsuruya, before fixing on Manabe again. "I understand that you consider yourselves aspiring businessmen, and I will admit ... production quality is high. Delivery is generally very prompt. You do your jobs well, all things considered. However, our primary issue is not the product."

He took a longer draw and stared into Manabe's face. "Our issue is that we do not like to be ... toyed with. Ryuguu was under the impression that for all his toadying and glorified delivery-boy status, he mattered to us. Sadly, he did not. He is as irrelevant as you might be. And Ryuguu thinks that we are, in some way, interested in avenging him. We are not. Ultimately, we do not care.

"However... I have it on reasonable authority that the ones we _are_ looking for... That is, the people who gave Ryuguu a much needed lesson in humility ... are the ones we are seeking. In the spirit of preserving a relationship that has yet to sour, I will offer you the standard rate for your product. Just keep in mind, there might be a ... bonus ... if you can find the people who caused us so much grief last Sunday."

Kyon chewed his lip, putting the Yakuza speech together. Ryuguu thought he was an associate, but wasn't? That made sense... The Yakuza wanted revenge for what happened to them on Sunday? Well, that was undoubtedly going to be problematic, and inevitably tied to the 'investigation' that he and Tsuruya were now wrapped up in. "Uh-oh," Tsuruya said, very softly, backing up slowly, almost bumping into Kyon before he put a hand out to catch her shoulder.

She spun in alarm, eyes widening, then relaxed instantly with a wide grin when she recognized him. The sudden motion caught Watanabe's attention, and Manabe followed his glance, gasping and pointing. "It's them!" he yelled. "Tsuruya and that delinquent! They're the ones who beat up Ryuguu-san - twice!"

Tsuruya winced, briefly pressing against Kyon and shoving something into his hand as she turned to face the four in the room. Watanabe rose to his feet, grinning around his cigar. "How convenient," he said in a smooth voice, eyes narrowing sharply. "Get them!" he roared, pointing at the pair menacingly.

Tsuruya sprang a step to Kyon's left, leaving him to turn and face the doorway he had walked through. Brute charged him with a guttural howl, and he sidestepped with a trip, knocking the big guy down and pivoting to face him again. No way the knockdown would put him out, but- The crackling discharge of a stun gun directly into the big man's spine drew his attention to Tsuruya, where she rose, stepping carefully back from the twitching figure, her weapon raised in a defensive position.

After glancing at his own hand, Kyon recognized a collapsible baton - how had Tsuruya gotten such things? Dismissing that, he gave it a good shake, relieved when it sprang open to its full length just as Hat reached him, and Scar windmilled his arms and leapt frantically backwards out of Tsuruya's range. Hat screamed something unintelligible and started with a maneuver that part of Kyon's subliminal training recognized as a double-feint; he side-stepped away from Brute's prone form, cracking his baton sharply across Hat's knuckles when they were extended from the punch.

Hat yelped and shook his now-bleeding hand. Kyon sidestepped the next punch from Hat, right into an axe-kick from Watanabe. He felt his collar bone strain under the impact as he was brutally slammed to the floor, staring up at Watanabe's grinning face and jarring his head when he landed. "Ya got _spunk_, kid," the Yakuza said, "but you chose the wrong people to fu-"

Kyon rolled desperately to one side, losing the baton and narrowly evading a kick to his head. After hitting the stack of boxes, he hastily righted himself and glanced at Tsuruya. Scar was slowly backing her into a corner, using his belt as a whip to try and disarm the girl. Manabe stood in front of the desk and stared, gaping.

Taking mental inventory, Kyon decided to switch to the offensive. Hat and Watanabe were coordinated, experienced fighters. He had the equivalent of a few years of non-specific martial arts training, and none of the physical conditioning to back it up. Hat should logically be weakened, so was the obvious target. Turning slightly towards Hat, Kyon slipped backwards and jerked himself towards Watanabe with an elbow-slam to the Yakuza's solar-plexus, allowing the momentum from the attack to carry into his fist, which snapped upwards and smashed the man's nose, causing another one of those unfortunately familiar crunches.

Watanabe screeched and flailed, the hot ash of his cigar falling down the sleeve of Kyon's uniform as the man tripped back and crashed to the floor. Even though Kyon was facing Hat, he was overextended and couldn't bring a fist into guard position quickly enough. Hat's knuckles may have been bloodied on one hand, but he landed a kick just over Kyon's eye, sending the boy flying back to land atop the injured Yakuza boss. Grunting in pain, Kyon felt Watanabe's arms wrap around him, holding him prone as Hat gathered a loose mop handle from the floor and raised it in a giant over-hand swing, his eyes still filled with dizzied glowing sparks.

Relying on the Yakuza boss's grip, Kyon managed to force a roll in time to use Watanabe as a shield. The blow caused Watanabe to cry out in pain and release Kyon to roll to his feet again, though this time Kyon immediately lashed forward and kicked Watanabe in the ribs. As the boss curled up around his kicked side, Kyon elbow-dropped below another one of Hat's kicks, driving all of his attack power into Watanabe's kidney.

Watanabe retched loudly and twitched. Kyon rolled away, dazedly wondering how much of the fight he was going to spend on the floor. As he righted himself again, he glared with his good left eye. The kick from Hat had cut open his eyebrow, and blood was filling his right eye. Hat's eyes flicked to Watanabe, on the floor, then to Kyon. Kyon tensed to charge, just as Tsuruya cried out in pain.

Not giving himself time to think about it, the second Hat turned to glance at the girl, Kyon leapt forward with a flying kick to Hat's left shoulder, landing on the floor yet again and executing a prone-trip, bringing Hat crashing to the ground at his side. With one hand injured and the other shoulder too weakened from the flying kick, Hat collapsed with a scream. Kyon rolled - yet again - away from the corner where Tsuruya and Scar would be, then kicked Hat's prone form in the chest, following it up with a knee-drop to the Yakuza's midsection. He shakily climbed to his feet to see that Tsuruya was bleeding from a deep welt on one wrist, but Scar was prone, frothing at the mouth with her stun gun pressed into his gut and chattering with discharge.

He spun on Manabe before the first year student could think to involve himself and stalked forward, stopping outside of striking range of the smaller boy. "You want to talk, or are you next?" he spat. Kyon despaired inwardly; he must have bitten his cheek when he was kicked or fell at some point. His mouth was literally full of blood, and his spittle flecked Manabe's face and clothes. His own blood was dripping across his blazer, and the cigar had probably singed it as well. The smell was undoubtedly going to linger...

Sharpening his one good eye on the boy, he felt more than saw Tsuruya stepping to his right side, her stun gun still chattering as she joined him in staring. "You okay?" he asked, turning slightly towards her, but still keeping Manabe in his field of vision.

The boy whimpered, as Tsuruya nodded. "Good enough to get some answers from this guy. Okay, Satoshi-chan, make it quick-like." Tsuruya chuckled, adding, "We're on a schedule."

Manabe worked his jaw quickly and finally blurted out, "I'm a nobody! I'm just a grunt! P...please don't kill me!" The boy actually dropped to his knees, eyes filling with tears. "I'm too _beautiful_ to die!"

"Oh, gods," Kyon groaned, fishing his handkerchief from his pocket and pressing it against his split eyebrow. The wound was too fresh to be tender, only a combination of half-numb and pins-and-needles tingling. "Tsuruya-kun, he's going to be useless - put him out of my misery, won't you?"

"You got it!" she said cheerfully, raising the stun gun and flashing a Mori-quality smile at Manabe.

"I'll tell you anything!" Manabe wailed, throwing himself to the floor and groveling. "Anything you want to know!"

"The truth," Kyon growled, walking around the desks and checking the Yakuza computer.

An amateurishly assembled rig, he assessed, lower quality than anything he'd seen in the computer research society. After collapsing into the single rickety chair, he spent a few moments checking it out to make certain, and was pleased to determine that there was no modem or internet connection. A shoe box on the desk not far from the cigar box was stuffed with mini-discs, SD cards, and countless post-it notes.

"I'm just following orders! I do first years, and, um, my seniors take care of the rest!"

"Tsuruya-kun, can I borrow the stun gun?" Kyon asked. "You can work this chump over with the baton for answers."

"Good thinking!" she cheered, handing the weapon over after collecting the baton and tapping it against one palm, eyes fixed on Manabe.

"Y...Yamane-san handles the second years," Manabe continued, on the verge of tears. "Daimonji-san is in charge of third years! W...we just wanted to make some money!"

Kyon set every drive but the primary to quick format waited until they were done, then opened the system while it was still running, and shielding his good eye, fried the entire array with the stun gun. The resultant explosion of sparks caused Manabe to shriek in alarm and sob again.

"I'll give you the names of all the first year collectors!" the blond boy wept. "That's all I know! Honest!"

For good measure, Kyon then tore the drives from the system and flung them to the floor hard enough to crack the casings, each crash causing Manabe to devolve further into a whimpering mound. Tsuruya tapped him lightly on the back of the head with the baton and collected the names he shakily quoted, writing them on a notepad she had kept in one pocket.

"Alright," Tsuruya decided, once Kyon had declared the computer system to be dead, and Manabe had finished his litany of names, "have a nice nap, Satoshi-chan!"

"W...what?" the boy managed, before Tsuruya whipped the baton sideways across the top of his head, and his eyes crossed as he collapsed to the floor.

"Hey, hey, Kyon-kun," Tsuruya said, quickly running to him and embracing him again. "You okay? I owe you mega big time! I got in ways over my head! Dunno what I'd do if you hadn't shown up!"

"Let's just get out of here," he said, his voice shaking. "I'm not feeling so hot at the moment."

"Okies! You want to go home? Hospital?" She partially broke from the embrace, pulling his right arm across the back of her neck and leaving her left arm around his back to help him walk.

"Oh, hells, I can't go home like this," he said in dismay. "My mom's already flipping out over the idea of me being a delinquent! The hospital..." His head hurt, and he felt himself slipping away by the minute. Delayed shock reaction? Blood loss? Adrenaline rush fading? There was something about a hospital, but he couldn't use his phone to call Mori; he had turned it off for an important reason that was slipping from his grasp. "No hospital," he managed.

"Gotcha covered!" she said cheerfully, setting him down on a stool near the doorway as she fought the numerous bolts and locks, then struggled to open the heavy portal. After resuming her position at his side, helping guide him down the dark alley, she pulled her phone from one pocket and held down a single button until someone answered. "Car!" she barked into the handheld. "Now! I want a medical kit - actually, it may take stitches - bring Sakura-sensei in. I want him ready by the time we get home!"

She hung up the phone without waiting for response, and Kyon could only blink in surprise when a limousine pulled to a stop outside the alley, a driver quickly climbing out and opening the door for them. Kyon gratefully collapsed into the back seat, only grunting when Tsuruya climbed in next to him and pulled out a first aid-kit. Confident that everything else would be taken care of, he let himself recede into comforting darkness as she pulled his head into her lap and began dabbing something on his eyebrow.

* * *

When his eyes tried lazily to open, only one of them did. A wad of cloth or something was pressing on his right eye, and he was laying on his back, squinting upward into lights that were too bright. Tsuruya was peering down at him in concern, while an unfamiliar middle-aged man with rolled up sleeves and surgical gloves did ... something to his face involving a needle and thread. He let his eye close again, though he remained conscious.

Most of his face was reassuringly numb, but he felt Tsuruya's warm hands clasped together around his left hand. "There," the man's voice said, slightly muffled by his surgical mask. "Are you still with us, Kyon-dono?"

"Done?" he mumbled back.

"Absolutely, Kyon-dono," the man assured him.

He opened his eyes again, surprised to find that his right eye opened, but was too swollen to open completely. He vaguely recognized the interior of Tsuruya's house, but wasn't sure which room he was in. Someone had laid a futon out for him and covered it with a thick cloth to prevent his blood from staining the mattress. The girl released his hand and helped him sit up.

"Kyon-kun?" she asked him, her voice sounding surprisingly shy. "You okay?"

"I've been better," he allowed with a wry smirk. Turning to the surgeon, who was washing his hands carefully in a basin and had pulled down his mask, he added, "Thank you, Sensei. Thank you as well, Tsuruya-kun."

"This one was my fault," Tsuruya said, nodding firmly. "If it's my fault, it's my responsibility! Oh, let me introduce you; this is Sakura-sensei, our family surgeon."

Sakura gave a wry grin of his own and bowed, drying his hands on a towel. "I can't give you much medicine, Kyon-dono, but when you're ready tonight, we'll give you something to help you sleep," he said. "In the meantime, you shouldn't need antibiotics, and I can't get those without a prescription, so it's going to be very important to change the dressing on that wound regularly and keep it clean. Also, for today and tomorrow, keep an icepack on the injury whenever possible." He produced a strange, rounded strip of something like a bandage, adding, "There are a few of these in the freezer; the staff can help you get one before you sleep."

"Ah ... thanks," Kyon managed. He felt a little bad ... Tsuruya was going so far out of her way, when he could just ask Yuki to fix it in the morning. "Um! Shoot, my mom's going to flip out-"

"No worries!" Tsuruya said with a wide grin. "I was worried for you, too, but when you fell asleep in the car, I got a phone call from your uncle Kintaro! He sounds _just_ like you! I do wonder how he got my number... But he said he was borrowing your room tonight and was going to talk to your mother, so you should stay here and rest! I think he tried calling you, too, because he said to check your voice mail."

"Oh," he said. What uncle Kintaro? His uncle was named Keiichi. "Oh, good."

"Now, come on," she instructed, wrapping the cooled compress around his head, adjusting it to cover his right eyebrow. "We're going to take a bath and get some sleeps, okies?"

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding. "You go first; I'd better check my voice mail."

Sakura rose from packing away his medical equipment and bowed deeply to the pair of them. "Take care, Kyon-dono, Tsuruya-san," he said.

Kyon nodded tiredly, while Tsuruya waved to a maid and climbed to her feet. "I'm headed to the bath," the girl told her maid, "when Kyon-kun is ready, go ahead and send him in, then get our beds ready."

"Understood," the servant replied, bowing deeply.

Shaking his head, Kyon turned his phone back on, unsurprised to see another voice mail. He retrieved it, hearing his future self tell him, with a faintly audible tinge of amusement: "It seems strange, but it's the best thing to do. Take a bath, rest well, do whatever Tsuruya-kun asks. _Whatever_ Tsuruya-kun asks. You can leave the phone on now."

Rolling his eyes, he tiredly climbed to his feet, approaching the maid with short steps. His arms and back were bruised from all of his falling and rolling, his knuckles were sore, his right ankle was protesting, and whatever anesthetic the doctor had used was starting to fade. The stitched up cut was beginning to fiercely sting, even with the cooling pack stuck to his head, and the purpling bruise over his collar bone was starting to promise aching neck muscles in the coming days.

"Kyon-dono," the maid murmured, rising from her kneeling position, though her eyes were still fixed on the floor. "The head of the Tsuruya family sends his personal regards and thanks for watching over his chosen heir. All of us are quite grateful for your effort so far, especially Kasai-san."

"I'm just doing ... what anyone would do," he said, realizing how lame it was only after the words left his mouth. Sure, anyone who had casual access to instant training, time travel, and a covert organization that they had inadvertently cowed into doing their bidding would do the same.

Even with her face oriented towards the floor, he could see the maid's mouth quirk into a smile. "Even though others may, you _have_," the maid insisted. "He further requests that you continue to watch over her until she completes her trials, and wishes to know what reward you desire in exchange for your services."

"O...of course," he agreed. "But, reward? That's... No, thanks. I don't need much, and right now, Tsuruya-kun's already made sure that I got medical attention when I needed it, and a place to hide from my mother while she's angry." He bit his tongue, wondering if his words came more easily as a side-effect of the fading anesthetic. "Er... Well, I appreciate the offer, but I'm not helping Tsuruya-kun for a reward."

The maid's smile widened. "Thank you," she said, raising her face and peering cautiously at him. "Then, if I may impose a small, personal request?"

"As long as it doesn't go against brigade policy."

"Please take good care of Haruka-chan," she whispered, her face coloring slightly.

"Of course," he agreed, wondering why she needed to ask him twice. "I don't think many people would want to see her unhappy."

The maid bowed low again, then gestured him to follow. "This way to the baths," she said quietly. "Leave your clothes in the changing room. We'll make sure they're clean by morning."

"Okay," he agreed, as she opened the changing room door for him and bowed yet again. He wondered briefly how quickly Tsuruya had washed ... she'd gotten cut on her wrist, too, but hopefully not very badly. The surgeon had probably taken care of her first; he'd have to ask her about it later, he decided, shutting the door on the maid and quickly stripping. After grabbing a modesty towel and wrapping it around himself, he slid open the door and stepped into the bathing area, freezing when he saw Tsuruya there, facing away from him.

He couldn't help but stare as the girl leaned forward and gathered up a rinse basin, upending it over her head with a cry of, "Kya~! Cold!"

After she ran her fingers through her hair, he turned around, only able to make a small choking noise as the maid stepped into the changing room and nodded at him with a knowing wink, taking his clothes away before she vanished.

"Ah! Kyon-kun!" Tsuruya chirped, turning around to face him. For a moment, he was saddened to see she had wrapped a towel around herself, made invisible previously behind the wide fan of her dark hair. Then he mentally slapped himself - what was he thinking?! If something like that got back to Haruhi... "Help me scrub my back, then I'll get yours, okay?" She held out her right arm and stuck out her tongue. "I can't reach some spots because of this." He noticed the bandage on her wrist and gave a weak nod.

"R...right," he said, remembering his voice mail from the future. Taking a bath with Tsuruya ... well, if his future self insisted it had to be done, obviously it was for the sake of the world! No use fighting it.

She pulled her hair over one shoulder and let her towel drop to the bathing area floor, where it pooled around her. Yep, the future of the world was at stake if he didn't do as his future self insisted. Who was he to cause a paradox? He found a washcloth and lathered it up, scrubbing her back from the top down, barely able to remember one critical question:

"Tsuruya-kun, could I have your phone number? You should have mine, too - that way you can call me ahead of time instead of getting into situations like today."

She giggled, ducking her head slightly. "Probably a good idea," she agreed. "Still, I do wonder how your uncle Kintaro got my number?"

"Er ... he probably called Asahina-san," Kyon answered, feeling a bit guilty about being untruthful, but mostly distracted by the smooth skin of Tsuruya's back as he scrubbed.

"That makes sense!" She abruptly moved away from him, before turning around and giving him an unabashed eyeful. "Okay, now I'll scrub your back!"

He felt suddenly that he was in danger of significantly more blood loss than from his just-stitched eyebrow.


	9. Chapter 8

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Filler Arc I

Chapter Eight: Relationship Building

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"File K:3419.8.19/2011.4.21"_

_"...so, I think, maybe, sometimes it might be okay to be a little selfish, as long as you don't jeopardize anything. That's the really hard part, though ... how can you ever tell? I suppose that means erring on the side of caution ... no matter how it hurts. But sometimes ... just a little bit ... it's nice to be selfish."_

_"[CLASSIFIED]" - Peraea Mons T.E.S.A. Dataplume_

* * *

Kyon woke on the floor again, peering up into the eyes of a familiar girl. This was practically becoming a habit, he decided, sitting up and glancing around Yuki's apartment. Mikuru was wearing pajamas, dazedly wobbling in a sitting position while Kanae patted her back. Yuki simply tracked his eyes with her typical level expression, though he thought he caught a hint of some concern in her gaze.

He raised a hand to his right eyebrow, but unsurprisingly the injury had been fixed, the stitches already gone. "Thanks, Nagato," he told her earnestly.

"You were under the influence of a consciousness-altering drug," she said, blinking. "When you did not respond to phone calls I undertook emergency procedures and brought you here."

"Yeah, sorry about that," he said, grimacing. "Ah, some trouble- I'll explain later. Thanks again for taking care of my injuries."

She paused, seeming on the verge of saying something ... but merely nodded.

"You alright, Nagato?"

"I am fine," she answered smoothly. He was starting to suspect that she would say that no matter what the truth was, so gave her a considering stare.

"Are you sure?"

Her mouth opened, then closed, and her head lowered slightly, the faintest furrowing of her brows showing deeper consideration. "...uncertain," she finally allowed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She blinked, straightening up and giving a minuscule nod. "Error-correction session is prepared. A higher than usual amount of junk-data was created earlier today." She paused, her pupils dilating the tiniest amount before she blinked again, adding, "Error is likely to occur within five minutes. The session will also take longer to resolve."

"Fine," he said quickly. "But, Nagato, I don't like the way you patiently wait for my okay to take care of yourself. This is important! If you need it to happen, I'm always willing to help you! I owe you much more than you ever let on..."

She blinked, and though she didn't physically react otherwise, he was certain some small amount of tension drained from her. "Kanae-chan?" he asked, looking at the other two girls. "Asahina-san? Do you agree?"

"Absolutely!" Kanae replied without hesitation.

Mikuru blinked snapping out of her daze. "Oh! Er, yes, of course!" she agreed, looking a bit bewildered. "Anything!"

"...understood," Nagato allowed, the tiniest, nearly invisible hints of a smile touching the corners of her mouth before reality exploded away yet again.

* * *

He woke again, head reeling with the 'extended' session. He didn't want to think how much longer in 'relative time' he'd spent in training with Nagato. If the average session was a 'short' single year...

Blinking, he realized he was staring at the ceiling of another unfamiliar room ... though details began to trickle back into place. Last night, he'd taken a bath with Tsuruya, though the blood loss from his injury kept him from reacting embarrassingly ... except to get very light-headed. He'd tried his best not to stare at the girl, but she was totally unabashed, completely uncaring. True to her words, she had scrubbed his back in return without hesitation, and then carefully washed his hair so he wouldn't get any shampoo or soap in his wound.

After that, she'd led him to her room, where two futons had been set up side-by-side. He was wearing a light robe, one that matched Tsuruya's ... and evidently in the middle of the night at some point, she'd rolled over onto his futon and wrapped her arms around him. She slept with her hair done up in a pair of buns on either side of her head, probably so she wouldn't pull her hair when she shifted about.

As he stared at her in bewilderment, his eyes tracking down to where her robe was left open by her slumbering movements- He quickly looked away, fighting down a surge of panic. Okay, light-headed from blood loss and following his future self's orders was one thing ... but this ... _this_ was the kind of thing that would cause Haruhi to level most of the city, and that was probably before closed space or her powers came into the picture.

"Nyaa~!" Tsuruya drawled, stretching, rubbing her cheek against his chest as she woke up. "Mmm!" she enthused, tilting her head up and languidly blinking at him with her eternally-present smile. "G'mornin', Kyon-kun!"

"Er... Um, good morning, Tsuruya-kun," he managed as she sat up, releasing him. What should he say in this situation!? 'Thank you for last night?' Maybe something flattering? The words that actually spilled from his mouth were, "Did you rest well?"

"Pretty good!" she said, pulling her robe closed the rest of the way and climbing to her feet to stretch again. "Though, I had a funny thought that Kyon-kun suddenly vanished last night." She frowned, touching one fingertip to her lower lip and pondering. "Maybe a dream- Ah! Kyon-kun! Your bandage is gone!"

"Er, I'm a quick healer," he assured her, touching a fingertip to where the stitches had been and climbing to his own feet.

"Ooh!" she enthused, grinning brightly and leaning close to stare at the spot where his injury was. "Mega-awesome healing factor," she cheered. "I'm glad! I'd feel all kinds of bad if you got really hurt taking care of mes!"

"Aha," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head before he was nearly doubled-over by a sharp pain and a simultaneous gurgling noise from his stomach. "Ugh," he wheezed, wincing. "So ... hungry..."

"No problem!" Tsuruya said, as brightly as ever. She traipsed to the door and slid it open a crack, calling out, "Heyas, make a nice big breakfast for me and Kyon-kun, okies? Ooh, also, are his clothes clean?"

She nodded at someone he couldn't see through the doorway and took a bundle of cloth into her arms, sliding the door shut with one foot then spinning around and presenting it to him. He accepted it, realizing it was his school uniform. Humming to herself, Tsuruya went to one of the seemingly identical panels around the room and slid it to one side, revealing a dresser. She nonchalantly collected her underclothes and school uniform for the day and dropped her robe to the floor.

He quickly spun away, too self-conscious to do the same, pulling his boxer shorts on before dropping the robe to the floor and dressing. To his surprise, even his tie had been washed. He spent a long moment consulting the emergency reference card he left in his wallet to correctly re-knot the tie, and turned around just as Tsuruya was letting her hair down. She glanced back at him, smiling as he finished adjusting his tie.

"Onwards to breakfast!" she declared, seizing his wrist and hauling him through the doorway, into the rest of the house.

* * *

After eating enough sumptuous fare to feel like a total glutton, Kyon was somewhat surprised to see that Tsuruya had eaten just as eagerly. "Ah, good, good," she decided, leaning back and patting her stomach. "Mmm, school isn't for a bit, did you want to walk the grounds with me before it starts?"

He thought back to the flower viewing ... the Tsuruya estate did have some very nice trees; he could only imagine it took an army of gardeners to manage. "Actually," he realized with a wince, "I'm supposed to meet with Haruhi at the clubroom early - I need to study for a test today."

"Okies!" she said brightly. "I'll go with yous! Sound good, nyoro~?"

"Shouldn't be a problem," he agreed after mulling it over. She beamed him a smile and they left her estate together on foot after she had summoned a pair of bentos as though by magic, snapping her fingers and having a maid scurry into the room to offer them.

"You know, Tsuruya-kun," he remarked with a sidelong glance at her, "I'm worried Haruhi might get the wrong idea if she hears that I stayed with you last night."

"Ah, Haru-nyan's not going to mind," she replied cheerfully. "You were a perfect gentleman, and I'll gladly tell her sos!"

"Um," he managed, wincing. "Well, Haruhi aside, while we've got some relatively private time, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Ooh?" Tsuruya mused, blinking quickly, her cheeks taking on a pink tinge. "What's that, Kyon-kun?"

"Those yakuza saw us yesterday ... and they seem pretty mad about last Sunday. So, we're probably going to see more of them - and that's really going to hurt us." He shook his head. "I'm not sure about myself, but Manabe said your name, too. Since we just left them all behind, he probably told them everything he knows about us."

"That's true," Tsuruya murmured, gazing upward thoughtfully, her blush fading. "Well, yous should be okay; they won't get anything but your nickname, anyway. As for me, well, I've got Kyon-kun right now! But what's the question?"

"This is the yakuza," Kyon said, shaking his head. "My mom's giving me grief just because she thinks I'm behaving like a delinquent anyway ... I think her speech was about letting the police handle things like they were supposed to, and staying out of trouble when I can. I don't want to be a quitter, but do you think we should maybe ... leave this to the professionals?"

Tsuruya's smile vanished as she slowed to a halt, staring at her feet. "I'm not allowed to give up," she said quietly. "Um... I'm not really supposed to talks about things like this, but I trust Kyon-kun, so..." She looked up and fixed her eyes upon his sharply. "I can't ask you to keep going if you needs to stop. I didn't mean for Kyon-kun to be hurt, or get in trouble..." She bit her lower lip, her extended fang making the expression a tiny bit silly. "So... My family is ninkyo dantai, too." He blinked, vaguely recognizing the term that he had once heard yakuza called themselves, which literally meant, 'chivalrous organization'.

Clearing her throat, she gazed upwards and added, "The police call us 'boryokudan'." He nodded, recognizing that to mean, 'violence group'. "I thinks my family is ninkyo dantai ... but those fellows from Sunday and last night ... they're part of the Sumiyoshi-rengo, and I thinks of them as boryokudan. My family is part of the Yamaguchi-gumi." She lowered her gaze to meet his before looking down and giving a solemn bow. "Sorries, I don't let people knows about this, usually, but you deserve the truth."

"I see," he said, nodding hesitantly. Admittedly, his first thought on seeing Tsuruya's home was to wonder what kind of crimes her family must commit... "Er, but, that doesn't change my perception of you, Tsuruya-kun," he added quickly. "The Yamaguchi-gumi are the ones responsible for most of the relief and aid efforts after the Kobe earthquake, right? I agree with you; that's absolutely much more ninkyo dantai!"

Her smile returned easily, but more weakly. "This is my trials," she said, apologetically. "To see if I'm a worthy heir."

Kyon blinked, realizing the severity of the seemingly innocent request the maid had relayed from the Tsuruya family head, and its genuine implications. "You're not allowed to get help from within your family?" he asked.

She shook her head, her hair swaying behind her. "Kasai was helping me," she said ruefully. "Um, but don't you worries! I'll be okay!"

"Well..." He hesitated. Getting involved with organized crime ... his mother would _love_ to hear about that, he was certain. "You'll be as okay as I can help you be," he decided. His future self had _still_ seen fit to get him involved. "I never said I wanted to abandon you to face this on your own; I just said we might both consider getting out together. If that's not an option, well..." What kind of man would he be to make her face this alone, advice from the future or not?

Tsuruya's eyes lit up and she dropped her schoolbag, flinging herself at him in a big hug. "I'm so glad!" she enthused, as he reflexively hugged her back. "I'm not allowed to ask for helps for me, but I'll make sure your family is okay - even if I have to yell and scream, okies?"

He glanced around at the other occasional passers-by, thankfully no other students from their school. Patting her on the back as she released him, beaming a brighter smile than usual, he admitted, "I wish I could say that you shouldn't do that ... but I don't want my family, or anyone else from the brigade to get caught up in this if we can help it, so ... thank you very much, Tsuruya-kun."

"Absolutely," she agreed, nodding. "Sos, in that case, would you be willing to come with me and meet my father?" she asked, traces of anxiety showing in her eyes. "Um, today after school, maybes, so we can make sure your family is safe?"

"Yes," he agreed, remembering his future self's message. What an idiot he was to assume it meant to take a _bath_ with Tsuruya; no wonder his future self was amused at how stupidly he had reacted. "Of course, Tsuruya-kun." He prayed silently that it wouldn't involve abandoning Haruhi, especially after how his mother had shaken the girl up the previous day...

"Is that why your wushuu was weaker?" Tsuruya mused. "You couldn't fights because you were worried about your family?"

"Er, that's not ... quite it," he said, giving a weak smile of his own. "But, I feel confident that I'll be much better at it the next time I have to fight."

* * *

"You're late," Haruhi growled, her expression dark. "I've been waiting for you for five minutes already!"

"Sorry," he said, hanging his head. "Um, something came up."

"Totally not Kyon-kun's fault!" Tsuruya chirped from his side. "I was keeping him with top secret research for our investigation!"

"What are you two doing together so early in the morning?" Haruhi wondered, leading the way towards the school building.

"Oh! Kyon-kun helped me out last night for our investigation," Tsuruya explained, grinning. "He got a bit beat up - my fault! More pushy fellows. I made him stay over to mend his wounds."

That made perfect sense, Haruhi thought. Then realization struck her. "Kyon!" she yelped, spinning to face him. "What about your mother!? She'll flip out if-"

"Asahina-san helped me on that count," he said, shaking his head. "My, uh ... uncle ... stayed in my room last night anyway. So, really, Tsuruya-kun was just helping me keep my mom from seeing how banged up I got."

"And you're not hurt?" she asked anxiously, looking him over for obvious bandages.

"Yeah, Nagato took care of that," he mumbled, glancing at Tsuruya worriedly.

"You know," Tsuruya mused, seemingly oblivious, "Kyon-kun's uncle has the exact sames voice? It's neat when families have hereditary traits!"

"Yeah, I was told I look just like my grandfather when he was my age," Kyon agreed. He suddenly grimaced, muttering, "I hope that doesn't mean anything."

Haruhi shook her head. "Well, right now," she said, leading the way again, "my primary concern is making sure that Kyon passes his test and stays in the brigade! So while I don't want to shut the investigation down, the test is more important."

"Ooh! I wish I could help with that," Tsuruya said, shaking her head. "Hum... Well! I'll stay out of your ways for now! Haru-nyan, do you mind if I borrow Kyon-kun again today?"

"Again?" Haruhi asked, grimacing. "Hmm... The math test is after lunch, so I'd really like to make sure that he spends that time studying. I suppose after school should be alright, though I hope this doesn't keep up much longer."

"Okies! I thinks we can finish our investigation by tomorrow ... maybe it might take a day or two longer?" she pondered, gazing at the sky thoughtfully. "Anyways, we're making really great progress! You'll be _mega_ happy with what we'll have for you when it's over, nyoro~!" She blinked, turning her attention to Haruhi before they parted ways for their respective shoe lockers. "Oopsie, I forgot to tell you where Kyon-kun and I met up for your receipt!"

"Receipt?" Kyon asked, glancing at Haruhi and smirking. "Ah, don't worry, Tsuruya-kun, I'll tell her."

"Ah! Thankie, Kyon-kun!" Tsuruya cheered, waving brightly before she twirled, her hair flaring behind her as she dashed away.

"So-" Haruhi asked, breaking off when she saw Kyon furtively try to hide a note from his shoe locker in his blazer pocket. "Ah! What's that?!"

"Nothing," he lied quickly, pushing a small box deeper into his shoe locker and dropping his shoes to the floor.

"Oh, okay," she said, nodding, then turning away to change her shoes. She calculated the few seconds it would take him to stash the box in his pocket, since his schoolbag was nowhere in sight, gambling that whatever it was, he wouldn't leave it behind where someone else might find it. By the time she had changed her shoes and turned back, he had the almost-concealed smug expression of managing to pull one over on her. She pursed her lips, resisting the urge to smirk and give herself away.

"Anyway," she said, walking by his side on the way to the club room, "what happened with Tsuruya-san yesterday? And when did she become 'Tsuruya-kun' to you?"

"Yesterday," he said, relaxing, one hand patting his left pocket. Well, that suggested her guess about where the box had gone was accurate. "Or ... technically the day before. Part of the investigation; she said we should be more of equals, instead of sempai and kohai."

"And...?" she prompted, poking his back with a fingertip.

He twisted away from the prod and gave her a sidelong glance. "And what?" he asked. "I already met up with you after that. It's classified."

"Just give me some non-essential details," she pressed. "I'm dying to know what's going on!"

He shook his head resolutely. "No," he insisted. "You solved the mystery that Koizumi came up with last Winter with minimal clues."

"Bah! Well, you still need to tell me where you were yesterday."

"I do?"

She nodded vigorously. "Of course you do," she insisted. "Tsuruya-san is under strict orders to account for all of her Kyon usage until this investigation is complete!"

"Um... Well, we went to a really bad section of town and had a ... dispute with four..." He trailed off, squinting, then smiled, nodding. "Four very pushy fellows. Yeah, that's how she would put it."

"Where did she meet you?" she pressed.

"Downtown," he said with a shrug. "I got a voice mail to help her out just after we split up at the train station."

She nodded, then unlocked the door to the clubroom, swinging it open and gesturing him in. After she had set her bag on the table, she glanced back and frowned. "I forgot to close the door," she noted, "take care of that, huh?"

He scowled, halfway lowered into his seat, but nodded and rose, heading to the portal. With one swift lunge, she swept a kick at the back of his shins, causing him to stumble. "What the hell-" he tried to protest, before she shoved him to the ground and leapt atop him, straddling his back and wrestling to get at his blazer pocket.

"Fork it over!" she demanded, unable to keep from grinning while she used her power to make the door slam shut.

"Why- You- Haruhi!"

He was much more purposeful when he struggled, rolling his arms and shoulders, twisting about and trying to evade her grip. He'd gotten surprisingly stronger, too! Not that it mattered; she could tell he couldn't bring himself to use his full force against her. It was kind of cute, really, but still an easily exploitable weakness. His skill was troublesome though, so she found herself laying flat on his back, one arm snaking beneath him to wend into his blazer pocket.

"You think you can keep something _else_ hidden from me?" she growled.

She knew she was fighting a bit dirty, her breath tickling the back of his neck so he dare not jerk his head back and hit her face. When his lower body began to twist further, she managed to tangle her legs around his, though she felt the motion slide her skirt up ... well, that was why she had closed the door, and it wasn't like _he_ could see anything but the floor.

"Damn it, Haruhi! Let me go! It's none of your business!" She rolled the tangled pair of them to one side to give herself better access to his pocket, just as the door swung open again.

Mikuru backed into the room, humming to herself and carrying a large box with a plastic handle across the top with both hands. "Hello? Is someone here-" she began cautiously, turning around after she set down the box, her eyes widening in shock as she saw the tangled duo.

Before she could yelp and run away as she had last time, Haruhi made the door slam shut and demanded, "Help me, Mikuru-chan! Come here immediately!"

The time traveler boggled, slipping back a half step before the order reached her, and she shook her head. "Y... But... What?" she whimpered.

"Don't listen to her!" Kyon pleaded, desperately grabbing Haruhi's wrist as it thrust towards the note, stopped so close her fingertips could touch the edge of the envelope. "Help me, Asahina-san! Call in the J.S.D.F., or the police! I'm being assaulted! Get me pepper spray, a stun gun - _anything_!"

"Come here!" Haruhi insisted, struggling, but unable to drive her right hand deeper into Kyon's pocket. Her left hand was flat against the floor, providing her leverage and balance. Kyon grunted and managed to roll to one side, able to bring both hands to bear against Haruhi, leaving their noses centimeters apart, her hand slowly being forced from its goal. With tiny, mincing steps, as though she had been ordered into a bonfire, Mikuru crept closer, flinching with each change in the struggle.

"Don't ... let her ... get it," Kyon grated out, Haruhi's right wrist captured in his left hand. His right hand was on her shoulder, slowly lifting her up off him.

"No ... you ... don't," Haruhi growled in return, letting him push her completely upright as Mikuru drew in range, then grabbing the upperclassman's wrist and hauling her unceremoniously to collapse onto Kyon.

"Kya~!" Mikuru wailed, thrashing aimlessly, her chest mashed into Kyon's face. He struggled mightily, legs kicking, hands flailing as he was uncertain where to put them. "S...Suzumiya-san! Why- AAH! K...Kyon-kun - n...not there - OOH!"

Ignoring the time traveler's protests for the moment, Haruhi reoriented herself and thrust her hand into Kyon's blazer again, fishing out the note with a victorious cheer. "Haha!" she cried, leaping away from Kyon and holding it overhead. "Keep him pinned, Mikuru-chan!" she encouraged, tearing open the envelope and unfolding the note within quickly.

She scanned the first line with a wide grin: "Suzumiya-san, this letter isn't for you. Shame!"

Her smile vanished and she scowled at the paper, which other than those clear words was covered with a sequence of probably meaningful symbols, but all she could decipher was a trail of squiggles, stars, and odd whorls and loops until the last line: "And you should apologize to that Mikuru!"

"Oh, damn," she cursed, hauling Mikuru's whimpering form off Kyon. "Well, good work, Mikuru-chan!"

Collapsing back into a kneeling pile, the upperclassman returned an incomprehensible series of sobs. Kyon sucked in a greedy breath, his eyes unfocused, then coughed, gasping to recover.

"Sorry," Haruhi added after a moment, frowning petulantly. "It was still worth a try, though."

"I might have died happy," Kyon managed, dazed.

Mikuru's crying subsided to mere whimpers. "S...Suzumiya-san, why do you do this to me?" she moaned. "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?"

"Don't be silly," Haruhi chastised her. "It was a last-second plan to try and distract Kyon - you used your moe charms perfectly!"

With a wide-eyed blink, the time traveler turned to stare at her, eyes still watery.

"Ah, okay, okay," Haruhi allowed, wincing. "I'm sorry, Mikuru-chan - but it was Kyon! Not some stranger this time, right?"

"I...if it was Kyon, I don't mind so much," Mikuru agreed hesitantly, though she was still blushing and her face was marked with tears.

"Arg! I just don't like being left behind!" Haruhi stamped one foot angrily on the floor for emphasis. "I should have known that time travelers wouldn't let me see anything I wasn't supposed to."

"Damn it, Haruhi!" Kyon protested, seeming to come back to his senses as he sat up and gave her a sharp stare. "What was that all about!?"

"Oh, why are you complaining?" she retorted. "You had two very attractive girls all over you _and_ you got a face full of Mikuru-chan's bountiful assets!" She narrowed her eyes and leaned towards Kyon. "What, you think that was bad, or something?"

"Er, well," he managed, suddenly deflated, before he shook his head and gave her a stern look. "What about Asahina-san's feelings? Doesn't that strike you as being thoughtless to her?"

"It's ... okay," Mikuru managed, hunching in on herself where she sat on the floor. Her face reddened further and she stared intently at the space between her knees. "Um, if it's Kyon-kun..."

He stared at her, confused, obviously trying to puzzle things out.

"Right, see?" Haruhi said insistently. "Anyway, Kyon, you and _I_ were much closer than that." Which reminded her... She spent a moment smoothing her skirt back down. "Now, what's this letter mean, anyway?" she asked, handing it to the boy.

He remained sitting on the floor, puzzling over it briefly, then shook his head. "It's not for you and one of us should apologize to Asahina-san," he told her.

"Well, I know _that_. I want to know what the squiggles mean!"

Shrugging, he offered the note to Mikuru. "Um, Asahina-san, I'm really sorry about that," he added.

"Notes," Haruhi declared, turning her attention to her schoolbag, while Mikuru hesitantly accepted the paper and scanned the message. Her notes were in the top, neatly organized, so she got those out. Where was Kyon's schoolbag, anyway? Had he brought nothing but a bento with him?

Mikuru hesitantly said, "Um, I'm not certain, Kyon-kun ... it says you should go to the usual place you read your messages? Something will be waiting for you there? And you should take the box with you? What box?"

"Make it quick," Haruhi ordered. "You've still got to study!"

"Yeah, yeah," he groused, rising to stand and helping Mikuru to her feet before striding into the hallway. "Don't worry; I've got the box ... as long as it wasn't crushed earlier."

"Quick!" she demanded again, as he closed the door. "Man," she sighed, shaking her head and turning to Mikuru. "That guy!"

"He's ... not bad," Mikuru said hesitantly from her spot on the floor, looking up with watery eyes. "Not at all!"

"Ack, turn the moe down!" Haruhi protested. "I have no idea how Kyon manages to keep himself from running off with you, but if you don't get that under control, I'll do it myself!"

Mikuru squeaked, leaping to her feet and rubbing at her eyes with her handkerchief quickly. "N...no, no," she said quickly, shaking her head. "I'll be good! I'm not getting in your way! Y...you shouldn't go too far like that!"

"I hate that quitter's attitude," Haruhi grumbled, shaking her head, then glancing to the box that the older girl had left by the doorway. "Anyway, what's in the box, Mikuru-chan?"

"Oh!" Mikuru said, smiling already. "Um, yesterday afternoon, Kyon-kun met me, um, hmm... Not long after class got out, was it? He was waiting by the train station when I got off and he asked if I needed help with anything! I'd been putting it off for a while, but I decided that since Kyon-kun was there I'd get a new sewing machine!"

Haruhi stared at Mikuru. "You didn't think about the fact that he was supposed to be talking with his parents?" she asked, pulling out her cell phone and texting Kyon.

"Well..." Mikuru began.

* * *

Kyon's 'usual spot' for reading notes found in the shoe locker was the boy's bathroom - last stall. If Mikuru didn't remember leaving him the note, it was obviously the older Mikuru who had left it. And the box that he hadn't found the time to open. He was just contemplating opening it when his cell notified him of an incoming text: "You meet with Mikuru yesterday at her train station after school. You owe me big time!"

"Thanks, Haruhi," he muttered at the message as he stepped into the unlocked stall, almost mashing his face into a very familiar chest again.

"I thought you said mine were bigger?" the older Mikuru asked with a pout, undoing the top two buttons of her shirt. "And look, the star-shaped mole - she doesn't have one of those, does she?"

He blinked, staring at the cleavage in question before forcing his eyes up to meet hers. She was amused despite the pout, eyes narrowed in mirth, still dressed in the white blouse and miniskirt, though she was wearing outdoor shoes. His own indoor shoes were going to be ruined soon, he deduced. "Lately," he said without preamble, "it seems that every other thing that happens to me is right out of the pages of a poorly plotted ero manga."

She blinked at him in confusion. "Ah ... I think we should start this conversation over?"

He slapped himself, shaking his head to clear it. "Yes," he agreed. "Sorry. It's been a strange day- Make that week. Even by life-with-Haruhi standards. Um ... I'm guessing it's a critical issue if you're here?"

"A small thing," she said in answer, smiling at him again. "But somewhat critical, yes."

"Where do I start?" he asked.

She pointed at the box he was holding in his right hand. "Open it up," she said.

He shrugged and pocketed the cell phone, folding the box's lid back and peering inside. Other than some crumpled paper for padding, the only thing within was a wrist watch with a leather strap. "Um, thanks," he said, lifting it out and staring at it. Who used a watch these days anyway? Everyone could tell time with their cell phones, only children and folks like ... Mikuru... "Oh! Is this like the watch you wear?" He turned his eyes to hers curiously.

She nodded brightly. "That's right," she told him. "You know we can't bring things back ... that's forbidden. But these work with modern technology from this era, so I wish it could be nicer, but it should still be useful for you anyway."

Nodding, he put it on his left wrist after a moment of consideration, realizing that his cell phone would work for that, too... Then again, he might need to shut his phone off at times, so having a backup would ultimately be for the best.

"Well, that's the critical thing at the moment," she said, nodding. "Now, will you come with me?"

"Er, okay," he agreed, nodding. "But I'm not sure I understand...?"

"Don't worry about it," she said, shaking her head and placing her hands on his shoulders. "I'll show you. Now, close your eyes?"

"Right..." That familiar, unsettling lurch of time travel. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in an alley not far from a train station, the position of the sun... He gave up trying to figure it out, remembering he had been given a watch for just that reason. "Now we're back to yesterday, not long after school," he observed, marveling at the mechanical hands as they adjusted themselves to the present time, and the small digital display giving the day, month, and year corrected itself as well.

"Exactly right!"

"Nice. Thanks, Asahina-san. I appreciate this. Does it do anything else?" Very likely it let them track him, but considering he had no way to move through time on his own, that didn't bother him.

"Hmm, well, this is where I leave you for today," she answered with a smile. "You'll have to ask my younger self any other questions you might have. And I'm afraid that my identity is still classified to her." At his sharp look, she ducked her head slightly. "Okay, I'll give you something good to keep that secret..." She trailed off with a giggle, closing in to plant another electrifying kiss on his lips. "Now, take good care of that younger Mikuru~!"

"Bwah," he managed, recovering his senses after she had gone - again. Some day, he resolved, he was going to point out that they hadn't had whatever first kiss she thought she was following up on.

It was a low priority item, but some day.

Absolutely.

Still somewhat dazed, he wandered out of the alley and towards the train station. "Right," he realized, seeing that the next train wouldn't be in for several minutes. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and frowned. His other self would just be getting off at a different station with Kanae and Haruhi. He hadn't received any calls, but even so...

Scrolling through his phone history, he made an entry in the address book for Mori, then double-checked Tsuruya's before finding Koizumi and calling the esper up. "Hello?" Koizumi answered after a single ring. "This is Koizumi!"

"Hey, Koizumi," he greeted the other boy. "Listen, would it be problematic if I were to call Mori-san and ask for a favor?"

"I ... don't suppose it would be problematic to speak with her," Koizumi said after a moment of thoughtful hesitation. "But, what kind of favor?"

Remembering what Mori had mentioned in the car, he explained, "I'm going to have the Tamaru brothers pulled from watching Asahina-san and moved over to watch Tsuruya-kun; she's going to need it."

"Um ... that's ... very delicate territory for the Organization, as I understand it," Koizumi began apologetically. "I don't know that I could reasonably relay that request... Er, that is, I can ask for you, but it seems likely that she would refuse to help."

"Hmm, you're probably right," he realized with a frown. "Well, in that case, I have to take care of something else. Sorry for the trouble, but thanks, Koizumi."

"No trouble at all!" the esper assured cheerfully. "If you need anything else, call me any time!"

"I will," he promised, realizing that ironically enough, it would happen later that day...

After disconnecting, he pulled up Mori's number and dialed it.

"H...hello?" she answered, sounding a bit unsettled. "Sir?"

"Yeah, hey," he said, glancing around the train station, where a few other folks were having their own conversations with cell phones. "This is a bit last minute, but I'm concerned about Tsuruya-kun. I need you to pull the Tamaru brothers from watching Asahina-san and have them keep an eye on Tsuruya-kun for me."

"H...how do you know who's on assignment?!" she asked in response. "How did you get this number!?"

"Classified," he returned, dropping his volume and scanning for eavesdroppers. "But trust me; if you don't do this, something could happen to damage the Organization's relationship with the most powerful ninkyo dantai family in town. If that's too much for you, just watch her and I'll take care of things myself." He reviewed what he had just said, and restrained the urge to slap himself again. Did he just say 'ninkyo dantai' aloud in public?

"...very well, Sir," she grudgingly agreed. "But this is all on your head if it goes wrong."

"Yep," he agreed, hanging up and sighing before shutting off his phone.

"Kyon-kun?" a familiar voice from behind him asked in surprise.

* * *

Mikuru stared in surprise, not expecting to see Kyon there when she reached her train station. She smiled weakly, tilting her head to one side. "Is something wrong?" she asked in concern, looking closely at his face. "I thought you were going to speak with your parents? And what's that mark on one cheek?"

"It's nothing," he assured her. "I, uh ... slipped. Anyway, my father doesn't get home until late this evening, so, judgment has been delayed."

"What about Suzumiya-san?" she pressed, worried.

"Everything's taken care of," he said with a grin. "Actually, I'm here to see you." Her heart gave a tiny excited lurch.

"M...me?" she managed in reply, unable to meet his eyes. "W...what's going on? Do we need to go somewhere? And when?" she asked, looking around the train station. There were far too many people here... There was a nearby alley that might be subtle enough, but she was a bit scared of the idea of walking into such a place so openly.

"Um, nothing like that," he said, shaking his head quickly and frowning. "Man, I'm starting to depend really heavily on everyone... That can't be good. Um, for today, I'm standing in for the Organization folks who usually watch over you," he explained, ducking his head slightly. "I'm not much good at being a shadowy watcher, or whatever, so I thought I'd see if we could walk together, or if there was anything I could help you with."

She had thought Koizumi's associates might have been tracking her, but she wasn't actually certain before. She tried not to think about it; she had Kyon's attention for the moment, not theirs. "If Kyon-kun isn't too busy, there is something I could use help with," she said hesitantly. "Um, it's a bit of shopping, if that's not too much trouble...?"

He spread his arms in a shrug and grinned. "If that's all you need, no problem," he assured her. "I'd be glad to help you out. What are you looking for?"

She smiled softly and turned away, beckoning him to follow. He fell into step at her side with no hesitation, hands in his pockets casually. Trying to be a bit subtle about it, she looked at him sidelong. His uniform was nearly immaculate, as though he'd put it on and not even sat down for a day of school. Lately, he had seemed drained of energy, due to their recent late night training sessions with Nagato. After a minute of study, she realized he was walking slightly differently, shoulders a bit more relaxed, chin slightly higher. Other than the already fading mark across one cheek, he looked ... really good.

A part of her hoped that everyone around them got the mistaken impression they were a young couple out on a date. Her best chances at _that_ had derailed into a long explanation on her true self and the nature of time-planes, or 'important missions' from her superiors. While she was glad she could be as honest with Kyon as her conditioning allowed, it also bothered her the way his eyes had initially gone distant once she told him it was only because of Haruhi's presence that she was around.

She resisted the temptation to take his arm in hers. At the moment, he seemed relaxed but energetic. She hadn't been feeling _quite_ as exhausted lately, and Kanae seemed to be holding up better, too... But Kyon had an awful lot of energy left, for someone who had just finished a full day of school.

"You seem livelier these days," she finally judged, giving him a happy smile. "I'm glad for you!"

"Some days are better than others," he agreed, nodding. "Today might have its difficulties for me, but it's going pretty well for me just now."

"I like that! It's very positive. Are you, um, working with Koizumi-kun's Organization, now?" she asked, as the crowds near them thinned out, granting a small degree of privacy.

He smirked at something and shook his head. "Not really," he replied. "Some of our goals overlap. I'm all about the SOS Brigade - you know that."

"Really?" she asked doubtfully.

He glanced at her and removed his hands from his pockets, spreading them in a helpless shrug. "Okay, you got me," he admitted. "For me, it's the people who are in the brigade. Call it what you will; I'm a sucker for the anime cliche. You know, friends to the end, that kind of thing?"

She giggled, shaking her head. "That sounds better," she agreed. "What's wrong with that?"

"Mmm, nothing, I guess."

She shook her head again, giving him a smile before gesturing to a large storefront. The outside windows were filled with swaths of cloth, sewing supplies, and layouts of do-it-yourself clothing patterns. "Um, I'd like to get some things from here."

He raised an eyebrow, scanning around as they stepped inside. High shelves were covered with full bolts of cloth, and at a glance, he was the only remotely male figure in the entire store, aside from a mannequin in a heavy winter coat, obviously still up from the last sale, and overdue to be redressed or put into storage. "Sure," he said, shrugging. "This is stuff you know much better than I do, so I hope you don't mind if I just carry things for you?"

Embarrassingly enough, that was what she had wanted his help for more than anything else. "That's no trouble!" she assured him, leading the way to the back, where the sewing machines were. "Do you think Suzumiya-san will mind if I keep a sewing machine in the club room? I wanted to get an over-locking sewing machine to make things faster than I can by hand, but my place is a bit crowded..."

He scratched his head, looking around at the display models. "As long as you used it, I think she'd most likely approve of it," he said slowly. "But, keep in mind, she'll also probably take it as an excuse to have you make even more costumes!"

"T...that's okay," she said, turning to examine one of the more compact designs. "Um... I'm ... allowed to learn all about current techniques for sewing, cooking ... that sort of thing."

"Allowed?" he mused. She winced; that probably should have been classified. "So, it's research for your superiors?"

"A bit," she admitted, moving to the next model. "They don't ... really think it's that important, but it's one of the things I'm allowed to do."

"I don't like the way that sounds," he said after a moment. "I understand that you have to be careful to make sure that predetermined events aren't altered, and things like that... But at the extent where you can't do anything on your own?"

"The future can be very delicate," she mumbled, repeating the rhetoric she had been given herself so often. "Personal indulgences should never jeopardize causality."

"You're more like Nagato than I realized," Kyon mumbled, looking away.

"What?! I don't..." She bit her lip, staring at the floor. But he thought highly of the alien, didn't he? Surely he couldn't have meant it as an insult. "How do you mean?"

"Er, sorry," he sighed, rubbing at his temples. "That was the wrong thing to say. You said once that you thought that Nagato envied you because she knew too much?"

Mikuru nodded, finally settling on an economical over-lock sewing machine, and struggling to pull it free from the boxes around it.

"Let me," Kyon insisted, reaching over her and grabbing the plastic handle across the top of one of the boxes, lifting it easily one-handed.

"Ah, thanks," she managed. "Um, even though it's different, I think I can understand why she's anxious. Sometimes, I do know enough about a mission's details, and knowing isn't much help - it can cause a lot of stress. In Nagato-san's case, wouldn't she know ... everything?"

"Maybe, but that's not the point," he said, shaking his head. "She doesn't, anymore. If you had the choice between knowing nothing at all, or knowing everything, and in either case you had to accomplish some goal, which would you prefer?"

"Actually," she said hesitantly, "I wouldn't mind knowing _nothing_, if I was going to accomplish the goal anyway. In that case, wouldn't knowing anything just be a burden? If I was absolutely certain of success, then I would agree that ignorance is bliss. It's the uncertainty that bothers me so much."

He blinked at her, his mouth dropping open slightly.

"Ah, that sounds stupid," she said fretfully, looking away from his reaction. "Um, I suppose it would be better to know everything?"

"N...no, you're absolutely right," he said, shaking his head. "That's... Wow." He shook his head again, then gestured down the aisle. "That was an insightful and eye-opening observation, Asahina-san."

"Was it really so helpful?" she wondered.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact. But, anyway, the thing of it is this; you and Nagato are both severely limited by your abilities. Right now, she's separate from the IDSE, so she's got less restrictions than usual, but she's also in a lot of danger. I asked her ... you may remember ... during that endless August, if she'd ever done anything 'fun' for herself during the entire series of time loops."

"Of course she hadn't," Mikuru remembered. "But, how is that like ... me?" she managed, the implications sinking in. "Oh ... well ... that's true, isn't it?" She sighed, stopping before a bolt of fabric and running her fingers across it without seeing. "I suppose in a way you're right," she said in a small, nervous voice. "D...did you mean what you told me last Sunday? After Koizumi left and we were alone?"

He didn't meet her eyes. "Well, you know me," he said, shifting his shoulders. "After your dizzy spell?"

Her face flushed, and she managed a nod. "I don't know what came over me," she admitted. "It seemed a familiar sensation, for some reason..."

"Er, probably low blood sugar," he reasoned, nodding quickly. "Best not to dwell on it."

"Perhaps you're right. Um, but I remember what you said, about ... making my own impressions in the world, and I wonder if it can really be done?"

"That's absolutely already happened," he returned, grinning. "Say ... when we nailed that can to the ground?"

She nodded, her face heating up again.

"Well, even if you want to say it was me doing it, I never would have if you hadn't translated those instructions. Even though the initiative may have been provided by the future, without you, that event never could have happened!"

Sometimes, she thought, his relative ignorance of the mechanics of temporal physics made him something of an idiot savant. She could think of twelve laws that refuted his explanation, but they were all smashed aside by the reality that as far as she could tell, he was _right_. It should have been impossible for the events that she had participated in last December, too... Though, that recollection became immediately hazy every time she tried to focus on anything except for Kyon's injuries. And those ... she did not like to focus on at all.

"That's just what you said last Sunday," she said, smiling weakly. "And, um... That's what I want! I mean, I'm not ... very helpful, or reliable ... I'm nothing like Nagato-san, or even Koizumi-kun... I'd like some day to be the Mikuru who rescues you, not the one who ... well." She sighed and hung her head.

"I'm not sure where you're going with this but I can tell you with absolute certainty that you're wrong," he said resolutely. "You're much stronger than you give yourself credit for, especially to handle as much as you do without knowing the reasons behind it."

"You really think so?" she asked hopefully, bringing her head up and nervously meeting his eyes.

He nodded, looking around the store. "I know it. Um, anyway, you never seem very happy when you talk about your work. So, sorry if I was bothering you."

"It's no bother!" she said, giving him a smile she didn't fully feel. "I'm just always afraid I'll say the wrong thing and only say 'classified information' instead of something genuinely helpful."

"Really?" he mused. "Over the last few days, I've come to develop a whole new level of respect for the phrase, to be honest."

"There is a limit to the novelty," she said, shaking her head. "You can't think it's fun to want to explain something to someone and be forbidden, do you?"

"No," he admitted, grimacing again. "I didn't think of that. Well, let's talk about something more cheerful?"

"Okay," she agreed. "What would you like to discuss?"

"Ah ... so, what else are you looking for here?" he asked, glancing around.

"Um, some pattern paper, maybe?" she mused. "I'll need more pins ... and more cloth, for certain..." She looked around the store again, trying to decide where she would go next. "Um, or did you want to leave?" she worried aloud, turning to look at him with concern. Making him spend so long listening to her speak of such things at a sewing supply store ... surely there were things he'd rather be doing with his time.

"Hey, I asked if there was anything I could help you with," he told her, grinning. "This is better than buying tea because of mysterious instructions or getting into another fight." He winced when he caught her flinch at that remark. "Ah, nevermind that," he said quickly, shaking his head. "Suffice to say that I don't mind helping you at all."

She knew she should just thank him politely and finish her shopping, but she just couldn't forget what they had spoken of after parting with Koizumi that fateful Sunday, where Kyon had told Haruhi everything. She spent a long minute struggling with what she should do, feeling her face heat up as she dithered. She practically leapt in shock when he tapped her shoulder, leaning towards her with concern in his eyes.

"You okay?" he asked. His concern turned to irritation. "More orders from the future?"

"N...no," she managed, shaking her head quickly. He relaxed visibly and she realized she had been running her fingertips over the same piece of cloth over and over for several minutes.

"J...just thinking," she said, taking the bolt - she didn't even know what it was, but if she didn't do something to distract herself from her embarrassment she was going to do something she'd regret. "Could you carry this for me?" she asked, not meeting his eyes.

"Anything for you," he agreed. She wished and hoped she could ask him what he meant by that ... what the complete implications were. But she knew it was an impossible dream, and even if it _were_ possible, with Haruhi...

Mumbling a nervous thanks to the boy, she strolled around the store, unable to bring herself to speak on anything else for fear of causing what she knew would only be trouble later, while he struggled to strike up a conversation about anything. After buying far more cloth than she could ever feasibly need, and further burdening Kyon with it all, they finally left the store.

"Where next?" Kyon asked, glancing at his wristwatch briefly.

"Let's drop this off at my place," she said hesitantly.

He nodded and followed her the three blocks to her studio, a single-room apartment not far from the train station. After letting him in, he kicked off his shoes and unburdened himself in the corner she directed, before he took a look around, studying her temporary home. She felt embarrassed, even though everything was neat and orderly. Her futon was folded away, she didn't have a television, and the only furniture of note was her desk and a second-hand kotatsu.

Still, she had managed to behave so far. "Well," he said, when the silence began to drag uncomfortably, only punctuated by a growling stomach, "is there anything else I can help you with, Asahina-san?"

Her resolve snapped, and she blurted out, "Let me treat you to dinner to thank you!"

* * *

"Um... After he dropped off the sewing machine, he went home to speak with his father," Mikuru said, nodding.

Haruhi studied the other girl thoughtfully, catching the nervous hesitation in her answer. She raised an eyebrow. "Really?" she asked. "Is that all?"

Mikuru nodded quickly again, though Haruhi was certain she saw a sheen of nervous sweat on her forehead. Oh, yes, she decided, narrowing her eyes at the time traveler. Kyon was going to answer for this. The only way he could possibly be in two places at once yesterday was with time travel ... and that meant an abuse of power, despite all of his warnings to her. As soon as she figured out how he had time traveled without letting the brigade's only time traveler know.


	10. Chapter 9

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Filler Arc II

Chapter Nine: Family Matters

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"File K:3453.3.5/2011.4.22"_

_"...then push the stack representing the focus shift in prio research target. Due to the complexity of interaction with this particular model, an automated property will top your stack every two minutes if you do not pop or [CLASSIFIED]. Do not attempt to adjust this; it is for your own safety! For the remainder of this lesson, you will need to utilize your augmented reality context-tags, or relay queries to me. Oh! And before this comes up? No, I will _**_not_**_ ask [CLASSIFIED] to autograph anything for you."_

_"[CLASSIFIED]" - Peraea Mons T.E.S.A. Dataplume_

* * *

Kyon looked at Mikuru sidelong. She'd been acting a bit nervous the entire time they had been together ... which seemed mostly to be in keeping from the first time he had thought she had asked him out on a 'date', but too anxious for the week in February that two of her had existed simultaneously. It would have been nicer if she'd offered to cook for him, but given the relatively cramped conditions of her apartment, he could understand her reluctance to do so.

"Um, sure," he said, rolling his shoulders and then stretching his arms, a bit stiff after all of the lugging he had done for her. Then he shook his head, "No, wait - why do you have to treat me? Let me treat you."

"But..." She sighed, looking downcast. "That's no different than usual," she mumbled. "So, um, please, let me treat you?"

"What do you mean it's no different?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

"Er, that is ... um ... well, you always have to treat all of us," she explained, ducking her head. "So, that doesn't seem fair. Please?"

He loosed a weak chuckle and nodded. "Alright," he agreed. "If it's important to you, then I can't say no. Well, where should we go, then?"

"Ah..." She stared at him blankly, then giggled in embarrassment. "I didn't even think of that, but, um ... do you like udon?"

"Udon's good," he agreed. A bowl of noodles would hit the spot, even though from his perspective, it would be just before lunch ... had he not unexpectedly been taken back in time most of an entire day. "You know a good place around here?"

She nodded brightly. "I do! Ariyake-san has a shop just down the street, and I try and go at least once a week!"

"Sounds good," he agreed, checking his watch. "Um, did you want me to wait outside so you could change, or...?"

"You're in your uniform, too, so it should be fine, right?" she asked, shaking her head.

"True enough." He really had to stop getting caught in his uniform so much... Even with the amazing bloodstain removal skills of Tsuruya's servants, something else that he tried not to think about too hard, he was going to wear it out long before the year was over. Possibly even before it was time to switch to summer uniforms, at the current rate.

He stepped out of the apartment first, and she closed and locked it behind them before giving him a bright smile and leading the way down the street towards a noodle stall. After they had taken seats on the stools beneath the curtain, the elderly proprietor greeted the girl like a long-lost granddaughter. She cheerfully introduced him by his nickname.

"Ah, is this the boy I've heard so much about?" the old man asked, a dangerous glint in his eyes as he turned his gaze towards Kyon.

"Um, yes," she admitted, her face turning red as she looked down, unable to meet either gaze.

The old man gave a friendly chuckle, but his eyes looked even more menacing towards Kyon. "Well, I'm sure he'll take good care of you!" he said cheerfully, mouthing a silent, "or else" at the end. "Now, what can I get you, Asahina-chan? And yourself, Kyon-san?"

"Um, my usual, please," she said, looking up. "Oh, Kyon-kun, you should try the seafood udon - it's quite good, but usually too much for me!"

"That sounds great," he managed in response, watching the old man warily. Not that he didn't understand the urge to protect Mikuru at any expense himself, but the old man didn't need to be creepy about it...

"Right away," the old man agreed. Before he set to work, he set a small tray of freshly steamed buns on the counter between them, adding, "On the house for you and your date, Asahina-chan!"

Kyon smiled, restraining the urge to cringe away from Mikuru's inevitable correction that they weren't on a date. "Thank you!" she said, her cheeks still pink with a blush as she gave Kyon a shy smile of her own.

She was able to read the confusion on his face and leaned a little towards him when the old man turned away, whispering, "I...it's okay to pretend just this once, right?"

"More than just this once would be fine with me," he said. He bit his tongue, then realized that his slip would be harmless; Haruhi would be eating with his past self at that moment. No chance she would stumble across this! He was half tempted to add a comment that she didn't need to pretend, either, but she was so nervous there was no reason to alarm her.

She brightened even further. "I'm glad!" she cheered. "It only seems right that I pay you back for all the work you did for me today!"

He nodded thoughtfully, taking one of the still-warm buns and sampling it cautiously. No filling, but they were well-made, he decided. He watched the old man on the other side of the counter hum as he stirred and mixed various ingredients, and absently reached for another bun, freezing when he realized that Mikuru was doing the same, and their hands touched. "Ah, sorry," he said, chuckling.

"N...no problem," she assured him. For a heartbeat, it seemed as though she was going to say something else, before-

"Your orders," the old man said abruptly, breaking the moment before it could progress and setting an over-sized bowl before each of them.

Why did Mikuru look briefly annoyed at the old man, Kyon wondered, as he offered his thanks and prepared to eat.

* * *

After walking Mikuru back to her apartment, Kyon agreed to meet with her again in the morning to help carry the sewing machine to school. He wasn't certain how it would end up working out that she didn't seem to realize there were, at least temporarily, two of him at school at the same time... But it did let him correct the oversight of forgetting that while he had stayed at Tsuruya's - a haven for the temporally displaced - he had forgotten his schoolbag at home.

He took a train back to Kitaguchi station, checked the watch that Mikuru's older self had given him and turned his cell phone on, pulling up his voice mail and leaving himself the well-remembered message from the previous night. After a few minutes he figured out how to flag the message as 'new', and shut the phone off again. Another few minutes waiting in a dark alley with a reasonable view of the train station let him see his past-self swear loudly.

He couldn't help but chuckle at his past self's cursing when the voice mail was checked. "I guess I can see why she does it," he said aloud, shaking his head. "Still..."

Once he was certain his past self had turned the phone off, he turned his phone back on. Now he just had to go home, face his father's wrath, and take advantage of the extra time to study for tomorrow's test. It was nice not needing to worry about fighting the yakuza that his past self would successfully deal with, or think too hard about the bath and bed he would share with Tsuruya.

Hard-earned, and well deserved, after all. He walked back home, hands in his pockets, wondering if he actually would receive any phone calls. He wouldn't need to make any, at least ... not until he had to call Tsuruya, anyway.

His good mood was crushed almost instantly by the oppressive atmosphere inside the house when he opened the door. After kicking his shoes off and hiding them, so his parents wouldn't ask why he was walking around in his indoor school shoes, he walked into the dining room, where his father was just finishing his dinner. Looking a bit worn from an arduous day at the office, the tired salaryman pushed the plate with the last few bites left on it away from himself.

Kyon's mother sat in the seat to his father's side, her eyes meeting his briefly in warning. "Well," she said abruptly, rising from her seat. "I'll leave you two to discuss things."

With that, she strode to the stairway, causing his little sister to squeak in alarm as her eavesdropping location was discovered. Kyon's father took a deep breath and stepped back from the table, gesturing Kyon to follow him as he slowly walked back outside.

Kyon obediently followed, maintaining a careful distance as his father glanced at the house's windows and then fished a pack of cigarettes from one pocket of his suit jacket. After lighting one of the sticks, the man gave his son a level gaze. "So," he asked, "is she worth it?"

For a long minute, he could only stare at his father and the glowing tip of the brand in his mouth. Was who worth it? Tsuruya, who had gotten him into the investigation? Kanae, who was just a bystander? Mikuru, who controlled the time travel that let him get into such a mixed up situation? Yuki, maybe, who had given him the training he needed to win the fight?

Or maybe Haruhi, who everything was centered around even if she wasn't - for once - really involved herself?

He didn't even know which girl it was about ... but then he realized it didn't matter; he already had the answer in every case. "Absolutely," he swore.

His father grunted wordlessly, then knelt and stubbed the remains of the cigarette out. "Good," he decided. "Okay, you just need to understand your mother's concern. She doesn't honestly demand much of you ... reasonable grades and a clean record. If you're going to get into trouble at school, you'd better make sure that your grades are a lot better."

He nodded. That wasn't terribly different from what his mother had said anyway. "I understand."

"It's not too hard to make her happy," his father continued, putting his hands into his pockets and staring up at the sky. "There's no way you could come home from school one day and announce that you had, say, rescued an heiress from rampant hoodlums and secured a position at her father's company. So, her point of view is that there's no future in fighting... Well." The man shrugged.

"But it wasn't anything like that!" Kyon protested. "Ryuguu was attacking Kanae-chan - he pulled a knife on me! What was I supposed to do? I swear, I'm not going around looking for trouble."

The man's eyes drifted down from the dim sky, and one eyebrow quirked up. "Kyon-kun ... you're not a martial artist, or a samurai. I think it's good that you stood up for your classmate, don't get me wrong. But at the same time ... you can easily get in over your head. Neither your mother nor myself want to see you get hurt. And like any parents, we want you to be safe and happy. That may mean being a bit more cautious now, but when you're older and capable of having a real career, it will all be for the best, won't it?"

"I understand," Kyon said slowly.

His father snorted. "But?"

"Well... Uncle Keiichi never even went to college, and from his stories he was a real troublemaker in school, too, but he's got a career."

"Eh ... yes, but your uncle Keiichi also married a shrine maiden and most of his 'career' is funded by a Yakuza family," the man countered. "No offense to him, but your mother wouldn't have been born if it weren't for the fact his parents thought they could raise a better-behaved and more responsible child. He's a very eccentric character, and that's not a standard the rest of us should hold ourselves to."

Even if uncle Keiichi lived in the country, Kyon couldn't help but think that he was probably one of the most popular people in his village; the townspeople routinely called him 'the magician of words'. Obviously his grandparents on his mother's side didn't know what they were talking about. Weren't they both novelists? They probably spent more time paying attention to their writing than the world immediately around them.

"I'm not sure I'm happy giving up the possibility of doing things differently and still being successful," he finally told his father.

The man grunted at that, nodding slowly. "Fair enough," he allowed. "Even so ... the point of this is that while you may pursue some slim chance, a solid education is a sure thing. Since it's not possible to know the future, your mother's primary concern is that you at least keep that one reasonable goal in sight, regardless of whatever else you do."

Kyon sighed. Probably best not to mention the fact that he _had_ rescued a wealthy heiress, he was _already_ involved with a ninkyo dantai family, and as a matter of fact, at least until some time tomorrow morning, he _did_ know the future because he'd already _been_ there. "So, if I'm like Haruhi and place first in testing this term, I can cause any trouble I want as long as it doesn't get me expelled?" he said instead.

His father blinked languidly, his lips quirking in a smile. "I'm not sure about that," he said. "But, if you place in the top ten, I'll help you get your license over summer break. How about that?"

He smiled weakly, realizing that the offer was only made because of a certainty that he would fall short. "I'll hold you to it," he said, nodding. He may as well just ask Arakawa or Yuki for the lesson.

"So, we're understood that you'll keep your mother happy, or at least try your best?"

"I'll try my best," he promised.

"Good," the man said, reaching forward and clapping one hand on his shoulder firmly. "Good. I'm glad we had this talk, Kyon-kun. Oh, also, since you brought your uncle up, your aunt Rika wanted to know if you'd be going up to visit for Golden Week."

"Better known as being strong-armed into day-care services," Kyon mumbled. "I'm not sure yet." What would Haruhi have planned for the vacation?

"Well, if your grades go down, your mother will send you off anyway," the man warned. "With nothing but study guides to keep you company. Good luck!"

Kyon nodded as his father went back into the house, then sat down on the porch and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. How long had he spent fighting the yakuza with Tsuruya? When had he passed out in the back of her limousine? He should have paid closer attention, he realized. Deciding it was close enough, he called and left himself another voice mail, then went inside to use the house's phone to call Tsuruya.

Just after he hung up, he heard his sister's footsteps on the stairs, and she peeked at him cautiously around the corner. "Hey," he said to her, realizing he hadn't actually seen her in over a day, from his perspective. He turned off his cell phone and flopped onto the couch. "What's up?"

"Is Kyon-kun in trouble?" she asked worriedly.

"No more than usual," he assured her. "I just got this really tough undercover job saving the world."

She padded into the living room to give him a skeptical stare.

"Haruhi's idea," he added. "For Tsuruya-kun."

Her skepticism faded, and she gave him a look of fierce determination, clenching one fist and nodding. "Kyon-kun can do it!" she said with complete conviction. "For Haru-nee-san and Tsuru-nee-san, you'd better!"

"Don't I know it," he sighed, leaning forward to ruffle her hair.

"You took care of Yuki-nee-san when she was sick, right? Is she doing better now?"

"Yeah, actually. Well, anyway, enough relaxing for me. I've got a test to study for tomorrow." And he had to leave early to meet with Mikuru and help her carry the new sewing machine...

* * *

After a night of rest that felt oddly unusual for not involving one of Yuki's training scenarios, he left early to reach Mikuru's place. According to his wristwatch he was exactly on time, and reached her apartment door just as she opened it, greeting him with another of the shy smiles she had adopted lately. What exactly was he going to say to her next Sunday, anyway?

"Good morning, Kyon-kun," she said cheerfully. "You don't think we'll be too early?"

He bit his tongue, remembering what Mikuru would be subjected to the second she reached the clubroom. "Not too early," he managed.

They traded bags, her carrying his schoolbag, and him carrying the sewing machine and the large, heavier bag of cloth and assorted other sewing supplies. After they got off the train, walking up the hill, she added, "It's nice to walk to school together, Kyon-kun. Thank you for helping me out."

"No problem at all."

She pointed at an intersection as they passed it, remarking, "I would usually meet Tsuruya-san there, if we walked together."

"She's a good person," he replied, glancing at his watch and frowning. "I'm glad she looks out for you."

Mikuru gave him a puzzled smile. "Are you okay?" she finally asked. "You've been acting worried all morning."

"Ah, well," he started, glancing up the hill and seeing Tsuruya's familiar hair swaying in the distance. Next to her, a boy without a schoolbag, just rounding a bend in the road... And Haruhi would ambush them at the gates, followed by a brief chat at the shoe lockers. No doubt about it; he had to come up with a stalling tactic. What could he say?

He stopped, setting down the sewing machine and the bag, then turning to face Mikuru. Her attention was nervously riveted to him, and while he still wasn't certain what he was going to do last Sunday, he was grateful for it. "Listen," he said, without preamble, "about Haruhi?"

Her expression dropped. "I haven't heard anything yet," she said, shaking her head with a vague one-handed gesture. "Is something wrong?"

"Um, it's just... When Haruhi goes too far, it's okay to tell her so."

She looked at him oddly and gave a dubious nod. "I don't really understand, but I believe you, so okay," she agreed.

Somehow, that only made him feel worse.

After delaying her a short while, he stopped at the shoe lockers, still wearing his indoor shoes. He set down the sewing machine and said, "I need to check for something in my classroom. I'll meet you back with the extra cloth here, or the clubroom. Is it okay if I leave the sewing machine here?"

"Ah, you carried it all the way up the hill," she said, shaking her head. "Um, I can carry it the rest of the way!" She handed him his schoolbag, and he nodded his head in thanks to her before dashing immediately to the first floor washroom, just catching sight of the older Mikuru ducking inside. She squeaked in alarm, still cute to his eyes when he understood her motives better.

With her wide eyes and balled fists held together beneath her chin, he still felt that urge to protect her. "W...what..." she began, looking confused. "You shouldn't be here yet!"

"Long story," he told her, checking his wristwatch. "Okay, so ... we have a few minutes?"

"How..." She frowned. "My past self remembers you being in the clubroom when she entered it. There shouldn't be two of you!"

"Well, somehow it's become a predetermined event," he said with an apologetic shrug. "You take me back to yesterday afternoon to meet your past self at the train station; this ends up sparing me a lot of trouble from my parents involving a fight with some yakuza, so I really don't mind."

"The slow path?" she mused, frowning. Her eyes went distant as she tilted her head slightly to one side, then sighed with a smile. "It must be so!" she decided, shaking her head a bit. "Um ... I don't have time to explain it right now, and it would be a bit suspicious for you to ask my younger self. Ah, I hate to ask you to rely on her even more, but perhaps Nagato-san could explain it to you?"

"Explain what?"

"Temporal displacement," she answered. "Time travelers normally have a way to monitor their deviation from standard, but you're more of a passenger, so without your own TPDD to monitor such things... A...anyway! Since you're here, now, there's one thing I should tell you. Um ... this may be a lot to ask, but please don't rush back to Suzumiya-san?" Her face took on a blush and she suddenly couldn't meet his eyes. "It would be, um, awkward if you were to overhear certain things... And it would go against the way I remembered events." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, my! I hope that means you don't eavesdrop!"

He wanted to face-palm, but instead made himself check his watch. Less than a minute; his past self was probably already in the hall headed towards them. "Sometimes it sounds like you really want me to misbehave," he noted. "It might be easier for both of us if you were more careful, Asahina-san."

She adopted a clearly feigned look of surprise. "You really think so?" she asked.

"You'll see in less than a minute," he answered dryly, stepping into a free stall and closing the door.

He heard Mikuru's older self hum thoughtfully as she stepped into the appointed meeting stall, and he held his breath when he heard his past self mutter about Haruhi.

There was no resisting the smirk at Mikuru's reaction to his past self's line regarding ero manga, though he spared a moment to despair his past self's ignorance. What if someone _else_ were hiding in the room? Mikuru's older self had only just arrived, after all, she hadn't had time to check either. After the unnerving clunking noise that signified his past-self's departure, he checked the other stalls ... but of course, they were empty.

In any case, he realized he wasn't likely to do such a thing again; he now knew to check. After glancing at his wristwatch again, he hustled quickly to the clubroom, still hauling the large bag of cloth for Mikuru. Was he supposed to eavesdrop, he wondered? Was that Mikuru's unsubtle hint? Pondering, his footsteps slowed as he approached the clubroom door.

* * *

"Alright," Haruhi grumbled, after listening to Mikuru's rushed explanation of her meeting with Kyon. "Alright, fine. So, Kyon offered to help you out, you dragged him with you to go shopping, used him as a pack-mule, and that's _it_?" she asked.

Mikuru nodded nervously. "That's exactly it," she agreed. "T...that's all!"

"I'm disappointed in you," Haruhi told her upperclassman. "Really, you told me that you _liked_ Kyon. And when the oblivious wonder drops a golden opportunity straight into your lap, you assign him to heavy lifting?! It's like you're not even trying!"

"T...trying?" Mikuru asked, her eyes wide and confused. "What?"

"Seriously," Haruhi chided her, "if we're going to be any kind of romantic rivals, you should leap at a chance like that! Drag him with you to dinner, then go for a nice walk somewhere after! Your moe powers are wasted settling for what you did. Completely wasted!"

Mikuru opened her mouth and struggled for words, but all she could do was stare and work her jaw silently before she tilted her head slightly to one side and stared at Haruhi as though the younger girl had suddenly gone mad. Which, Haruhi realized, she might think from her perspective.

"Mikuru-chan," she said, shaking her head, "you told me that you 'couldn't' have a relationship in this time, right?"

"R...right," the time traveler agreed. "I told you I wasn't a threat! Please believe me, Suzumiya-san-"

"Oh, shut up about that," she snapped. "Seriously! 'I'm not a threat'? That sounds like a recipe for misery! Especially since you have your own feelings anyway! There's a very obvious solution, Mikuru-chan. You should have seen it by now!"

"T...there is?" Mikuru looked mystified and more than a little scared, but Haruhi caught the flash of hope in her eyes anyway. "What is it?"

"If you _really_ believe that you can't have a relationship, then why not try anyway?" Haruhi asked. "Consider it a practice run! If you're going to give up and tell yourself it'll never work out, what do you stand to lose by trying your best, anyway?"

"Y...you _want_ me to be your romantic rival?" Mikuru managed, boggling.

"Who said anything about romance?" Haruhi threw back, her face reddening.

"You did, just a minute ago!"

Her blush deepened. "Well," she managed, looking away. "Yeah, okay. I guess I did. Anyway, it's not like I want us to compete ... but if you're so adamant it'll never work out, what about the things you could learn from at least trying!? What you need to do is give it your best shot anyway! Kyon's a nice enough guy, even if he is a bit clueless. I guess I can't blame you for liking him... But I _will_ blame you for sitting by the sidelines without even trying and making yourself unhappy because you're too scared to do anything about it! Trying to think of it as a competition with me will let you see what you can really do when you find someone you _can_ be with!"

Mikuru continued to stare, seemingly stunned by the barrage of words.

"It's not like I'd be happy about it," Haruhi continued, crossing her arms over her chest. "But I like that you _act_ dojikko and moe for the club. It won't actually help you in the long run to _be_ that way. You have to have more confidence!"

"U...um..." Mikuru swallowed nervously, and Haruhi watched the older girl slowly gather herself together, straightening up from her cringing. "What's 'dojikko' mean?"

Haruhi stared. "If we were in a comedy anime, that line would cause a face-fault," she deadpanned. "Am I the only person who reads- Never mind!" She shook her head, banishing the complaint. "Okay, look, dojikko characters are clumsy and harmless, they're part of the cast to evoke a 'big-brother' instinct, or play up the role of fan service. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty awesome that you have those characteristics! But while it's fine for an anime character, real people need more depth! So let's work on making your dojikko moe-factor something you use to appeal to a guy you like, not just the extent of who you truly _are_."

Mikuru blinked several times at Haruhi. "...I don't think I understand," she finally admitted, giving an apologetic smile. "You can't really want me to get in your way, can you?"

Sighing deeply, Haruhi shook her head. "Try harder for Kyon," she said. Surely that would be clear enough? "I'm just saying that if you can't really get anywhere, it won't hurt you to learn as much as you can in the meantime!"

A knock sounded at the door, cutting off further discussion before Kyon pulled it open. "I'm back," he said, looking troubled.

"Oh!" Mikuru managed, turning to look at him, her smile returning. "Was everything okay?"

"Classified," he answered with a grimace. "But it's taken care of."

Mikuru looked confused, but shook her head and moved to pick up her new sewing machine. "Um, is it okay if I leave this here, Suzumiya-san?" she asked.

Haruhi looked at the box, then considered the free space in the club room. Things could be shuffled around to fit it, she was certain. "It shouldn't be a problem," she said, nodding. Could Mikuru make new costumes? That would certainly save her a bit of money on getting a new outfit for Mikuru every so often ... or even one for herself. "We should talk about that at lunch," she decided. "In the meantime..." She turned her attention to Kyon as he set his schoolbag on the tabletop, and another bag full of cloth near Mikuru. "You need to study!"

"Yay," Kyon said flatly. "Is there any greater joy?"

"Getting a good grade for your hard work and staying in the brigade?"

He blinked, smirking at her as he took a seat. "Well played, brigade chief. Well played."

"Naturally," she agreed, shuffling the flashcards they had made the night before. "That's why you're just the vice commander."

* * *

Lessons were very difficult for Mikuru to follow in the wake of Haruhi's bizarre announcement. It didn't help when she took into account further confusion about what a message specifically encoded for her meant for Kyon. He seemed to have dealt with it without trouble, and she knew he lacked her conditioning and the other tools that she had been given specific for her duty as a time traveler. Even so, that didn't slow him down in the slightest.

But that didn't mean she could simply ignore it. She was supposed to be studying phenomena surrounding Haruhi, so why had the sudden shift to follow Kyon's orders even come about? Not the she minded ... but it did make her feel remarkably incompetent that he seemed both better informed and better equipped to handle things.

Then again, it wasn't as though she could expect him to be given his own TPDD or conditioning ... to say nothing of the training requirements. Could Yuki fill those requirements for Kyon? Come to think of it, with Haruhi's help, could he be given everything else he needed to just leave her completely behind?

She sighed, lowering her head and pondering the notebook paper before her. It was one thing to try and be helpful, but she was wondering if she really was even that. She had taken Kyon back in time for something she got light-headed even thinking about, and she hadn't done anything _but_ ferry him back in time.

It wouldn't have bothered her nearly so much, except for the fact that the mysterious note had given her orders to relay verbal instructions to him, and then ... she was out of the loop. As if that weren't problem enough, it was immediately followed by Haruhi insisting that she torture herself with a pursuit she was destined to fail, and the order to become more confident?

There was a certain temptation to throw aside her orders from her superiors and do what Haruhi said. She was already skirting dangerously close to the lines by having dinner and a shopping session with Kyon, as far from her ideal date as those events had been. She was reasonably sure he wasn't even supposed to know where she lived, to say nothing of her inviting him into her apartment, however briefly!

If she didn't get her act together, and soon, she was likely to be recalled. She was roused from her contemplation by Tsuruya poking her elbow. "Helloooo~!" the taller girl called, peering at her intently, smirking. "What's gotcha distracted, Mikuru-chan?"

"Ah, oh, just things," she answered, shaking her head and climbing to her feet. On to the clubroom, then, where she would have to figure out some way to satisfy Haruhi and simultaneously keep herself in control.

"Okies," Tsuruya said, raising one eyebrow. "Well, I gots to escort Kanae-chan, like I promised, so see you soonish!"

With that, the green-haired girl whirled and sped off.

Alone, Mikuru walked slowly to the club room, not entirely surprised that Kanae and Tsuruya caught up with her as she reached the door. She opened it to let the other girls in first, only to see Kyon and Haruhi already sitting at the table, with Koizumi and Yuki across from them.

Yuki tapped the keys of one of the laptops, an empty bento at her side. Koizumi picked at his own bento, studying the couple sitting opposite him. Haruhi was grilling Kyon with questions for the upcoming math test. The really unusual thing was the fact that Kyon had - for some reason - three bento boxes next to him, and was evidently just finishing the last one.

Haruhi glanced at the stack of empty boxes, but Mikuru was positive that the three closest to Kyon were his ... everyone else had their own. "Wow," Kanae said, peering in. "You must be really hungry, Sempai!"

"His mom's starving him as some strange form of punishment," Haruhi explained, rolling her eyes. "Sure, tuna is supposed to be 'brain food', because it's high in protein, but just fish and rice?"

Tsuruya looked thoughtful, eying the lunch boxes before closing the door and taking a seat next to Koizumi. Kanae had already claimed the space on Kyon's other side, so Mikuru was left with the choice of sitting next to Yuki or Haruhi.

She resolved to rush to the club room more quickly next time, and debated internally before choosing to sit next to Yuki. For her part, the impassive girl didn't react, merely tapping a few more keys out. Unable to resist, Mikuru stole a glance at the laptop, seeing nothing more than a text editor. Able to sense the gaze, Yuki's eyes snapped immediately towards her as the text file was minimized, and a splash screen for The Day of Sagittarius III appeared.

Mikuru quickly looked away, receiving the unspoken message without any trouble. To her surprise, however, Yuki turned to look towards Koizumi, then adjusted the laptop so that the esper couldn't see the screen - but Mikuru could. Maybe Yuki thought that Mikuru was trustworthy enough not to peek, and the esper wasn't?

That offered a tiny bit of encouragement. She respectfully avoided looking at the screen, though the sudden shift in color to the white background of the text editor let her know that Yuki was back to her original project. She unwrapped her lunch and ate it, watching the other club members. Tsuruya quickly engaged Kanae in a conversation over an anime they were both watching, and Koizumi observed the pair with his usual smile, looking slightly more amused than usual.

"No, no," Tsuruya said, shaking her head. "Trope-tan doesn't do thats! Sounds a bit out-of-character, don't it?"

"Er," Kanae managed, frowning. "Maybe I'm remembering it wrong? I mean ... doesn't every episode end with her using the Chekhov Beam to stop the monster of the week?"

"Usually," Tsuruya agreed, chuckling. "Unless it's one of those 'power of heart' episodes. But Uncyclo-tan is the big bad! They're not on the same sentai team."

"I thought Ae-tan was the main villain," Kanae said with a pout. "Wasn't Uncyclo-tan just her minion?"

"Who's Ae-tan? Is that a nickname for Wikipe-tan?"

Kanae tapped her lower lip with a frown. "Um ... maybe ... I'm thinking of a different series?"

"Maybe," Tsuruya agreed with a shrug. "Okies! It was nice having lunch with you, but I gots to do some more investigation work-" She cut off with a giggle at Kyon's sharp look, quickly adding, "Nothing dangerous right now, Kyon-kun!"

"Well, call me if that changes, Tsuruya-kun," Kyon warned, before being smacked over the head by Haruhi's stack of flashcards. "Ow! Hey! I thought you didn't like tsundere characters!"

"I don't," Haruhi groused, looking at him oddly. "But I don't think I mentioned that to you. Anyway, it was a stack of cards! Are you saying it really hurt?"

"No," he admitted as Tsuruya left. "Just... Nevermind."

After putting away her own empty bento, Mikuru pondered what to do with her remaining free time. She brightened when she recalled the pattern paper. That would be a nice distraction from things. She could make something for Kyon - that should satisfy Haruhi's demands without making her own life more difficult than she needed to.

She spent a long minute thinking of what to make before she finally settled on a heavy coat. Kyon's last coat had gotten fairly worn after the last winter, and even if the season were warming up... Well, it was something. One of the bolts of cloth she had picked up with Kyon was treated to be water resistant - the one she had grabbed because she didn't want to seem completely unaware of the outside world. She couldn't imagine what else she would make with it for Kyon.

He really didn't seem the type to wear an apron, and a tablecloth didn't seem very personal, so a coat was the answer. The clubroom's table was large enough for her to unroll a huge sheet of the stuff, but she would have to ask someone else to move, and she thought she'd be better off designing on the small-scale, first. She pulled a notepad from the bookshelf behind her and began sketching rough dimensions and designs. There was rather a lot of that cloth, so she could make a full-length coat.

An image from a recent television drama she had seen came to mind - it was a bit militaristic, but she thought Kyon would look quite dashing in a greatcoat, so decided to style her design after that. She'd only roughed out the basic features - pockets, buttons she'd need to pick up later, a rain flap that could be flipped over into a hood - when she felt Yuki's unsettling gaze on her. She looked up in alarm, but the contact-purposed interface merely commented, "Interesting," before turning back to whatever she was writing.

"What's that, then?" Haruhi asked, her interest piqued. She glanced at the sketch before her eyes widened. "You're making that for Kyon?" she added, flashcards forgotten for the moment.

"I...I was thinking of it," Mikuru agreed, nodding. "Is something wrong?"

Haruhi raised an eyebrow thoughtfully, while Kyon tried to crane his neck to see the sketch from his seat. The brigade chief snatched the paper out of Mikuru's hands, hiding it from Kyon's sight and shoving the flashcards at Koizumi. "Keep studying," she ordered, walking around the table to sit at Mikuru's side, studying the image intently.

Kyon looked irritated, but Koizumi obligingly continued the study session. One eye watching Kyon closely, Haruhi explained, "I've seen... Um, maybe..." She grinned and nodded decisively, setting the sketch between the two of them. "It needs pockets on the inside," she said in a conspiratorial whisper. "In the sleeves, too, and I think it should have ties so that the sleeves can be rolled back and buttoned into place. And make it ... I think about seven centimeters longer. Yeah, that's right. It's going to be tan colored, right?"

She nodded, feeling another tiny surge of irritation that - once again - everyone but her seemed to know what was going on. She tried to banish the feeling. Knowing nothing shouldn't bother her, knowing everything was too stressful ... but knowing just enough to feel really clueless ... that wasn't any fun at all.

"Okay," Haruhi whispered, her grin widening. "Don't let Kyon know about it until it's done. How long do you think it'll take?"

Keeping it hidden from Kyon would require him to avoid the clubroom, or her to haul the heavy machine back to her already cramped apartment. "A few days, probably," she answered, frowning thoughtfully. "Maybe Sunday if I come in while class isn't in session... Otherwise, Kyon-kun might see me working on it."

"Not a problem," Haruhi decided. "If Tsuruya's keeping him occupied anyway, then you should have plenty of time."

* * *

It was strange, Kyon mused, to feel uncomfortable in a suit. He wore his school uniform enough that he had assumed he would be completely at home wearing a suit and tie, but sitting in the back of Tsuruya's limousine headed towards her estate ... he felt awkward. Tsuruya herself wasn't there, sending the driver to fetch him from his house and meet at her estate.

The last time he had been there, he'd been a bit too badly injured to really care about the surroundings, so he found himself nervously checking the back seat for bloodstains or other proof of the battle. Evidently the car was cleaned by the same people who had gotten the blood out of his school uniform, as there wasn't a trace left in sight.

He tried to relax, but there wasn't much comforting to think about. Haruhi's study sessions had given him a headache, but he was also surprised at how confident he was in his test scores. They wouldn't find out until tomorrow for certain, and it was possible he would miss the mark and fall below the critically required ninety... But he felt sure that he had done much better than usual.

After pulling through the gates to the Tsuruya estate, the vehicle stopped. Even though he was fairly certain that he was supposed to wait for the driver to open his door, he let himself out, scanning around for Tsuruya. He spotted her quickly, standing on the path between the driveway and the house wearing a very elaborate kimono, her hair done up in an intricate bun.

She waved, and he walked to meet her, bowing his head as he approached. "I hope I'm not under-dressed," he commented, adjusting his tie and glancing at the dark blue suit he was wearing, which was quite plain in contrast to her outfit.

"Looks good on you," she assured him, smirking. "Okies, come on a walk with me?"

It felt more like an insistence than a question, but he agreed, falling into step just behind her as she leisurely strolled towards the garden. "I don't want to make a mistake and upset your father, or embarrass you," he commented, glancing at the surroundings, but too worried to really enjoy the view.

"You should be fine," she assured him. "You'll talks with my father, and I'll explain what we want from him."

He nodded at that, looking at the girl out of the corner of his eyes. She seemed completely absorbed with a distant cherry tree, the last few petals slowly drifting to the ground.

"I won't be embarrassed by Kyon-kun," she said after a moment. "And my father's a mega understanding guy, nyoro~!"

"I hope so," he agreed.

"Mmm. Hey, Kyon-kun, has Mikuru-chan seemed a bit down lately to you?"

That was a sudden shift in conversation, he thought. "Distracted, for sure," he agreed. "I don't know about 'down', though... You think she's upset?"

Tsuruya nodded quickly. "Yeah, yeah... In class todays she was all kinds of distracted and moody. Like she's pining for some guy! But I don't know what guy Mikuru-chan likes." She turned a questioning glance at Kyon. "What do you think?"

"I don't know; I hadn't thought about it," he admitted, grimacing. He wasn't anyone to judge, but there was a real rush of jealousy as soon as the girl at his side brought it up. Damn it, anyone who thought about laying a hand on Mikuru was going to have to go through him! Then again... "I don't think I should ask her about that. Wouldn't it be, er ... her own personal business?"

Tsuruya's glance was very shrewd. She poked him firmly in the shoulder. "Kyon-kun never considered that he might be the guy she's pining for?" she mused. "I'm not sures if that's noble or dense!"

"H...hey!" he protested, frowning. "I wish that Asahina-san were interested in me like that! What healthy male wouldn't? But..." He trailed off, frowning. Wasn't her older self always taking advantage of her visits to kiss him? But what did _that_ mean? "Well, with Haruhi," he began lamely, before sighing and shaking his head.

"You're a popular guy," Tsuruya acquiesced, smirking. "Okies! I'll talk with her tomorrow mornings, and find out what's going on!"

"Anything you can do to cheer her up," he agreed. "I don't like seeing her unhappy, either."

She blinked and turned another questioning gaze on him. He studiously looked away, remembering his conversation with Tsuruya's maid as his face colored.

Just as the silence was becoming awkward, a maid - possibly the same one, he couldn't tell them apart - stepped out from behind a tree on the path ahead of them. "Haruka-san, Kyon-dono," she said, bowing. "Tsuruya-sama is ready to speak with the two of you now."

"Okies," Tsuruya said, giggling a bit. "This way, Kyon-kun!"

He followed the girl into the sprawling mansion, as she led him down a maze of twisting hallways before finally entering a large meeting hall. Most of the Tsuruya estate was a single floor, baring any scary basements Kyon was happy not to know about, but he saw that this room had a raised ceiling, which suggested that one of the few parts of the house that seemed to be higher was merely to provide a wider open area like they one they entered.

The room was ten meters wide at least, and probably twice that in length. Banners and well preserved Tsuruya family heirlooms adorned the walls, ranging from a picture of an ancestor seemingly from just before World War Two, to a cracked and re-lacquered woodcut that looked like it was straight out of the fifteenth century - and probably was. Ancient weapons hung here and there, presumably keepsakes of prominent familial figures. The far end of the room was a raised platform, reminding Kyon of a dais.

The far wall of the room was covered with a floor-length and wall-wide sheet of cloth bearing the symbol he guessed was the Tsuruya family kumon, the ancient crest from their family's founding. The stylized classic shapes of five cranes in a wheel formation beneath the peaked roof of a great house. Below that, on a large cushion was a man that seemed small only compared to the massive regalia behind him. If the large figure of the Tsuruya family patriarch wasn't imposing enough, the identically dressed and immaculate men in blue suits lining the sides of the room in orderly rows were enough to make him even more nervous.

He counted twenty other men in the room in two rows of ten, facing the entryway as he tried to keep from stumbling, following in Tsuruya's composed, poised wake. The Tsuruya family patriarch was as tall as Kyon while sitting cross-legged on a thin cushion atop the dais, sporting neatly groomed short green hair - identical in shade to the girl's, while his amused, knowing smirk betrayed an identical fang as well. Despite the fact that every other man was wearing a suit in the room, the patriarch managed to make all of the others look under-dressed, wearing only a green robe, less formal than the girl's, with the family crest patterned all across it.

Moreover, he had one arm free of the robe, baring half his chest and revealing the complex and detailed tattoos adorning him. Kyon tried not to gawk; it must have taken real courage and quite some time to have the vivid image of a fierce crane fishing a dragon from the heavens tattooed. It looked so lifelike, he practically expected it to leap off the man with one flexed muscle.

Nervously searching for something familiar to comfort him in this madness, Kyon spotted a maid in the customary outfit kneeling just below the dais on the man's right side, holding a tray before her, eyes downcast. Was she the same one that had spoken to him and asked that he watch over Tsuruya? The same one - somehow - that had met them on the path through the gardens? There was still no way to be sure.

Tsuruya strode to within a few paces of the patriarch, then knelt and bowed deeply, her forehead almost touching the floor. Stopping a step short of the girl, Kyon followed suit without hesitation. "Rise," the man chuckled. "Dearest daughter, have you called mes back here to report on your trial?"

Kyon fought to restrain a hilarious snicker, remaining bowed even when Tsuruya rose. They shared the speech impediment as well as the fang. "Progress is good," she said, "but I called you here to ask aid for a strong ally!"

"A strong ally needs aid?" The patriarch's voice now lacked amusement. "Explains, daughter."

"Um! Tsuruya-sama!" she said, her voice unshaken. "I have engaged in battles with others, and this brothers here has saved me from attack not once, but twice!"

Kyon rose slightly when he heard the other men around the room murmur with subdued voices, exchanging dire looks with one-another behind their dark glasses. "Others?" the patriarch mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully with the hand that was not within his robe. "Explain further."

"I don't know everything yet," Tsuruya said with another deep, apologetic bow. "I believes they are Sumiyoshi-rengo."

"I see. And how strongs is this ally of yours, then?"

"This brother defeated twelve mens by himself, all in the same fight that left Kasai in the hospital," she explained. "And yesterday, another four."

The gasp from the surrounding enforcers this time was not subdued at all.

The patriarch raised one hand and all other conversation stilled. Hardened green eyes turned to Kyon. "Then," he said, "this is not my daughter asking for my assistances at all, is it? This is him wishing his family be kept safe so that he can continue to serve you?"

Kyon nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Good," the man judged. "I like a man who values his family." He snapped his fingers. "Tell us your name, then."

Barely able to keep his voice from hitching, Kyon gave his full name to the Tsuruya patriarch. The girl at his side blinked and looked at him sidelong, her eyes widening; even the patriarch looked impressed. He found it a bit unnerving that they seemed to care so much for his name, when he was cursed with that stupid nickname all the time...

"A strong name," the patriarch allowed, eyebrows raised. "Then, just like the stories of Sadamitsu and Raiko, you acts as my daughter's retainer?"

"Yes," he agreed, wondering how much trouble this was all going to get him into. Still, it would keep his family safe, so that much would be worth it.

The man nodded as the maid rose, shuffling before him and holding out the tray. With brisk, efficient movements, the patriarch poured three small dishes of sake, mixing in salt and something glittery that Kyon couldn't quite make out. He took a dish, and the tray was moved to the girl. She took a dish as well, and then the tray was before Kyon.

In a soft voice that Kyon was sure no one else could hear, the maid instructed him, "Drink exactly half, in three small sips." He nodded minutely, amazed his hand wasn't shaking as he took the last dish. "For family," the man announced, taking a sip. Tsuruya sipped as well, so Kyon followed suit; he was reasonably sure it was sake, but it had the taste of strong salt, and glittering flakes of ... something ... were floating within. "For justice," and a second sip. "For honor," with a final sip.

The maid then exchanged the girl's cup with her father's, and whispered to Kyon, "Hold still and wait."

This time, the girl spoke the words, she and her father drinking a sip at each invocation. When it was done, the maid took Kyon's cup and exchanged it with Tsuruya's. "Now you," the maid whispered quietly.

"For family," Kyon said, sipping from the dish. The girl at his side sipped with him; the patriarch did not. "For justice," he said, wondering how the girl's stomach was holding up after this much of the strange ceremonial drink. Finally, he completed, "For honor."

"Good," the patriarch said, nodding approval as the maid silently collected all of the dishes. "Very good! All shall know then that this, our brother, is a kobun! Everyone, welcome your new foster brother to the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi!"

The men on the edges of the room suddenly swarmed him, and he was swept up in a tide of cheering ninkyo dantai pounding his back and welcoming him to the family. As bewildered as he was, he still saw the relief in the girl's face, the tiny sparkling tears of what he prayed was happiness in her eyes.

Yeah, Haruhi was going to love hearing about this.

* * *

"So," his mother said, when he finally returned home, eyeing his choice of outfit when he walked through the door. "Trying to cultivate a respectable image?"

"Yep," he answered, still musing over his somewhat unexpected initiation, fingering the pin with the Tsuruya family crest that he had been given.

"It wasn't a special occasion?"

"Ah, just met up with a classmate, chatted with her family a bit."

His sister charged down the stairs and flung herself at him. "Change out of that suit and play with me!" she demanded. "I finished my homework!"

He patted her on the head. "Alright," he agreed.

"Well, as long as you're through with being a delinquent," his mother decided.

Snorting, he ruffled his sister's hair until she let go of him. "Yeah, delinquency wasn't working out, so I just skipped straight to joining the Yamaguchi-gumi."

He walked up the stairs to change his clothes, while his mother stared, eyes narrowed. "That's not funny!" she yelled up after him.

A chuckle escaped him as he heard his sister ask, "What's a 'Yamaguchi-gumi'?"


	11. Chapter 10

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Heroic Antics Begin Arc III

Chapter Ten: School of Hard Knocks

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Two: Asking for Help"_

_"Not everyone can handle an entire project single-handedly. Remember why you have allies in the first place! Achieving something on your own is great, but if the cost of failure is high, swallow your pride and spread the load around."_

_"Methods of Victory" - 'T.H.'_

* * *

This time, when Yuki summoned him, he was both awake and expectant of it. The bizarre teleportation effect she used was still disconcerting, but as he had learned with time travel, easier when he closed his eyes. After arriving in Yuki's living room, he cautiously opened his eyes.

Mikuru and Kanae seemed to have adjusted to the teleportation without any trouble, though judging by the somewhat mournful expression that the older girl was giving a pair of chopsticks in her right hand, she had been in the middle of her dinner. "Nagato-san," she whimpered, "why don't you ever call me first?"

Kanae merely flipped to the next page of the manga she was reading, seeming as oblivious to the transition as always.

"You were not bathing," was Nagato's response.

Mikuru sighed and hung her head, muttering, "I'm still hungry..."

As much as Kyon liked the idea of seeing Mikuru - again - accidentally pulled out of the bath... He shook his head to banish the thought. "It probably wouldn't hurt to call everyone first, Nagato," he said, giving a shrug and smiling. "Unless it's an emergency again?"

"The situation is less critical," was her clipped response. She paused, as Kanae finished her current chapter and looked around, blinking in surprise. "However, due to recent focus, it would be beneficial for a readjustment of priorities."

Kyon mulled this over for a minute, finally deducing, "Because the last session went long, we need to choose something else to learn for now?"

Yuki gave her tiny nod in answer.

"I can't learn about sliding anymore?" Kanae asked worriedly, her manga slipping from her fingers to fall on the floor by her side.

"It would be inadvisable without varying your experiences," Yuki said.

"So, this keeps us from being overwhelmed with too many years of experiences?" Mikuru asked, shaking her head and looking thoughtful.

Yuki nodded again.

"Well, that's fine for me ... I think I've learned enough about sewing for the moment."

Kyon frowned, pondering. What should he ask to learn? He had thought about learning to drive, but somehow it seemed a waste of Yuki's power for something so trivial.

"Um ... I guess if I can't practice the important thing right now, I'd like to know something that let me keep from causing trouble to Sempai," Kanae decided, giving an affirmative nod.

"Cooking!" Mikuru said decisively. "I could learn centuries of cooking knowledge and never get it all! That's what I want!"

"That all aside," Kyon said, his eyes fixed on the humanoid interface as she knelt, at the table, seemingly impassive, "do you know all of the things you're teaching us? I mean ... it seems to me that you would have a hard time making us learn things you weren't familiar with."

Yuki gave another nod. "In some instances, I must learn along with you," she answered. "In some, my previously established knowledge suffices. All interactions with Michikyuu Kanae so far have taken considerable study to prepare."

"In that case," he decided, "I don't want to trouble you more than I have to; I'll let you decide for me. Whatever you think would be beneficial for today."

"Understood," she answered. Once again, Kyon thought he saw that tiny trace of a smile around her lips. "Is there anything else?"

He rubbed his wristwatch. "Nothing I can think of," he answered, smirking. "I know that I want to focus on getting tougher the next time I learn martial arts, but that'll need to wait a bit, won't it?"

Her eyes lowered to his watch, briefly, then returned to his. "Understood," she whispered, and this time, he realized she had meant a little bit more with that word that he'd previously realized- And didn't close his eyes quickly enough to escape the nauseating transition of the world exploding away again.

* * *

It was a bit out of her way, and the immediate press to study had finally faded, but she didn't mind swinging by the train station to wait for him anyway. She was strongly tempted to yell at him for being late, but forced herself to resist. She didn't like tsundere characters, and it seemed likely that he didn't, either.

Despite the encouragement she had given to Mikuru, she wasn't about to sabotage whatever chance she had with him, after all! Telling Mikuru to stand up and then not leading by example... Well! That would be stupid.

So when he got off the train, his step seeming lighter, she waited behind a pillar until he passed, then fell into step beside him.

He noticed almost instantly, shooting her a sidelong glance and smirking. "Good morning," he said, before she could say anything back to him.

"Morning," she agreed, smiling back. "How do you think you did on the test, anyway?"

"I think I did really well, actually." He nodded. "Thanks to you. Oh, Golden Week is the week after next, you know?"

"Of course I know!" she said indignantly. "Do you think I'd forget any special day?"

"Of course not," he answered dryly. "Anyway, I just wanted to warn you that depending on my sister and my mom's mood, I may end up going to visit my aunt and uncle in the country."

"Oh?" Haruhi asked, frowning. That would be annoying ... but at least it was still a week away. "Where in the country, anyway?"

"It's a small village called Hinamizawa," he answered, gazing skyward absently. "On the north end of Honshu, not too far from the Tsugaru Strait."

"What's there to do out in the country, anyway?"

"Not a whole lot," he said with a shrug. "Mostly take a bus to Okinomiya, the nearest larger city ... there's an arcade and some other things there, but I end up having to babysit the cousins while the older folks go off and talk about old times, play mahjong, go, that sort of thing."

"That sounds like a thrilling place," she said flatly.

"It's awesome," he agreed, rolling his eyes. "It's where my nickname came from."

"Well, if you don't want to go, don't go!"

"That's why I'm telling you now," he said, his voice very patient. "My sister can't travel so far on her own. So I may not have a choice in the matter."

"And your parents aren't going?" she asked, suspicious.

"Of course not," he answered, grimacing. "My mom doesn't like her brother much. Naturally, I try to take after him as much as possible."

She snickered, rolling her eyes. Still, she was already wary of Kyon's mother. Bad enough the woman gave him so much grief for doing a good deed, but exiling him to a distant corner of Honshu to supervise his little sister while staying behind with her husband for a week of vacation...

Suddenly, she thought she could understand the woman's motives, at least a little bit. But in that case, the woman owed Haruhi - and Tsuruya - quite a bit for the winter vacation!

Further thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Taniguchi and Kunikida, the taller of the two looking about anxiously, like a paranoid action hero. The shorter of the duo looked vaguely ill, as though he wasn't pleased to be involved, but somehow caught in Taniguchi's wake anyway.

"Taniguchi, Kunikida," Kyon said, by way of greeting.

"Yo," Taniguchi said quickly, casting about before giving the other boy a very sharp look. "Okay, I'll make this quick."

Haruhi caught Kyon's languid blink, then focused her full attention on the perverted classmate. "What now?" she asked in irritation.

He gave her an annoyed look, then turned his attention back to Kyon. "I'm not clear on the why, but Yanagimoto really has it out for you, Kyon. Suzumiya, too. If you two are a couple..."

"Nevermind that for now," Haruhi said quickly, feeling her face warm up. "What's this about Yanagimoto?" Sakanaka had mentioned her not long ago as spreading the rumor that Kyon and Tsuruya were a couple. That was an easily understandable fluke, and Haruhi didn't care for rumors if they didn't lead to exciting and unusual things. High school romance tended to be deplorably simple, so if there was something else...

"Like I said," Taniguchi grumbled. "I don't know all the details. But I'll tell you this much - Yanagimoto is spinning rumors like... Like a... Ah, damn, I'm no good at these things. You make it sound easy, Kyon. Is analogies the word?"

"What?" Kyon asked, mystified.

"Hyperbolic comparisons," Kunikida interjected. "Falling short of adynaton."

"Yes, well, setting aside the need for a dictionary or a translator, why not just try it again in plain language, Taniguchi?" Kyon suggested, rolling his eyes. "Especially since you look like you're terrified of being seen by someone."

"Right, leave the prose for the pros," Taniguchi agreed. "Okay, Yanagimoto is spinning rumors about you being a delinquent - telling anyone who will listen terrible things about you. I'll admit, there were so many they kind of blurred together for me, but I've wormed my way into her good graces by pretending to be totally blinded by her physical appearances, so believe me, I've heard a _lot_."

"Brilliant cover," Haruhi commented, mimicking Kyon's typical deadpan. "No one would ever suspect you of being that sort of person."

"Naturally," he agreed, giving her a smirk before schooling his expression and turning back to Kyon. Kunikida sighed and hung his head; after shooting her an amused grin, Kyon gave Kunikida a sympathetic look. "Anyway, she's trying to say you're a violent brute, and that you're caught up in some crazy scheme that Suzumiya cooked up - and you've somehow roped in Tsuruya-sempai, coercing her cooperation with some sort of compromising photo."

The amusement drained from Kyon's expression instantly. She caught _that_, even if she didn't understand all the details yet. "Anything else?" he asked, hitching his bag slightly higher on his shoulder.

"Eh ... something about you beating up a first year, Manabe Sato...something?" Taniguchi said, squinting. "Supposedly you put him in a hospital two nights ago, but no one knows why."

"I can set her straight easily enough," Haruhi decided, clenching one hand into a fist. It wouldn't do for Kyon to 'persuade' a girl to be quiet, and anyway, she was itching to do something on her own, what with Kyon being wrapped up in Tsuruya's investigation. "She's only a gymnast, so it shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Kyon shot her an appraising look, then shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea," he countered. "If she's trying to paint us in a bad light, is force the answer?"

"Anyway, even if she's spreading the rumors, I doubt she's the one who's actually creating them," Kunikida noted.

"Eh?" Taniguchi managed, surprised. "What, you've been paying attention, too?"

"Well, Kyon's been more distracted than usual, and the one other person I usually eat with is so busy fawning over Yanagimoto-san I've got little left to do but watch and think," the shorter boy said, somewhat reprovingly. "Yanagimoto-san is most likely being led by someone to do this."

Kyon's brow furrowed, and he glanced around before giving Kunikida a thoughtful look. "I don't suppose you've seen her with Yamane recently?" he asked.

"Yamane?" Haruhi asked, trying to remember the name. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't think of who it was off the top of her head.

"Yamane Jun," Kunikida mused. "Ah ... yes, now that you mention it Kyon, I have seen them together quite recently."

"Figures," he grumbled. "Thank you for that update, then. Ah, everyone, sorry, but I need to go on ahead and speak with Tsuruya-kun."

"Wait!" she protested as he readjusted his bag once more and burst into a full-out run up the slope of the hill.

"You..." Taniguchi trailed off with a frown, staring after Kyon. "Holy cow. When did he get so fast, anyway?"

Gritting her teeth, Haruhi threw herself into a run behind him, annoyed at how slow she was to catch up. He hadn't run _nearly_ so fast when the brigade was involved in the relay race! After dashing through the gate, Kyon slowed, reaching a reasonable speed just as he trotted to where Mikuru and Tsuruya were walking together, side-by-side.

"Sorry, Asahina-san," he said, slightly winded, bowing to the pair as Haruhi jogged to a halt and glared at him, her breath short as well. "Ah, Tsuruya-kun, could we speak in private concerning the investigation?"

"Okies!" Tsuruya said cheerfully, as always. "Got some new infos?"

He nodded solemnly, flinching when he glanced back and caught Haruhi's gaze. "It's all classified," he said, defensively.

"I understand," Mikuru said, sighing. "Oh, Suzumiya-san! I went shopping for some things for ... um..." She trailed off and looked thoughtful, staring at the sky for the moment. "Our own secret project?" she posed.

Haruhi stared at the upperclassman. "Are you trying a weak distraction ploy like that to keep me from finding out what Tsuruya-san and Kyon are talking about?"

"Eh?" Mikuru looked taken aback. "What? No, no! I just didn't want to spoil the surprise for Kyon-kun! And they already left, anyway."

Glancing around, Haruhi realized with a groan that she was right. Somehow, Tsuruya and Kyon had snuck off while she was staring at Mikuru! "Alright," she grudgingly allowed. "What's this secret thing you've picked up?"

Mikuru hummed happily and reached into her schoolbag, rummaging around for a bit before pulling out a small paper bag and holding it out for Haruhi. "Here!" she said enthusiastically. "I thought about what you said it would need, and ... well ... I had forgotten to pick them up earlier anyway!"

Haruhi took the bag and opened it up, reaching in and pulling out a button. It wasn't too large for a man's coat, made of some yellowish metal. "Ooh," she said, realizing what it was, her irritation vanishing. Best to take advantage of the situation; Mikuru was right that she should be glad she had her own secret project for the time being. "I approve! Good choice, Mikuru-chan."

"They're brass," she added, when Haruhi gave the bag back. "They'll just get smudged before I finish, but once the coat is complete, if they're polished, they'll shine bright, almost like gold!"

"Really?" Haruhi mused, smoothing her hair ribbons absently. "Hmm, that sounds even better!"

* * *

"Okies," Tsuruya said, glancing around to check that no one else was in earshot. "What's going on?"

"Looks like Yamane is spreading rumors about Haruhi and myself," Kyon explained quickly. "So, do we even have a solid fix on who the ringleader in this thing is?"

Tsuruya pursed her lips and gave a terse nod. "I checked all the records. It's pretty obvious, really. I don't know if they're all in on it, but so far everyone involved is a member of the idol research club."

"That kind of makes sense," he agreed. "Still. If Yamane's trying to make trouble for Haruhi and myself, that means he's got a pretty good idea that we're after him - and that's going to make this a lot harder."

Tsuruya nodded again, frowning. "Okies. We gets the bosses first. Daimonji, or Yamane?"

Kyon pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. "Daimonji is a third year," he decided. "Like Ryuguu. Do you know which class?"

"Yep! 3-5; I've seen him around. Had a class with him last years. You sure it's okay to ignore Yamane?"

"Probably not," he admitted, grimacing. "But ... well, Kunikida is watching Yamane for the moment - do you think we can finish this up today?"

"I'm not sure," she said, her smile fading. "If we get the bosses, then we just needs them to give up their collectors, right? But ... what if they won't talk?"

Kyon resisted the temptation to suggest threatening them with the Tsuruya family's power. After all, as Tsuruya's trial, she could only rely on herself and her chosen guardian. He could try strong-arming ... whoever ... himself, but that was going to cause him further trouble, and anyway... He blinked with a sudden realization. "Tsuruya-kun, did Kasai have any subordinates?"

"Huh?" She smiled and nodded, pitching her voice low. "Several! But he's well placed in our family now, so his subordinates are messengers and advisers, talking to other families or acting as under-bosses of their own."

"If he were to order them, could they assist you without jeopardizing the trial?"

Her smile completely vanished. "Um, yeah. But, they do important works! I don't want to rely on them; it would cause a lot of trouble."

Kyon felt a grin forming. "But then, by that logic, if _I_ had subordinates, they could help, too?"

She nodded, eyes widening as her smile returned. "Kyon-kun! You're so smart!" she cheered, pumping one fist in the air. "Okies! We can take on the bosses, and ask Haru-nyan to help out with the rest, right?"

"Exactly right," he agreed. "And I already asked Haruhi to bail me out with the student council if she had to and I got in trouble."

Tsuruya's smile widened into an ominous grin. "Kyon-kun," she chirped, "when lunchtime rolls around, I think it's time for us to get _results_!"

He felt himself grinning back, and wondered if his expression were as dangerous as Tsuruya's. That question was answered when a first year boy, humming to himself, walked around the bank of shoe lockers, emitting a terrified squeak as the pair glanced at him in perfect unison.

"Oh!" she said suddenly, her smile shifting instantaneously to her normal, warm friendly expression. "I talked to Mikuru-chan this morning. So ... there's something I gots to talk to Haru-nyan about anyway. Hum ... do you think at lunch you can handle Daimonji-san alone while I talk things over with Haru-nyan? Technically, you're my subordinate, so I should be able to talk to her, too, right?"

"Er," he said, his smile slipping. "Um ... let me tell Haruhi that we're going to involve her in the investigation, first, but sure. Come to think of it, I'll drag Koizumi along. Does that sound like a plan, Tsuruya-kun?"

"It's a solid plan, and I endorse it," Tsuruya agreed, grinning. "Good luck, Kyon-kun!"

* * *

When the lunch chime rang, Haruhi strolled towards the clubroom in no particular rush, until Kyon manifested at her side, seeming to appear from nothing as he checked his wristwatch. Before she could even say hello, or ask about the test he'd just gotten handed back, he said in a quiet voice, "We don't have much time, but Tsuruya-kun and I decided to ask you for help with our investigation."

She didn't fight the grin she felt forming on her face. "Oh, yeah?" she asked, glad she was finally involved.

He gave a very serious nod in reply, glancing around the hallway before saying, "I'm going to let Tsuruya-kun fill you in on the specifics ... but we're going to give you something that will turn Yanagimoto against Yamane, unless she's completely insane. After that, Tsuruya-kun and I are going to confront some of the bosses of the group we're checking out, but we need you and the rest of the brigade to be prepared to bring everything we've uncovered in the field to the school administration."

"The student council, eh?" she asked, her smile fading. "You say you're bringing me in, but now it sounds like a police drama, and I was just given a lousy desk job."

"Well," Kyon said after a thoughtful moment, "I guess if you don't want to be involved-"

"Stupid," she countered, elbowing him in the ribs before he could continue. "I didn't say I wouldn't help! But your half-assed explanation raises a lot of questions - what the hell are you actually investigating, anyway?"

"I have to admit I'm not really comfortable talking about it," Kyon answered, grimacing.

She raised an eyebrow at that. What bothered Kyon, anyway? That question answered itself quickly; two of the three times she'd seen Kyon genuinely upset, it involved a threat to his friends. "I still want to _know_," she warned him.

"Tsuruya-kun will explain it to you," he said, shaking his head quickly as they rounded the corner of the stairwell and the club room door came into sight. "In the meantime, I need to borrow Koizumi, if you don't mind?"

"What for?" she asked, cocking her head slightly to one side. "Or is that something I can't know, either?"

"The simple answer is that thanks to Yanagimoto, I'm going to be playing 'bad cop', and Koizumi can be 'good cop'," he said, smirking at her.

She opened the door, unsurprised to see Yuki at the table, opening up the laptop she typically used and not looking towards the door. Kyon took a seat opposite from her, and Haruhi took the spot at his side. With uncharacteristic speed, Kyon unwrapped his bento and tore into his lunch, finishing just moments before Tsuruya slid to a halt outside the doorway, Mikuru and Kanae in tow.

Koizumi was only a few steps behind her. "Hello," he said cheerfully, as Tsuruya gave a sharp salute and marched to sit next to Kyon. "Oh, serious faces today, is it?"

"So it seems," Haruhi allowed. "Koizumi, you're being assigned to help Kyon out today, so ... good luck!"

"Er," Koizumi managed, setting down his lunch and giving a questioning glance to the other boy.

"Yeah, good luck, Kyon-kun!" Tsuruya agreed, handing Kyon a sheet of paper with a photograph attached to it with a paper-clip. "This is Daimonji."

"Class 3-5, right?" Kyon asked, rising from his seat and studying the picture. "Ah, of course ... even says so here. Okay, thanks, Tsuruya-kun. I'll leave things here to you and Haruhi, then."

"Got it!" she said brightly. "You'll make a good saiko-komon!"

"Ooh, good idea," he mused, while Haruhi felt her mouth drop open. Why would Tsuruya give Kyon a title as a yakuza advisor to a major boss? Before she could ask, he fished an elaborate jeweled pin from his pocket and stuck it to his tie; a golden crane with tiny diamond eyes on a sharp green five-sided backdrop. Haruhi stared while Tsuruya gave him an appraising look, then mussed his hair, loosened his tie, and untucked his shirt.

"Hands in your pants pockets," she instructed him. "Shoulders back, head down, don't smile unless you're menacing someone."

Haruhi was joined in staring by Mikuru and Kanae. "K...Kyon-kun," Mikuru managed, "you look like a delinquent!"

"Perfect," he said, glancing at Koizumi, who merely blinked, his smile unwavering. "You're going to do most of the talking. I assume that the Organization is reasonably aware of what we're doing?"

"I haven't a clue!" the clean-cut boy replied cheerfully. "I suppose you can fill me in on the way? I feel a bit clueless about this right now..."

"Welcome to my world," Kyon said, giving a shrug, limited by his hands in his pockets. "I'll fill you in on the way. In the meantime, let me know if I'm failing to look delinquent enough, okay?"

He strode out the door confidently, then Koizumi straightened himself up and made sure his tie was neat before following.

The door clicked shut quietly behind them. "What the hell was _that_!" Haruhi exploded, standing up so quickly her chair fell over. "Kyon can't be getting intro trouble by acting like a delinquent! Tsuruya-san, I don't say this idly, but if you cause trouble for Kyon, I will be _very_ upset with you!"

"T...they were really hot like that," Kanae stuttered, her eyes wide and her cheeks pink. "Ooh..."

Tsuruya shrank back slightly, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand and giving a nervous chuckle. "Um ... let me show you what Kyon-kun and I are investigating," she said. She reached into one pocket and produced an SD card. "Your computer can read this, right?"

"Negative," Yuki answered, looking at the card. Haruhi was certain that the normally impassive girl showed a tiny bit of interest, despite her usually inexpressive face. "However, the laptops are appropriately equipped."

"Okies, Nagato-chi, then you handle this," Tsuruya said, handing the card to the smaller girl.

Yuki gave a very tiny nod and accepted the card, loading it into the laptop and clicking several times before she blinked at the screen. "Well?" Haruhi demanded, when nothing was said. Yuki blinked several more times, then turned the laptop screen towards Haruhi.

* * *

"I ... see," Koizumi managed in a voice that quavered only slightly. "And, Suzumiya-san is aware?"

Haruhi's scream of rage echoed down the corridor before Kyon could respond.

"She is now," the pseudo-delinquent replied flatly.

"Right," Koizumi said, shaking his head. "Daimonji-san in class 3-5, then?"

"Yeah. You'll be talking to him, and I'll be the muscle."

"If your image weren't already set, I'd strongly suggest switching our roles," Koizumi said after a moment, as they turned the corridor to the third year classrooms.

"Really?" Kyon asked with obvious skepticism, glancing at him sidelong.

"Well, yes," the esper replied, frowning. "I have had a small amount of training in self defense, and you have more knowledge of the situation."

Kyon stopped where he stood, then shook his head, pointing to the pin on his tie. "You know what this means?"

Koizumi stopped walking as well, and grimaced, his smile completely vanished for the moment. "No," he admitted. "My area of instruction outside of the school curriculum was centered almost entirely on things that were of interest to Suzumiya-san and the Organization."

With a crestfallen look, Kyon looked at the pin on his tie. "Well ... hopefully Daimonji recognizes it. Long story short, it's a symbol of Tsuruya-kun's family. If Daimonji knows what it means, he should be terrified of us. As to self defense training ... well. I can take care of myself with him. Trust me in that, just like I trust you to be able to talk to Daimonji, alright?"

"As you wish," Koizumi allowed, taking a moment to compose himself and putting his smile back on. Friendly, not too menacing. Kyon's irritation left his eyes slightly shadowed, which only amplified his 'delinquent' appearance. "We make quite the pair, though. I hope this works."

Kyon allowed a tiny smile of his own.

* * *

Humming slightly to herself, Yanagimoto watched Taniguchi happily scurry from the room in search of the canned drink she had requested. He was really not that bright, but made for a useful pawn ... in a way, his feverish devotion was kind of endearing, too. His looks weren't despicable by a long shot, and even though he wasn't terribly athletic, he was still amusing.

Not as smart as his short friend, or as clever. But not all bad, and he was probably the most informed person in the school as to Haruhi's background. Well, most informed person who wasn't in Haruhi's clutches, at any rate.

She tapped her fingers across her desk absently, glancing towards Haruhi's empty seat, and the seat in front of it. She didn't particularly like causing the boy she only remembered as Kyon trouble, as he was in many ways a victim himself... However, Haruhi needed to be taught a lesson, and Yanagimoto was going to see that it was done.

Dismiss _her_ club after trying it a single day with those disdaining remarks, and then found her own supposed 'club'? And it wasn't as though she were the only person slighted, either!

Well, thanks to Yamane Jun's hard work, solid evidence of her wrongdoing was slowly but surely coming to light. As long as she could keep Kyon busy for Yamane, Haruhi's club would be finished off for good. Already the school rumor mill was alive with the stories Yamane - poor boy - had relayed to her. And his own innocent photography club ... victimized by Haruhi ... well, soon enough that would end, too.

Her ruminations were interrupted by Taniguchi's return, looking over his shoulder strangely before he shook his head and gave her a can of soda. "Here you go," he said with a wide grin. "Anything else, Yanagimoto-hime?"

She tried not to snicker at him. He tried way too hard ... but it was kind of cute, anyway. "Really, Taniguchi-kun, you didn't have to get this for me," she told him, taking the can.

"I live to serve!" he proclaimed without a single visible trace of hesitation. "So, what's the latest news?"

And on _that_ note... "I haven't heard anything new," she told him, shaking her head. "I suppose I could ask around... Hmm, Taniguchi-kun, why don't you wait here a bit? I'll see if I can't find anything else out, alright?"

He nodded at her and then strolled to Kunikida's side, slapping the shorter boy companionably on the back. Yanagimoto shook her head again and rose from her seat, taking her soda with her. Yamane wasn't in the classroom at the moment - he was working on the investigation to reveal the full depravity of Haruhi's plot, which had already turned Kyon into a full-blown delinquent.

Mostly, she just needed a break from Taniguchi, and more than that, she didn't want to spend all of her time being a gossip. It might have been one of her gifts, but she had no reason to earn herself a label as that kind of girl. As she walked across the classroom, she caught Sakanaka giving her an unfriendly glower, and coolly stared the other girl down. Stuck-up little rich girl ... joining the chorus because she didn't have what it took to be an athlete?

She was so caught up with looking over her shoulder at Sakanaka that when she walked through the door she was totally unprepared to have one of her arms seized by Nagato Yuki. "What do you think you're doing," she hissed indignantly, whipping her head around to glare at the shorter girl. There was no _way_ a literature club member was going to win a fight of physical strength with her!

Her other arm was just as quickly seized by Tsuruya, Haruhi's latest victim, according to Yamane. While Tsuruya grinned, one fang glinting, Yuki was totally impassive. Tsuruya might beat her in a fight, she wasn't certain ... and they had strength in numbers. "Come with us," Tsuruya said concisely. "We gots something to show you."

Uncomfortable about it, but not entirely willing to create a bigger scene, she reluctantly allowed herself to be dragged through the school until she found herself in a dim stairwell, one that led to the roof, according to signs. The roof was closed to students, and she was about to start her protests in earnest, when she realized that standing before the roof access door was none other than Haruhi herself.

"I should have known," Yanagimoto growled. "So, getting your accomplices to drag me to some quiet corner of the school? What next, you threaten me with violence? I'm not scared of you!" The two girls released her, but stayed between her and the only escape route, down the stairs.

Haruhi's eyes narrowed slightly. "I don't really know what you have against me or Kyon," she said simply, holding a digital camera up. "But that's not the point, here."

Yanagimoto grimaced, steeling herself. "I heard of what you did to the computer club president," she snapped. "And how you're coercing Tsuruya-sempai to help you out!"

The girl at the top of the staircase rolled her eyes and pressed some buttons on the camera. "Whatever, the computer club thing happened over a year ago. And I'm not coercing Tsuruya-san, she came to _me_ for help."

"That's true!" Tsuruya said, far too cheerfully.

"What?" Yanagimoto shook her head at the claim. "Nevermind that. What's your supposed point?"

"You think Yamane's your friend?" Haruhi asked coolly. "Did he tell you that Kyon took something from him? An SD card, maybe?"

She nodded grudgingly. More than one ... all of the boy's best compositions, according to what Yamane had said.

Haruhi suddenly turned the camera around, the display facing Yanagimoto. "This is what was on Yamane's card," she explained. "Still think he's your friend?"

She felt the blood first drain from her face, and then all collect there, as she stared at the image and a sensation of slowly creeping horror began to rise from her ankles. It rattled her knees, leaving them weak, then scratched her spine, making her shake, and finally settled in the back of her skull, leaving her world spinning as an enraged shriek escaped her lips.

* * *

"Okay, so ... how do we ask him to leave the classroom?" Kyon pondered, as they approached the door to class 3-5.

"I will politely ask him," Koizumi suggested, studying his 'delinquent' companion. Already Kyon had garnered unsettled looks from passing students ... and just as worryingly, more than a few enthusiastic and interested smiles from various girls. Best not to let that get back to Haruhi, though Kyon fortunately seemed to be totally blind to such things.

Maybe it was a mixed blessing, in the end.

"And if that doesn't work?" Kyon asked, glancing at him.

"You crack your knuckles and say 'please'."

"Sounds good. On you, then."

Koizumi nodded, leading the way into the classroom with his most pleased grin. Daimonji was almost identical to his photograph, a generally average looking boy with neat, black hair and unremarkable features. His eyes flicked to the doorway, passing over Koizumi, then locking on Kyon.

Before either could approach, he gave a sigh and a mild shake of his head. Leaving half of his lunch uneaten, Daimonji solemnly rose from his seat and approached the pair. "You're here to meet with me?" he asked, before Koizumi could speak.

Kyon nodded. Koizumi added, "If it's not too much trouble?"

"Yeah, sure," Daimonji grunted. "Come on."

Neither of the brigade members were pleased that he had seized control of the initiative, but Daimonji led the way down the hall and into the nearest boy's washroom. After glancing at the stalls to verify they were empty, Kyon stood by the door, leaning against it and blocking easy entrance. Daimonji glanced at him, then leaned against the wall by the sinks, sighing again.

"Okay," he said suddenly, glance flicking between the two again before he reached into his blazer and pulled out a narrow manila envelope. "I can see how this is going down; I'm not happy to have been part of it. I'm hoping that we can talk this out like reasonable people, and I won't end up with a broken nose or a bleeding scalp."

"That's a good wish," Koizumi said, nodding cheerfully. This sounded promising, at least. "Now, am I to understand that you're offering your cooperation with us?"

"I don't know what authorities you answer to, but lets be brutally honest - I'm a third year student. I'm not going to flip out like Ryuguu and pick a fight over this, not if I can get out relatively unscathed. It's early in the year. If I work at it, I can finish at some other school, still go on to college, and as long as I'm careful about it, still end up with a respectable career."

Kyon nodded wordlessly, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the door more heavily when someone tried it. "Occupied," he growled, sending whoever was on the other side scurrying away.

"This sounds reasonable to me," Koizumi allowed. "I cannot vouch for anyone else's opinion, but I think it's safe to say that we will hear you out."

"Okay. So ... this envelope has everything I've collected - all my master copies, and so on," Daimonji explained. "I'm no spy. There's no hidden backup anywhere - except for the one kept by the boss."

"And the ringleader is...?"

"Yamane Jun," Daimonji answered with a shrug. "He became the president of the idol research club in February, when our old president left. He started the entire racket and split us into cells. There was him, and three under-bosses. Myself, Ryuguu, and Manabe. Ryuguu managed sales, the rest of us managed our collectors. The other third year collectors are named in this envelope."

Koizumi took the envelope from Daimonji's fingers, but didn't open it.

"We have the first years," Kyon commented. "If you say 'cells', then only Yamane and the second year collectors know who they are?"

Daimonji nodded. "That's right. The club has a few bonus members ... people who caught wind of what was going on through internet searches or whatnot. Before everything was established, he set it up so that half of the members are just rubes who don't really know what's going on, and half are actually doing the dirty work. I'll admit; I was lured in by the promise of easy money." He shrugged, grimacing. "That's not an excuse, and I know that. But ... it's hard to back out of an organization once you get started, and ... sometime, not too long ago ... Yamane lost it. And not just a little bit!"

"Go on," Koizumi said, smiling as he tucked the envelope into his own blazer.

Daimonji chewed his lower lip and glanced at Kyon, then spread his arms in a shrug. "Not sure how else to explain it ... but he had a real fixation on one of your classmates."

"One of mine?" Kyon asked, raising an eyebrow.

The third year boy nodded. "I mean, pictures of a classmate, that's fine. Maybe somewhat scandalous pictures of a classmate ... sure, that can happen. But Yamane took it a step further."

Kyon's expression flickered darkly. "Who," he growled.

Daimonji looked away uncomfortably. "Dunno her name," he admitted. "Yamane just worships her and says that you're the one who ruined everything. He calls her his 'Tenshi'. Occasionally he mutters about her 'scent'. When this all started, I thought it was low-key and sensible enough, right?"

Koizumi didn't really see where the third year boy was coming from, and shook his head slightly in negation. When someone tried to push the door open, Kyon slammed one fist against it, causing the entire thing to shudder with a snapped, "Occupied!"

"W...well ... yeah, okay, I should have known it was wrong from the start," Daimonji sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his right hand. "It was the money, really. He arranged everything, and Ryuguu had a good connection with ... someone, I don't know who, really."

"They're not in the picture anymore," Kyon said resolutely.

Daimonji winced. "Uh ... that's great. Anyway, I want out with minimal harm to myself, all told. What kind of deal can we make?"

"I want to know everything about the master copies Yamane has that you can tell us," Koizumi said. "Where are they kept?"

"Guy's crazy, his house could be full of backups," Daimonji said with an apologetic shrug. "Maybe a safety deposit box somewhere. I know there's copies of everything he has on the computer in the idol research clubroom ... but there could be more - a lot more. I just want out. You two ... seem to know what you're doing, so I'm guessing that he's pissed off the wrong people. That's fine. I just don't want to be a part of it, anymore."

Kyon nodded thoughtfully. "What are you planning on doing from here?" he asked. "Do you have an exit strategy, or are you expecting us to help you out?"

"I..." Daimonji licked his lips nervously and shook his head. "I was kind of hoping this would be more like a police drama, I guess? That one of you offers me a deal with the D.A., and I can plea bargain... You know?"

"It may be possible to arrange that," Koizumi allowed, glancing back at Kyon and giving a small nod. "However ... you are correct in that it would be in your better interests to leave. My suggestion, then, would be to have a good reason to go home. Do not attempt to contact Yamane, or your subordinates. Just ... go home, make sure your story is in order when official questioning comes along - and it will - and if you want to save face, see about withdrawing before you are expelled."

Daimonji abruptly straightened up with a sharp nod. "I appreciate that. All the same, the way things are going ... you should make your move quickly."

Kyon grunted, stepping away from the door and walking to one of the sinks to wash his hands. Koizumi gave the third year student a nod of his own, and Daimonji sauntered slowly towards the door, hands in his pockets before it suddenly slammed open, revealing Okabe, still in his track suit, breathing heavily. Behind him was a trembling first year boy, who went wide-eyed at the sight of Kyon, squeaked in alarm, and streaked away at full speed.

"What's going on here?" the teacher demanded, scanning across the boys with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, my," Koizumi managed, his smile not slipping. "We can't have privacy in the washrooms anymore?"

"It's fine," Daimonji said, sighing. "These second years were helping me out. I've been feeling ill all day ... if you don't need me for anything, I'll go to the nurse's office and see about going home."

Okabe frowned, studying Daimonji, but allowing a brief nod before his eyes went to the boy who was washing his hands. "Kyon," he snapped. "What's with that appearance?"

Kyon finished washing his hands and then ran his hands through his hair, roughly slicking it back into order. "Well," he said, glancing back at his teacher with his typical, placid expression, "I'm in a washroom, I was washing my hands, and as you can see, my shirt is untucked. I don't believe it takes a genius to explain the functions of a toilet, but if you _must_ know, I spent some time in that stall there," he said, nodding towards the stall furthest to the back. After drying his hands, he tucked his shirt in and straightened his tie, checking his reflection in the mirror before turning back to Okabe. "Is something wrong?"

Okabe looked doubtful. "I heard that someone was being threatened in here," he said. "Someone was holding the door shut."

Koizumi shrugged. "Perhaps you heard incorrectly?" he suggested.

The teacher took a deep breath. "I've been hearing unflattering things about you," he warned Kyon.

"Really?" Kyon asked. "I thought I did pretty well on that last math test."

"I'll see you in homeroom," Okabe finally decided, shaking his head and walking away.

As the door swung shut, Koizumi turned to face the brigade vice-commander. "That," he said, "was nothing short of _astounding_. You heard him coming?"

"No, we lucked out," the other boy allowed. "Now. The question is, with the time we have left ... go straight after Yamane, or check in with Haruhi?"

"I vote for cooperating with Suzumiya-san," Koizumi said resolutely.

"Don't complain to me if we cut classes to deal with Yamane," Kyon warned, pulling his cell from his pocket as he re-entered the hallway.

* * *

Kanae wasn't certain what had upset Haruhi so much. She also had no idea what her sempai and Koizumi had run off to handle, but guessed they were related. Mikuru was likewise comfortably oblivious to the reasons behind the rage and rush. So, while slowly enjoying her lunch along with a cup of tea from the upperclassman, Kanae lost herself in the final volume of Caravan Kidd.

It was usually her favorite manga, being old enough that - evidently - it tended to be consistent throughout every reality that she slid to. She really would have preferred to watch the Trope-tan anime, but that seemed _wildly_ divergent between realities ... though, production value was almost always very high in every world she'd seen.

Mikuru hummed and took half of the table up with a giant roll of paper, carefully measuring outlines and making marks. Kanae was curious as to the nature of the project ... and as soon as she finished her manga, she planned on asking the upperclassman what she was up to. The door opened and Kanae looked up as Haruhi marched to the laptop Yuki had left turned on, Yuki, Tsuruya, and an unfamiliar girl with a glowing red face just behind her.

"Hello!" she greeted the quartet cheerfully.

"Ah," Mikuru managed, rising to pour tea for everyone. "Who's our guest?"

"Yanagimoto Ai," the girl introduced herself with a grumble. "Temporary ally."

Haruhi introduced Mikuru and Kanae in turn, naming them, "Chief Mascot" and "Mascot Trainee".

Kanae wondered if that meant she would get fun costumes like Mikuru. Hopefully another maid outfit, since her sempai really seemed to like those!

"Okay," Haruhi said, "now to wait for Kyon to tell us what he got!" Before anyone could ask clarification, Haruhi's phone began to chime. "Ah! It's Kyon!"

"What was that song?" Mikuru asked. "Is that a new ring-tone?"

"It's from an older DDR soundtrack," Yanagimoto noted, her expression still dark. "It's called 'God of Romance'."

Haruhi's face reddened and she shot a death-glare at Yanagimoto. The other girl ignored it, sipping at her tea.

"Kyon," Haruhi snapped into her phone, "what's going on?"

She listened to his explanation, her eyebrows rising. "Okay," she allowed. "Bring it here, then we'll take down the final boss! It's obvious, really!"

"What's going on?" Kanae asked, setting her manga down.

Tsuruya raised an eyebrow of her own. "If it's a final boss, I gotta be there too," she said resolutely.

"I don't particularly want to miss it myself," Haruhi grumbled. "Ah, but, Kanae-chan, Kyon and Koizumi are finally starting to wrap things up. Yanagimoto is going to help expose the big boss and we'll resolve everything."

That wasn't really much of an answer, so Kanae just gave a knowing nod and turned her attention to Yanagimoto. "You play DDR?" she asked.

"Not really," the second year girl answered, seeming to only just notice Kanae for the first time. "It's a pretty fast song, but one of the gymnasts I admired had a routine set to it not long ago."

Just as well, Kanae decided, DDR was fun, but every world had a wildly varying selection of tracks, so she never got very good at it. "So, you're a gymnast, then?" she asked.

"Yeah ... you should ask your president about it. She joined our club for one day before she ditched us."

"It was boring," Haruhi noted unapologetically.

"And this club is more interesting?" Yanagimoto asked skeptically.

"You bet," Haruhi replied, throwing back her entire cup of tea in a single gulp. "Stick around a while, you'll see."

Kanae's sempai knocked at the door, and Mikuru folded her paper in half, hiding the markings. "Come in!" she called.

Koizumi opened the door and entered, followed by the sempai. "Ah? What happened to delinquent-mode?" Tsuruya asked, hopping to her feet and moving to Kanae's sempai's side.

"Ran into a teacher and needed to look normal," he answered.

Tsuruya nodded sagely and plucked the pin from the boy's tie, moving it to his lapel. "There," she said decisively.

Koizumi glanced at the other boy, pulling an envelope from his pocket. "Daimonji has been taken care of," he said. "Well, mostly. Mori-san will take care of things from the administrative end, and the Organization will be ready to take care of everything else we need done once we've finished this and can deliver a full report to them on ... what's going on."

"Good," Haruhi said, nodding. "Excellent work." Her gaze went to Kanae's sempai, and one eyebrow rose. Mikuru was running a length of string across him, measuring him and jotting notes down on a pad of paper. "So, was there any violence?"

"Weirdly enough, we lucked out and Daimonji folded like a cheap suit," he answered, shrugging. "We just came in and- WAAH!" He stared wide-eyed, at Mikuru, who was merely humming to herself as she pulled her hands back from his leg and jotted another note down on her pad of paper.

"That..." Haruhi started, before she fell short, narrowing her eyes and staring at Mikuru intently. "That was pretty bold, Mikuru... I'm not sure how I feel about being that forward, but I think it'd better not happen again any time soon!"

"Did... Did Asahina-san just molest Sempai?" Kanae wondered, not sure if she had seen it right, or it was her imagination.

"What?" Mikuru asked, blinking as she looked around at everyone else in the club, all with eyes fixed on her. "What happened?"

Yuki blinked several times, then explained, "Asahina Mikuru was merely measuring the length of his inseam."

"Exactly," Mikuru agreed with a nod, looking confused. "Did it seem like something else happened?"

He coughed, his face red. "Um, anyway," he managed, "we thought we'd give that to you and see where we should go from there."

Haruhi opened the envelope, pulling out a sheet of folded paper and a small stack of SD cards. "What's this, a list of names?" she asked, frowning.

"The third year collectors," Koizumi offered.

"Tsuruya-kun has the first year collectors," Kanae's sempai added. "All that's left is Yamane and the second year collector names."

"And he's going down," Yanagimoto added. "I don't follow whatever madness is happening in this room, but I know that one fact! That's the only reason I'm here."

"Right, well, then let's go get him and finish this off!" Haruhi declared, grinning.

"Ah..." Koizumi looked uncomfortable, his smile weakening. "Is that wise?"

"I think you should leave this to me and Tsuruya-kun," Kanae's sempai said, shaking his head. "Haruhi, you and Koizumi need to be ready to deal with the student council president."

Haruhi glowered at him, then nodded reluctantly. "Alright," she sighed. "I get the stupid desk job. Go be an action hero."

"Yeah, because that's exactly what my academic career needs," he replied, nodding. "And my mother - can't forget her."

"You're the one who told me to stay here and prepare to bail you out," she warned him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Yanagimoto interrupted. "However, I do know that Yamane will let me into his club room, and lunch is going to end pretty soon - if you're going to do anything, we'd probably better hurry."

Tsuruya leaned close to the boy and eyed him critically before producing a hairbrush and straightening out his hair. "You know Yamane better than I do," she said, while he obediently held still and neatened his appearance up. "So you want to talks to him?"

"I imagine I'm not the only one who wants to get a word in," he allowed, glancing at Yanagimoto. "But, yeah, let's get this over with."

"Fine," Yanagimoto muttered, moving towards the door.

"Wait!" Haruhi barked, standing up and slapping her palms on the desk in front of her. "Yanagimoto ... I still don't know what your problem with us is ... but we're going to talk about it later."

Yanagimoto lowered her face, then grudgingly nodded. "We'll see about that _after_ Yamane," she allowed.

Yuki closed her book and rose, setting it on the seat she had just vacated. "I will go also," she announced quietly.

With that, the four left the classroom. Koizumi sighed, taking his usual seat and eyeing the empty cup that Yanagimoto had left behind. Mikuru turned her attention to her paper, unfolding it again and measuring against the numbers she had collected from Kanae's sempai. "A coat doesn't have an inseam, Mikuru-chan," Haruhi mused.

"I might make other things," Mikuru answered absently, absorbed in her current project.

"Hmm... I think you should measure Kanae-chan next." Haruhi gave a decisive nod. "She's your trainee, you know!"

"Oh! Do I get a maid costume?" Kanae asked excitedly. This part of the conversation she could follow.

Koizumi quirked an eyebrow, and rose to pour himself a cup of tea.

"We've already done that," Haruhi dismissed. "Plus, I think Kyon's developing a maid fetish, and he shouldn't look at you that way."

Kanae pouted. "I wanted a maid costume..."

"What about a stewardess? Yeah, with your kawaiiko features and small frame, I think you would look even more moe in uniforms."

"Ooh, that might be fun! But I'm not a kawaiiko, I use 'I'." She pondered. "Would Sempai like Kanae-chan more if she refered to herself in the third person?"

Haruhi made a choking noise, then crossed her arms in an 'x'. "Negative!" she said, shaking her head quickly. "Too burikko ... and if you become a natural, it'll be a kawaiiko overload. Anyway, Mikuru-chan, did you hear me? A stewardess outfit for Kanae-chan!"

"I'll get on that next," Mikuru murmured, rolling up the papers she had finished marking, then unfurling a bolt of cloth and producing a pair of scissors.

"I swear," Haruhi grumbled, "when she's really invested in a project, she's in a whole different world!"

"Well, Suzumiya-san, should we prepare our arguments for the student council?" Koizumi suggested.


	12. Chapter 11

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Heroic Antics Begin Arc IV

Chapter Eleven: Yeah, It Went There

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Eight: Overbearing"_

_"In a confrontation that is either physical or verbal, when possible, completely overwhelm your enemy from the outset. If it's a serious fight, there's no reason to hold back, no purpose to pulling punches. If it's not a serious fight, you're reading the wrong book!"_

_"Methods of Victory" - 'T.H.'_

* * *

Yanagimoto led the way to the far end of the old clubhouse, and the idol research clubroom. Tsuruya stood just behind her, Kyon and Yuki side-by-side behind her. She wasn't sure how she should feel about leading members of Haruhi's club against someone who was an ally only an hour ago ... but her misgivings vanished when she considered the pictures that Haruhi had shown her.

Haruhi might have been many things - a depraved pervert among them - but she wasn't the type to use subterfuge. Subtlety was a force she didn't understand very well. Which suited Yanagimoto just fine at the moment; if Kyon was half the delinquent she had been claiming, Yamane would get some well-deserved facial reconstruction.

She took a quick breath to steel herself, then put on her most cheerful syrupy-sweet voice. The one she had previously only used on Taniguchi to try and turn him against Haruhi. "Yamane-kun," she called, rapping on the door. "It's Yanagimoto~! Do you have a free minute?"

The quartet listened to the creak of his chair as he rose, then the tap of his footsteps across the room before the door unlocked and opened. Yamane's expression shifted from something quite near a leer to raw alarm when he saw Kyon. Before he could slam the door shut, Kyon gave it a hard kick, sending the edge of the door flying into the boy's face, knocking his glasses off and sending him stumbling back.

Yanagimoto was a tiny bit unnerved by the way that Tsuruya strode past her and into the room, standing over Yamane's form with arms crossed over her chest, and both Yuki and Kyon seemed to just flow around her. The supposed delinquent gestured her in, and she hesitantly joined the group, before Yuki shut the door behind them, locking it once more.

"Ow!" Yamane protested, rubbing his nose, his eyes tearing as he fumbled for his glasses. "What the hell!? Yanagimoto-san - I thought we were friends!"

"So did I," she spat, glaring as he put his spectacles back in place and gave her a sad gaze. "Haruhi showed me the pictures you took!"

"Things are about to become very, very uncomfortable for you," Kyon said, using the informal form of the word. He crouched near the boy and stared at him dully. Tsuruya chuckled, her grin ominous. Yuki slowly turned around and studied the room. It was dark at the moment, only the red lighting of a film-development closet active at the moment. The short girl walked to the window and pulled the curtain open, flooding the room with brighter light.

"Hey!" Yamane protested again.

Yanagimoto realized that every surface of the room was plastered in pictures cut out of idol magazines, or full-page prints downloaded from the internet. She couldn't recognize a fraction of them. Near the far end, just before the window, was a desk with a computer on it, very similar to the setup in Haruhi's club room, only without the long table in the center.

"What the hell is going on here?" Yamane whined.

Tsuruya gave him a cool look. "Do you knows who I am?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow higher.

"Tsuruya Haruka," he answered, glaring at her. "Third year student. What did I ever do to you?"

Tsuruya chuckled, showing her teeth to the boy. "Do you know who my family is?"

"I don't care!" Yamane said defiantly. "Whatever big shot you're related to, nothing gives you the right to break into my clubroom and assault me!"

Kyon cracked his knuckles loudly, then reached down and pulled Yamane to his feet by the collar of his coat. "I very strongly advise that you start talking," he warned. "Because right now, most of the rumors you've been trying to spread about me are true. And if you don't start talking, well..."

"Well _what_?" Yamane sneered, unshaken.

"Then he gives you to me," Tsuruya said cheerfully. "'Cause he's the _nice_ one!"

Yamane's eyes went wildly between the pair, then turned to Yanagimoto, silently beseeching her for help.

"Come clean, you piece of filth. You think I'm going to help _you_?" she snarled, copying Kyon's derogatory use of the term. "After what I found out!?"

"You're being played!" Yamane tried desperately. "I was framed! This ... this is all Suzumiya's plan to- UGH!" He coughed, short on breath, hunching over the fist that Tsuruya had driven into his stomach.

"Haru-nyan is a much better planner than that," Tsuruya informed him stiffly. "And she's not the one here."

He gasped, struggling to breathe, held up only by Kyon's grip on his coat. "Okay," he wheezed. "Whatever... Just ... don't hurt me..."

"Let's start by getting us into that computer," Kyon said, releasing the boy's coat and pushing Yamane towards the desk.

"Y...yeah, okay," the bespectacled boy said shakily, wobbling towards the seat. Yuki watched him impassively as he paused, leaning on the edge of the desk and panting, then turned her attention away, approaching one of the filing cabinets near the door and opening it. Yanagimoto wondered what the girl was up to, but couldn't look away from the revenge she had wished on Yamane.

"Gonna open a window," he said, "need ... some air."

Kyon grunted wordlessly, glancing at Tsuruya. The eternally-cheerful girl was still smiling, her eyes fixed on Yamane, except to flicker to Kyon every so often for the briefest moments. Was the rumor that Yanagimoto had tried to help spread true? Was there something going on between them? Yamane paused once the window was opened, just standing still and breathing.

The chime sounding the end of lunch rang out, but Yanagimoto decided she'd wait and be late to class. For this...

Tsuruya grumbled, marching to Yamane's side and raising a fist in warning. He scurried to the computer, cowed, and frantically began typing. "I'll log in, and you can see-" He broke off, and Yanagimoto realized his ploy too late, too shocked to react to what he'd done. When Tsuruya had moved towards him, she stood next to the window.

With a desperate shove, he pushed her to a three-story drop to a concrete walkway. She felt a horrified shriek build in her own throat as Tsuruya's eyes widened, and her hands windmilled frantically, one catching momentarily on the glass edge of the window before it shattered, sending a blossoming aura of glimmering shards exploding outward behind her. A bare instant before the girl vanished from sight, Kyon had somehow gotten there, grabbing her other flailing hand and being pulled after her all the way to his shoulder, his knees slamming to the floor loudly.

Just as quick as Kyon was, somehow Yuki was there, too. Before Yamane could try and shove Kyon as well, the shorter girl seized the back of Yamane's coat and - improbably - plucked him up with one hand, hurling him head-over-heels through the air, sending the boy flying past Yanagimoto faster than she could turn to look. The paneling of the wall crunched from the impact - at least, part of Yanagimoto hoped it was only the paneling. The boy made a retching sound and collapsed face-first on the floor after bouncing off the now-dented wall.

"I've got you," Kyon managed, his voice strained. Yanagimoto scrambled to try and help. All of Tsuruya's weight was dragging down on Kyon's arm, driving the narrow edge of the windowsill up beneath his armpit; she couldn't imagine how painful that must be. Before Yanagimoto even reached his side, Yuki leaned out the window and helped haul Tsuruya back up and into the room.

The tall green-haired girl was shaking uncontrollably, her eyes streaming tears as she collapsed into Kyon, who himself knelt on the floor. Tsuruya's right hand was slashed and bleeding from the shattered windowpane. Her left shirt sleeve over her wrist, where Kyon had grabbed her, was bloodied with a large and expanding stain. Her arms were limp, her hands shaking worse than she was. "S...stitches tore open," she whimpered. "H...hurts..."

Kyon swore something guttural, clutching the girl to his chest. "Okay," he said quickly, snapping his gaze to Yanagimoto. "One thing at a time. Yanagimoto, make sure Yamane's still down - keep an eye on him." She nodded shakily, glad to follow orders and not think about things too heavily.

Behind her, Kyon continued, "Tsuruya-kun, it's going to be okay. You trusted me with your secrets, so we're going to trust you with this. Nagato..." She couldn't hear the rest of his words, but realized that ultimately, she didn't _want_ to. Whatever world she'd gotten involved in, she was happier being as uninvolved as possible. Revenge on Yamane was one thing, but this... This...

How had she judged so badly that the person she despised had garnered such trustworthy allies, while she herself had been deceived by someone as despicable as Yamane!? She was seriously contemplating kicking the boy while he was down to vent her frustration before Kyon was at her side. "Ah," she managed, looking up at him nervously. "Is Tsuruya-sempai..." She trailed off and looked over her shoulder. Though she looked very tired, the upperclassman seemed alright, catching her breath in Yamane's chair.

Maybe it had been a trick of the light, or Yamane's imagination? There was a smudge of blood on the girl's right hand, but her left shirt sleeve was completely unstained, now. Kyon leaned down and collected the boy's glasses, somehow still in place, only slightly askew. "Yeah, Nagato took care of her. Hold these for me," he said, thrusting them at her as he straightened.

She numbly accepted them.

"Nagato, is Yamane alright?"

"Minimal reasonable force was used," the girl stated calmly. "No permanent damage should result."

He smiled at her. "Thank you. Now, we don't need any interruptions, could you secure the door?"

"Understood," Yuki replied, stepping away from Tsuruya's side to place one hand against the door and stare at it intently.

Bending down again, Kyon grabbed Yamane's collar and dragged him to the window, hauling the boy upright before slapping him awake. "W...wha-" Yamane sputtered, just before Kyon shoved him out the window.

But not to fall, as she'd initially thought. Grabbing first by Yamane's belt, and then lowering him further, so that Yamane was suspended by only one ankle, Kyon let the boy dangle. Yanagimoto was stunned, but no so much she couldn't be impressed by the fact that Kyon was holding the boy with what seemed minimal effort.

"Rise and shine!" Kyon yelled with fierce cheer, jerking the ankle and shaking the other boy. "How you doing, Yamane?"

"L...let me go!" Yamane yelped.

"Classic poor choice of words," Kyon remarked. "Do you _really_ want that?"

Yamane wailed, then screamed, "Help! Help! Someone - I'm being murdered!"

"Nonsense," Kyon said, shaking Yamane again. "I'm trying to save you. But, see, I recently strained this arm ... not sure how much longer I can hold you up!"

"You're never going to get away with this!"

"You think? So, maybe I should just drop you, since I'm damned anyway? How does that saying go ... 'if you're going to do the time, may as well do the crime'?"

Yanagimoto stared in morbid fascination. Was Kyon _actually_ going to drop the boy...? The door to the clubroom shook with a muffled yell and a frantic slam, but didn't budge. Yuki stared at it fixedly, one hand holding it shut. Then again ... she had somehow hurled Yamane the length of the clubroom with one hand.

Tsuruya gave a small shudder, recovering slightly and rising from the chair. "Escalation is an ugly game, Yamane," she warned. "And it's not one you're going to win todays. I don't get mad much, but you badmouthed my friend, you tried to murder me, and you shamed almost every girl in this school. Believe me, if Kyon-kun lets you have a three-story french-kiss with the pavements below, that's a mercy compared to the world of hurt I could introduce you to!"

"Let me go!" Yamane wept. "Please!"

"Password for your computers," Tsuruya demanded, producing a notepad and paper from one pocket. "Names of your accomplices - _all_ of them."

"And make it quick," Kyon added, shaking the boy, his arms trembling. "You've got some people watching you down there."

"M...my password is 'Tenshi'," Yamane cried. He then wept a litany of names, which she also studiously wrote.

"Good," Tsuruya murmured, once the names were all recorded. She then turned to the computer, tapping a few keys. "Okies, password checks out."

"You've got quite an audience, now," Kyon grunted, exertion reaching his voice. "Tell you what, Yamane, since you've been a sport about this so far... Say hello and wave to the nice people!"

"Hello!" Yamane wailed.

Yanagimoto anxiously crept to the side of the window furthest from the scene, eyes widening as she realized fully half of the students in the school had flooded the courtyard to stare at the spectacle. The classrooms opposite the club room were full of onlookers, and quite a few were taking pictures with cell phones or cameras.

"Louder," Kyon rasped. "My arms are getting tired. Since you've got their attention, introduce yourself ... and tell everyone what you were doing in this room!"

"M...my name is Yamane Jun!" the terrified boy screamed. "F...for the last few weeks I've run an illicit photography ring! I've been collecting pictures of all the girls in the school as they changed uniforms! I've been s...selling them to yakuza, or anyone else who will pay me!" He blubbered wordlessly for a moment, then keened, "I don't want to die!"

"Um, hey, Tsuruya-kun," Kyon said, his voice suddenly level. "Is it me, or did Yamane here just wet himself?"

"Huh?" The upperclassman cautiously approached to peer out the window, then exploded into gales of laughter. "Bwahahaha! Oh, Yamane-chan, that's _precious_! I'll make sure one of those pictures of you that's being taken down there now is _right_ next to the article about this that'll be in the paper!"

Kyon snorted, hauling the boy into the room and laying him out with a straight punch to the face, stepping away from the widening puddle forming around Yamane.

The delinquent moved away from the window and stood still for a long minute, just closing his eyes and breathing very deeply. When his eyes opened, he raised his hands before him, frowning at their shaking. "I don't like being angry," he muttered.

Tsuruya shut the computer down, then walked to his side, pulling his face towards hers, so their foreheads touched, her eyes closed. "It's okay," she soothed quietly. "You get angry for good reasons. I'm sorry, Kyon-kun."

"I'm not," he replied, his arms wrapping around Tsuruya. "You're okay, and we're done with this, right?"

"...almost," Tsuruya meekly said, tentatively hugging him back. "I'm sorry ... he kept records on his system ... he made a sale last nights. If we can get those pictures back before they go onto the internet..."

"Okay," he mumbled, shifting his face to one side and burying it in her shoulder. "When this is over, I need a damn vacation."

"Anything I can do for you," she promised him, breaking the embrace to stare into his eyes and nod emphatically.

He gave a shaky grin and rolled his neck, cracking it in several places. "Hopefully we can get out of this without going to jail, huh?"

Yanagimoto swallowed. Whatever was going on between Tsuruya and Kyon ... it was none of her business. But if that scene was anything to go by, the pair needed one-another. And much to her surprise, Yanagimoto realized that if it kept things like Yamane's plot out of her school, she was all for it. They were involved in life-or-death struggles ... judging by their relatively unshaken demeanors, and how unreasonably fast Tsuruya had recovered from her ordeal, this wasn't _that_ unusual for them. And here, she had spun pointless drama to make their lives harder?

"Nagato," Kyon began, turning around to look at Yuki, then cutting off with a choked gasp.

Following his gaze, Yanagimoto saw a floor-length picture on the back of the door. A familiar girl that she remembered seeing a long time ago... She was looking over her shoulder, laughing about something as she undid the zipper on the side of her skirt, her long blue hair fanned out behind her. "I...is that," he stuttered, eyes widening in what Yanagimoto thought was horror.

"Yes," Yuki answered.

"S...so this whole thing..."

"A ... long-term plan," Yuki said quietly. "Until seeing the data acquired from Yamane Jun's operation, the mechanisms of this were invisible to me. However, the execution appears to have become ... corrupted."

Swallowing, Kyon gave an uncomfortable nod, muttering the name of the girl in the picture, "Asakura Ryouko..."

* * *

Haruhi had elected to ignore the chime warning students to return to their classrooms, and Koizumi stayed with her. Mikuru and Kanae, being largely uninvolved, returned before they were late, while Haruhi quickly wrote out a list of notes and considerations for the explanation to the student council.

Packing away the lunch box he had brought to the clubroom, Koizumi glanced out the window, just catching a growing crowd of students looking towards the opposite end of the club building. Haruhi caught it too, glancing over her shoulder before gathering up her papers and narrowing her eyes. "We'd better check this out," she declared, swiftly jogging out of the room.

Shrugging, Koizumi followed, not expecting much of anything spectacular until they reached the courtyard and caught the nearby murmuring students. At a glance, the clubroom furthest from the brigade room, but on the same floor, was the focus of attention. One of the windows had been half-shattered, and a very familiar student was dangling Yamane Jun out the window by his ankles.

Haruhi's eyes widened, before she smacked her forehead with the heel of one palm. "Kyon is such an idiot," she groaned. "Koizumi, you work damage control on this end, we'll meet up when we face off against the student council president!"

Koizumi only had time to nod before she dashed off, and he found himself hindered by the thickening crowd. It would take a miracle, or maybe Emiri's tampering to get something of this magnitude passed down to the student council... It would probably take some doing just to keep Kyon from being expelled. Fights and intimidation were one thing, but such a display in broad daylight...

Breaking into a jog of his own, Koizumi quickly trotted to the hall outside of the room in question. Okabe and a pair of other teachers were already there, Okabe anxiously slamming one shoulder into the door repeatedly, the other two watching him while trying to call through the door and demand it be opened.

If Yuki were in that room, no teacher would be given access... Okabe was Kyon and Haruhi's homeroom teacher, and just a normal person, as far as Koizumi knew. The other two were Organization members; Tanaka and Hoshino. Tanaka was a shortish male with plain features in his thirties, and Hoshino was a tallish woman with sharp features in her forties.

Okabe ignored Koizumi's approach, and the other handful of students who had gathered around in the hallway to stare in amazement. The other two caught his eyes and shook their heads slightly. He understood their meaning clearly enough; they didn't have a way to make Okabe look the other way at the moment, which would make smoothing things over more difficult.

Retreating down the hall out of earshot of the crowd, he stopped before the computer clubroom. Their door was open, and the president was leaning out the open window to see what the commotion was. Keeping an eye on the man, Koizumi pulled his phone from his pocket and speed-dialed Mori.

He gave her a terse explanation for the day's activities - not enough time to try and explain the scandals, just the trouble that they would need to get Kyon out of. Once he was done, he caught his breath; Okabe had stopped trying to break down the door for the moment.

Mori finally said, "Understood. I will get in touch with other school operatives. In the meantime, Kyon is mostly able to look after himself now, I think. So make sure that Suzumiya-san is being covered."

She hung up without waiting for him to confirm. He debated internally for a moment, but doubted that he would actually even find Haruhi if he were to search for her. That thought in mind, he strode back towards the teachers, drawing in hearing range just as the door opened, swinging inward easily.

Yuki was the first student behind the door, stepping back as though she had just unlocked it. Directly behind her was Yanagimoto, and Tsuruya and Kyon were side-by-side behind her. Okabe yelled and made to seize Kyon's shoulder; the physical education teacher was no match for Yuki.

The slight girl grabbed Okabe's wrist with just the fingertips of her left hand, quickly spinning the man about and pinning him against the wall in a joint-lock by his own elbow. "W...what is the meaning of this?" he protested.

Tanaka and Hoshino winced. Once again, the message was clear enough to Koizumi.

"You will not touch him," Yuki answered.

"That's enough, Nagato," Kyon said, shaking his head. "Okabe-sensei, we'll go with you. There's no need for force."

Yuki blinked, then released the teacher, who straightened his arm out and glowered. "Don't think you're getting off easily!" he warned, shooting a look that was both amazed and confused at Yuki.

"No good deed goes unpunished," Kyon remarked, shrugging.

Tsuruya fished in her pocket for a moment, then produced a card. "This numbers is one of my father's men," she said, waving it back and forth. "He represents my family legally. Further inquiries will need to go through him for myself, Kyon-kun, and Nagato-chi. Any statement taken without our lawyer present is inadmissible! Yanagimoto's just a bystander, though, so she shouldn't be in trouble."

Okabe growled. Koizumi felt his smile slipping. This was serious! Tsuruya invoking legal protection and treating the entire thing as a crime drama... This wasn't helping, and neither was Kyon's amused almost-smirk. Especially added to Tsuruya's triumphant grin, and Nagato's utter indifference after a girl one third or less the teacher's mass had easily manhandled him.

"Okabe," Tanaka said suddenly, when the teacher seemed about to reply. "Why don't you take care of Yanagimoto and return her to her homeroom? Hoshino and I will bring the others to the principal's office; you can also have the nurse come to take a look at Yamane while we wait for the ambulance."

"Yes, good," Okabe decided, still frowning. "Yanagimoto, if you're uninvolved, please come with me. We'll stop by the office briefly so you can give a statement, and then return you to class."

The girl looked hesitant for the merest moment before she shook her head and slipped past Yuki to follow Okabe without a word.

"You trouble-makers," Tanaka said, glancing at the students in the hall, staring at the scene. "Get out of here and back to class! Oh, except for you, Koizumi-kun. Don't think I'll let one of my own homeroom students gawk like this without reprimand!"

"Caught," Koizumi chuckled, giving a sad smile and shrugging to the other students in the corridor as they obediently ran away.

Once they were out of earshot, Tsuruya crossed her arms over her chest and eyed the two Organization teachers suspiciously. Kyon seemed almost as indifferent to them as Yuki.

"Tanaka, Hoshino," Koizumi began apologetically, "at this time, Kyon-kun is entirely aware of your role at the school."

"He is?" Tanaka asked, taken aback, eyes widening when they turned to Kyon. Hoshino seemed just as surprised.

"Organization, right?" Kyon asked. Tsuruya's stance loosened as she looked at Kyon in confusion.

The two teachers nodded hesitantly. "Still," Hoshino said, frowning, "we're going to completely break with appearances if we don't take you to the faculty offices, and this is quite an event to smooth over..."

"And Tsuruya-kun is involved, which makes it awkward for you, right?" Kyon asked, shaking his head. "Well, in any case, Koizumi, what do you think we should do?"

"Ah, well ... Hoshino-san should be able to escort you to the office," Koizumi suggested. "Tanaka can watch the club room and keep an eye on Yamane Jun. I'll go with you for the moment, but..."

"We can talk on the way," Kyon commented, falling into step behind Hoshino, Yuki and Tsuruya following just behind him and to either side. Koizumi hurried ahead, having to walk a bit ahead to keep out of Tsuruya's way.

"Well, this is going to escalate to police involvement, I suspect," Koizumi said, grimacing. "I have a hard time imagining them not being called in."

"Between that computer, which we have the password for, and the other evidence that Haruhi's hanging on to, we should be able to prove what they were up to without any trouble," Kyon said confidently.

"While I believe with all confidence that good will prevail, the bigger issue at the moment is making sure that your own life isn't too badly disrupted," Koizumi warned, frowning. "In other words, you underestimate your importance to Suzumiya-san by allowing yourself to be in a situation like this. Things will become difficult for all of us, I think, if you are suspended."

Kyon winced, shifting his shoulders. "Crap," he muttered. "And my mom's going to freak out about me 'destroying my future' to become a delinquent again."

"I'm ... not sure what's going on here," Tsuruya noted, glancing between Koizumi and the silent Hoshino. "But, Kyon-kun, I might be able to help, if you let me know the details?"

"Yeah ... I guess I owe you an explanation on that one later, Tsuruya-kun," Kyon admitted, grimacing. "Once we've got some relative privacy."

* * *

After collecting all of the paperwork and contacts that Haruhi thought she would need, she felt a nagging suspicion that she had forgotten something. Dashing all the way back to her clubroom, she was surprised to see the computer research society president standing in the hall, looking back towards the idol research clubroom door.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" she reminded him.

He raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at her, before shaking his head. "You really think that little of me?" he asked. "I graduated last year, you know. But the club asked me to stay on as president through this term; I have special permission from the school to be here for that." He shook his head. "I guess you don't talk to your friend Kyon ... he already knows that. Nevermind that, though. Kyon seemed a good sort, and Nagato Yuki absolutely didn't seem like the kind to get herself in trouble. So ... what happened?"

"Did you hear Yamane's confession?" she pressed, frowning. That much had gotten around school, surely the president couldn't have missed it?

"I heard it," he agreed. "But a confession like that... I suppose if it's true, even the incredible Nagato-san could be upset enough to be involved. Even so, not much stock will be put into a confession that was extorted."

Haruhi grimaced. Kyon, being a hero and leaving her to deal with the logistics and fallout. "Well, whatever. At a school, I think that most people would be swayed by the confession anyway. The biggest thing to worry about is Kyon's record, and this getting back to his mother!"

The boy in front of her frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "I really don't know anything about that," he said, shaking his head. "Just that your priorities seem strange to me."

"So?" she challenged him. "That means nothing! When your club was defeated, you swore allegiance to the SOS Brigade should we need reinforcement against the student council! That time is now, and I expect you to be good for something! I don't know if you have unresolved business with your ex-girlfriend, but that doesn't matter to me. What matters is your support in this issue!"

"Alright," he agreed after a long moment, frowning. "Those were your terms. Now, what can I actually do for you? I suppose I at least shouldn't be afraid of being suspended or expelled - I'm a graduate. But I'd like to leave my club members out of it, if possible."

Haruhi chewed her lip for a minute. "You know how to make a good computer presentation? Something I can show on a laptop?"

The man nodded slowly. "Sure," he said, uncrossing his arms to shrug. "I think I've got a copy of some presentation software lying around. Let's start putting it together, huh?"

She grinned at him. "Good," she declared. "Let's get to work!"

He fell into step behind her as she marched back into her own clubroom, before asking, "What ex-girlfriend, though?"

* * *

Before reaching the principal's office, the delinquent trio, escorted by an Organization teacher, found themselves confronted by a pair of police officers in standard dress. Koizumi gave a small sigh of relief at seeing the pair. If the Tamaru brothers were nearby, that probably meant Mori was already working on things to the best of her ability.

"Hello," Keiichi said, nodding at the group. Behind him, Yutaka checked his wristwatch and glanced around; the hallway was empty for the moment. The older of the pair produced a notepad from one pocket and made as if he were scribbling, but Koizumi knew it for an act. "We don't have a whole lot of time. Koizumi-kun, what's the situation?"

Tsuruya made a surprised noise, leaning close to Kyon and staring between the uniformed men and Kyon. Yuki's gaze had drifted to Keiichi's notepad and stuck there. Kyon watched everything with a distant, thoughtful expression.

"Kyon-kun has uncovered a sinister plot. Evil actions were brought to light, and the school was saved. From a practical standpoint, however, Kyon-kun did hold a fellow student upside down out the window of a three story building and threaten to drop him until he confessed," Koizumi said quickly. "For Suzumiya-san's stability, we need this resolved as quickly as possible, and ideally, without word of it getting back to Kyon-kun's mother."

"Alright," Keiichi said, frowning. "We're just plainclothes officers, not detectives. Is there any evidence on this other student?"

"Yamane Jun," Kyon supplied, nodding. "Haruhi has some of the evidence, the rest is on the computer in Yamane's club room. He got a bit roughed up, but Nagato says there's no permanent damage, so he should be fine."

"Her definition of permanent might vary from ours," Koizumi noted, giving Kyon a pointed stare, which the delinquent ignored.

"Okay. We'll take him into custody and have him brought in for questioning," Keiichi said, glancing at his partner. The younger officer nodded thoughtfully. "Then we'll seize his computer for evidence and hand it over to a detective."

"Will that work, Nagato?" Kyon asked, turning to look at the shorter girl. She slowly turned to face him and raised her gaze to stare into his eyes. Koizumi personally found her stare coldly unnerving; it never ceased to amaze him that Kyon seemed to be unfazed by it. After a moment of thought, she gave a single nod.

"In the meantime," Yutaka said, glancing at his watch again, "Mori-san should be waiting at the gate. Kyon-kun, we highly suggest that you avoid school for the rest of the day."

"You're telling me to cut classes?" Kyon asked, mildly surprised.

"The faculty hasn't met your family," Keiichi said pointedly. "Mori-san stood in as your aunt."

"I'm not ditching Tsuruya-kun or Nagato," he said flatly.

"Eh ... don't get what's going on here," Tsuruya finally chimed in, scratching the back of her head and giving an apologetic smile. "But, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right, Kyon-kun? You should go!"

"I'm not leaving without you," he said stubbornly, looking between Yuki and Tsuruya. "And anyway, Haruhi's still here-"

"I will go with you," Yuki said suddenly, lowering her gaze to look at nothing in particular.

"Likewise!" Tsuruya agreed. "Let's cut class and ... take care of that one last loose thread, right? You can send Haru-nyan a text!"

"This would probably be for the best," Koizumi agreed, nodding. One of the school's supposed teachers, his friends, and two supposed police officers were all pointing to Kyon that he should run. Was he that devoted to Haruhi? Koizumi mentally smacked himself. Of course he was; that was a stupid question.

"I'm not sure," Kyon said hesitantly.

"At this point, all you can do by staying here is saying something you shouldn't, or giving the faculty reason to pass judgment on you before Suzumiya-san can finish her defense of you," Koizumi said with a shrug. "You don't have to text her; I can explain everything to her myself. Now, really, you should run while you can. I will take care of loose ends such as your schoolbags." He nodded at Yuki and Tsuruya. "So, good luck, and hopefully we can meet tomorrow to discuss how things went."

"Right," Kyon decided, nodding. "Thanks, Koizumi. Good luck to you, too. And ... tell Haruhi I'm sorry about things working out like this, alright?"

"I will," he agreed.

Taking a breath, Kyon glanced at Tsuruya, and then Yuki. Without a word, the trio broke into a run towards the shoe lockers. Just as they vanished from sight, Okabe rounded a corner, jogging back towards Koizumi and the other Organization plants.

"Oh!" the teacher said, surprised at the uniformed men. "Where did the delinquents go?"

"In custody," Keiichi answered, shaking his head slightly. "Now, where is Yamane Jun? We're going to need to bring him in, too."

"This way," Okabe said, leading the way back towards the clubhouse. "Oh, I know it's a lot to ask, but I care about my students, so ... is Kyon going to be in trouble for this?"

"That's somewhat unavoidable," Keiichi answered. "Still, once the detectives chosen for this case finish looking through the evidence, they'll decide the final outcome."

"Hmm," Okabe mused. "Well, thank you, officer. I suppose I should just give Kyon's mother a call to let her know that I think he's a good student at heart."

Koizumi stifled an internal sigh.

* * *

After hurriedly changing shoes, Kyon dashed to the school gate, unsurprised to see Mori standing there in sharp black business attire. Knee-length pleated skirt, formal jacket, and all. She was even holding a pair of dark glasses in one hand. She quirked an eyebrow up as she saw Tsuruya and Yuki following him, but wordlessly gestured them into the car.

Barring a moment of confusion, when Kyon realized that for some reason both girls wanted to sit in the back with him, there was no trouble. He sat in the middle, Tsuruya to his right, and Yuki to his left. Arakawa was driving, as per the evident standard, while Mori sat in the front passenger seat.

"So," Kyon said, once Arakawa started the car, "you're pretending to be my aunt?"

"Yes," Mori agreed, nodding and looking over her shoulder at him. "Only a parent or legal guardian could ask for you to be removed from the school, and that seemed the best way to prevent your mother from being notified."

"Yeah, well ... with my luck it's going to get back to her anyway." He turned to Tsuruya, then said, "I'm sorry about this, Tsuruya-kun."

"We've got relative privacy," she said brightly. "So, you said you would explain things? I'm especially curious how Kyon-kun has pre-bribed police officers!"

"Well ... this is somewhat complicated," Kyon began, frowning. "Actually, Mori-san ... I think you might explain it better?"

"Are you sure this is wise, Sir?" Mori asked, looking very uncomfortable.

"As long as it doesn't get back to Tsuruya-kun's father until her test is over," Kyon answered.

"I want to know!" Tsuruya said, nodding quickly.

"Very well," Mori grudgingly admitted. "Ah ... Tsuruya-san ... the organization I represent at this moment is in part funded by your father. However, we were of the understanding that your family did not intend to pry into our agendas and intentions, provided they did not interfere with your family's. Therefore, we likewise also try our best to uninvolved with your family's personal business. In fact, until Kyon pointed it out some days ago, we were uncertain that you were ya... that is ... ninkyo dantai."

"If Kyon-kun said you could be trusted with that," Tsuruya allowed warily, narrowing her eyes slightly.

Mori looked uncomfortable. "A...at any rate, Kyon ... convinced ... us to help him assist you when he claimed it would be required. Which is why I am revealing these things to you now. However, there are a few points of concern. Your family may not approve of us tampering with your activities as directly as we are by assisting you here. Assisting Kyon is well within our allowed scope of operations, but this..."

"Well, don't worry about it!" Tsuruya said cheerfully. "I skipped schools on my own! Kyon-kun got permission and left with his aunt, who happened to give us a rides to my place! Right?"

"That would be most convenient for us at this juncture," Mori agreed, giving a weak smile to Tsuruya.

"Okay! So ... what's your organizations all about, anyway?"

Mori looked uncomfortable again. "It ... may be easier ... if you don't know," she said cautiously. "Sorry to be so vague, but your father was content to remain uninformed."

Tsuruya looked thoughtful for a moment, then gave Kyon a questioning glance before her smile bloomed again. "I want to know more," she said with a shrug. "I've been afraid of letting peoples too close to me because of what my family is and does. But Kyon-kun is tangled up in bigger, stranger things ... and he trusts me. I dragged him into my worlds, so ... I will let Kyon-kun decide!" She nodded to herself, smile widening to a grin. "So, Kyon-kun, should I know more?"

He bit his lip for a moment, and began to turn towards Yuki, as though to ask her advice, but caught himself, shaking his head. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, he slowly said, "Tsuruya-kun ... I don't want to make that decision for you. I believe that you can handle the truth, now. But I don't know if you take this step ... if we explain everything to you ... that you'll ever be able to go back to being 'just a side character' again. I know you said you liked being on the sidelines and making other people laugh."

His eyes opened, and he gave a small nod. He continued, "In fact, knowing about your family, and what they do, I understand why you chose to make yourself a bit separate from the rest of Haruhi's friends. I can see why... Well. I understand and respect your decision at that time. If you want to change things now, then I want to make sure you understand beforehand that it may be a one-way trip."

Tsuruya pursed her lips for a moment, staring back at Kyon with her expression sliding from joy to thoughtful neutrality. Just when the silence began to become uncomfortable, she grinned hugely and gave a decisive nod. "Okay!" she cheered. "I give Kyon an 'S' rank scores for that speech! You're right; if I make Kyon-kun decide for me, I'm running from responsibility. My trial is to learn to _take_ responsibility, not avoid it. So! Tell me everything."

"Very well," Mori said anxiously. "Arakawa, the temple, if you don't mind? That should be private enough... Now, I'm afraid I cannot enter closed space myself, and anyway, thanks to Kyon's efforts there isn't any active at the moment. So, please believe what I have to say, even though it will sound quite strange and I cannot give immediate proof..."

* * *

Something was up. Something suspicious. Something worth investigating.

And as soon as Haruhi finished saving Kyon's career and home life, she was going to get to the bottom of it. But after a few innocent questions turned into intense grilling, the president of the computer research society adamantly insisted he not only had never dated Kimidori Emiri, he didn't recognize the name. He admitted, once she found a picture of the girl, that she looked vaguely familiar, and then in a very defeated tone insisted that he'd never had any girlfriend at all.

Haruhi found that strangely easy to believe. As interesting as this new quirk was, she knew it probably had nothing to do with the situation at hand, so she shelved it for later consideration. Kyon might know more, but if she didn't finish rescuing him, she'd have to brave the storm of his mother's crushing gaze to find out. And that was one prospect she did _not_ enjoy.

"Anyway," she said, tapping the top of the laptop while the president of the computer club looked irritated and quickly punched keys. "Nevermind that for now. How much longer until you're done?"

"It's finished," he said, hitting the last few keys, then turning it around. "You'll have to add the pictures yourself, since you don't want me to see them-" At her sharp look, he quickly added, "Not that I should see them, or anything! So, uh, it's all up to you, then."

She nodded, paging through the presentation, which the president of the computer club had set up. He had labeled all of the pages she could add images to with instructions for how to replace them, which would simplify the process.

He rose, shrugging. "At any rate, that's my contribution. I don't know what else I could bring to your arguments. Still, give my regards to Kyon, and Nagato-san." He paused, frowning slightly as he looked at the ceiling, then nodded.

"Is that all?" Haruhi asked, already flipping through the images taken from the SD cards, glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"Hmm? Well..." The man seemed torn, then shook his head and gave a sad smile. "Ah, she's out of my reach. Tell them I wish them both the best, and good luck. I hope things work out for them."

She looked up from her work long enough to stare at him questioningly, but he seemed stuck with a melancholy expression.

"I'll be off," he said, shaking his head again. "Take care, Suzumiya-san."

"Yeah," she managed, frowning as he opened the door and stepped into the hall, just as Koizumi returned, looking a bit more worn than usual, but his eternal smile intact.

"Hello," Koizumi said cheerfully.

"Back already?" Haruhi asked, surprised. "What about Kyon? How's the damage control?"

"I've done what I could," he said, apologetically. "Kyon, Tsuruya-san, and Nagato have left school for the moment, and aren't likely to return today. Yamane-san is being taken to a hospital, but the police are watching him. It doesn't seem he's suffering internal bleeding or any broken bones, but he's quite badly bruised. He was too disoriented to give any testimony."

"Good," she decided, grinning. "Is the student council in session?"

"Yes," he said, his smile fading. "But, without Kyon-kun-"

"No, that's perfect," she insisted. "Harder for them to pass judgment on him, Yuki-chan, or Tsuruya-san. Let's go get them before they just make up their minds because he's not been represented."

"...of course," he allowed, nodding.

She finished moving the last few pictures onto the presentation and then saved it and snapped the laptop shut. "Let's go!" she declared, leading the march to the student council room. They reached the door shortly, and Haruhi opened it with her usual care, kicking it violently open to slam against the wall.

Within the room were a somewhat confused looking Okabe, a teacher that Haruhi didn't recognize, the student council president, and in one corner, noticed only because Haruhi thought to look specifically for her, Kimidori Emiri. "Hello," Koizumi said uneasily.

The student council president pursed his lips thoughtfully, not adopting his usual scorn-filled sneer, instead turning his gaze to the teachers. "You, too, huh?" Okabe said, breaking the silence and giving Haruhi a calculating gaze. "Shouldn't the pair of you be in class?"

"Ah, I asked Koizumi-kun to come here," the unfamiliar teacher said, prompting Okabe to look at him in surprise. "Koizumi-kun, if you don't mind...?" the teacher prompted somewhat nervously.

"Right," the esper said quickly, when Haruhi turned an inquisitive gaze at him. "As instructed, I have brought an account which should explain Kyon-kun, Tsuruya-san, and Nagato's involvement in the ... incident at lunch today." Haruhi began to scowl, but he quickly bowed and indicated her. "As his club president, Suzumiya-san will present it."

That was more like it, she decided. "As I'm sure you've all heard by now," she said, setting the laptop on the president's desk, as the teachers reluctantly retreated towards the edges of the room to give her space, "Kyon and the others were investigating a series of criminal actions."

"Yes," the president said dryly, adopting his more familiar sour expression. "Obviously, this should have been handled by your misfit 'club', and not trained professionals."

Haruhi ignored the comment, turning the laptop to face him and showing the first screen. "The issue was first discovered by Tsuruya-san," she explained, "who asked Kyon for help because of the enormity of the situation."

"You have not addressed the point that this is an activity best left for professionals," the president remarked. "Let us set aside your 'ends justify the means' stance for the moment, and examine that issue, first."

Haruhi grimaced. She didn't like the idea of saying that the ends always justified the means, but it seemed in her experience it _frequently_ did ... a certain incident involving tackling Kyon with Mikuru's aid notwithstanding. "I didn't say that," she retorted. "Be careful what you try and claim I said! If you put words in my mouth, your fingers will be bitten!"

The president calmly folded his hands together on the desk before him, sitting up the slightest bit straighter. "The point, Suzumiya-kun," he drawled.

"Eh, well ... Tsuruya-san discovered this issue and brought it to Kyon. Initially, neither of them even wanted me to know what was going on - and why not?" She tapped a key on the laptop that was facing away from her, changing to the next slide. "Would _you_ want to advertise to everyone in the world that pictures like this were going around, taken in your own school!?"

For all his stoic demeanor, when presented with the image that Haruhi had chosen for the first example, the student council president could not look away. His expression shifted from coldly arrogant to mildly awed, with tiny hints of concealed mirth. Picking up the laptop and swinging the screen around to Emiri, Haruhi added, "I would have thought you were too old for character-print underwear, Kimidori-chan. You should come to my club, sometime, though, Kanae-chan is a big fan of Trope-tan, too!"

The student council secretary's face still bore a serene smile, but Haruhi was positive she saw a flicker of something in her eyes. Something vast and irate. "I ... see," Emiri managed.

Haruhi set the laptop back in front of the president and hit a key for the next screen before he started to enjoy it too much. He'd probably never be able to look at Emiri the same way in any case, but that wasn't her problem. "This is a list of all of the first year students involved in taking these pictures."

"That..." The president coughed, looking up from the screen and fixing Haruhi with a dour look. "I understand the vehemence that such a craven act might instill into someone. But if your entire argument is an appeal to surrenduring to emotions, then you fail completely to understand what a system of law is for."

"Okay, fine," she retorted, paging to the next slide. "In that case, let's say that Tsuruya-san brought her complaints to you directly - that someone at the school was somehow taking pictures of her. What would you do?"

"That's not entirely a fair question," Okabe objected from where he was leaning against a wall. "Strange as it is that this issue has been handed down to the student council, that sort of action is more than a violation of school policy - it's criminal. If it _were_ brought to either the student council, or ourselves, then we would defer it to the police! Where it _belongs_."

"Is that completely true?" Koizumi wondered aloud, shooting the teacher a questioning glance.

"Nope!" Haruhi said brightly. "In fact, just a few days ago, a student left this school. Ryuguu ... something-or-another. It didn't make the news, no police were involved, and according to the attendance office when I asked, even though this student assaulted Kyon with a knife, he was given the chance to quietly withdraw. Word among students says he was expelled, but the official record says he withdrew for ... no reason whatsoever!"

"That's not true," Okabe protested.

The other teacher winced and shook his head. "Actually," he said, looking away, "it is."

"Is it any question in the face of events like that, or other, interesting 'withdrawals' in the school's past, most coinciding with questionable behavior on the part of a student-"

"You have evidence to support these allegations?" the student council president asked, sounding genuinely intrigued.

She nodded, tabbing past a few more example pictures of Emiri until she reached the incident list. "But, as I was saying," she continued, "is it that surprising that no student trusts the administration enough to come forth? You speak of the law, and order, but where's the justice in a system that sweeps the problem beneath the rug? This school isn't nearly as clean as it wants to claim! How many girls have to endure this humiliation to satisfy this school's pride!?"

She spread her arms in a helpless gesture, glancing at both teachers, then the student council president. "And if the police were involved immediately, what would they do? Make the entire thing public first, and then start investigating in their way? Every student and teacher in this school would need to be questioned - in a way, even though he didn't tell me his reasons, Kyon did this school a _huge_ favor by managing things like this.

"Now the police only have to question those involved ... and he obtained a signed confession from one of the ringleaders, to say nothing of the other evidence we've amassed! Realistically, this is the smallest amount of publicity you can expect to endure for such an incident..." Her eyes hardened as she trailed off. "While still looking out for the interests of the students. Or was _this_ what your slogan of 'student independence' was supposed to lead to!?"

The president tilted his head, his glasses shining like mirrors directly into her eyes. She grit her teeth and grinned at him fiercely; she'd never believe it was a coincidence of lighting. He'd obviously watched enough anime to learn to master the effect to conceal his eyes and hide his emotions. That he was hiding behind it now...

"What was that," he said icily, "about putting words in the mouths of others?"

"You're dodging the issue," she challenged him.

"Right, enough, fine," Okabe said from the side of the room, his expression sour. "Suzumiya, if what you're saying is true about incidents being covered in the past to make the school look better, then maybe some small part of why Kyon-kun and the others felt the need to do this themselves is explained. But in any case, it's not right for a student to take matters such as these into their own hands. As has been mentioned before, 'the ends justify the means' is not an acceptable answer, here.

"Worse, after all is said and done, if we let this pass without reprimand, we send the message to the students that the faculty are incompetent at best, and malicious at worst. We tell every student that the outside world this school is intended to prepare them for is a place where they cannot trust in any strength but their own. I'll even go so far as to say what you suggest would undermine the very society we live in."

"Interesting," the president remarked, his mouth a flat line, his eyes hidden behind his lenses. Emiri sat in her chair, dutifully recording everything by hand on her notepad. The other teacher sighed and hung his head, obviously worn out by the process.

"It is interesting," Koizumi noted, speaking again for the first time in several minutes, "to see that the student body in general thinks very highly of Kyon-kun at just this moment. Certainly, almost all of the girls - in any event, a solid fifty percent of the population, at a minimum. Why wouldn't they look up to Kyon, Tsuruya-san, and Nagato as heroes? They alone protected the virtue of upstanding, innocent students by exposing the unfortunate darkness that lurked within our otherwise upstanding school.

"If they were to be reprimanded, and punished, that would cement their images as martyrs. At least ... if certain documents linking 'withdrawals' to certain unacceptable mischief were to be circulated. Then it would be seen as fact that the school was untrustworthy, going so far to punish any effort to improve the situation and mask what you are correct to say would be perceived as incompetence."

"A...are you ... _threatening_ the school?" Okabe asked, his eyes widening in amazement. Haruhi felt a little stunned herself. She'd dug up the evidence for her report, but hadn't considered how useful it genuinely was as leverage ... anyone who was willing could find the same information from the public record.

Still, coming from Koizumi, who she had seen act genuinely forceful exactly one time ... going back to that horrid memory of the only time she'd seen Kyon genuinely angry at _her_... This was a new face for the boy, she thought. His smile had even lessened, becoming thinner, and much more dangerous.

"Koizumi-kun," Okabe warned, shaking his head as he stood upright, no longer leaning against the wall, "this is very serious-"

"I think our answer here is clear," the other teacher cut in, suddenly. "Okabe-sensei, the administration has already passed this decision down to the student council. I believe I see why. Punishing Kyon and the others would make them martyrs in the eyes of the students. Rewarding them would be going too far the other direction. But doing _nothing_, and allowing the students to manage themselves, and the authorities to handle the criminal elements...

"And, anyway, that all aside, all we're doing here is undermining the authority of the student council we have in place. Letting them handle it allows the student body to see that they're well represented by their own peers."

Okabe looked like he was trying to swallow something particularly bitter, but nodded. "Fine," he grumbled. "Fine."

"On that point," the teacher continued, glancing at the students, "we will let you finish this on your own ... but we naturally will need copies of the meeting notes.

Haruhi grinned, crossing her arms over her chest, as the student council president's head lowered, and she caught his resigned expression. She'd already won, as far as she was concerned. Did Kyon feel that same satisfied victorious surge right now, she wondered? He should be happy, knowing he'd solved the problem for good, and she was covering for him where she'd agreed to.

Yeah, she decided, he had to feel as positive as she did right then.

* * *

After reaching the largely abandoned temple grounds, they'd had enough privacy for Mori to explain things while they slowly strolled around. Tsuruya had listened to Mori's explanation with only occasional questions. In point of fact, when Mori had seemed to veer off and try to explain the roles of the others involved in Haruhi's life, Tsuruya insisted that Mori remain on topic, since she was concerned with the Organization and their involvement with Haruhi specifically. After hearing it all out, she gave a slow nod.

"So," she said, after an extended, thoughtful silence. "Kyon-kun, was that thing you asked for from aliens, or time travelers?"

"Aliens," he answered. "As we understand it, anyway. Ironically enough, it was to try and help them learn to slide to alternate dimensions. But that's not really important right now, I think. I mean ... do you believe it?"

"I do!" she agreed, nodding. "After all, didn't Kyon-kun somehow vanish while we were sleeping together?"

Mori made a pained, choking noise and nearly fell over. "What!?" she protested, horrified.

Kyon ignored the woman. Yuki seemed completely unperturbed by the comment, only glancing at Mori with what seemed to be mild curiosity. "Yeah," he agreed. "Nagato teleported me to her apartment for ... eh ... it was personal."

Another strangled noise escaped Mori's throat as she stared with something like raw terror at Kyon. "S...sir," she managed, "you... Suzumiya..."

Tsuruya looked thoughtful, but equally indifferent to Mori. "Okies!" she decided. "Let's wrap up that last bit of trouble with the Sumiyoshi-rengo! I can't do it alone, but if I finish this and pass my trial, then maybe I can help Kyon-kun like the others can!"

"Right," he agreed, frowning. "So, kick in the door to their place and fight how many of them?"

"Can't be more than twenty," Tsuruya said, nodding confidently. "We should be able to handle them!"

"Oh, gods," Mori moaned, one hand rising to cover her eyes. "Sir! Do you at least use _protection_?"

"He has not been given any," Yuki answered. "It has not previously been requested."

"Use protection!" Mori demanded, her voice nearly a screech, her hands balled into fists, her entire body shaking. "You must! Kyon-ku- That is ... Sir! _Please_!"

Why was she suddenly getting so bent out of shape, he wondered. "You didn't say anything except that I was on my own the last time I went out to do this with Tsuruya-kun," he said, mildly reproachful. "I had to demand assistance from you that time!"

"B...but," she protested, wincing. "I ... I didn't _know_!" She cut herself off suddenly and took a deep, calming breath. After a heartbeat, she recovered her seemingly unshakable demeanor. "In any case," she said evenly, "I will ensure personally that you are adequately supplied with what you need from this point forward."

"Oh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you have anything with you?"

Mori's face turned beet red. "No," she said stiffly. "Of course not. I can- I _will_ get it for you, rather." She put her hand to her face and sighed. "If you don't mind, Sir, I'll go take care of that now."

"It's fine," Tsuruya remarked, nodding. "I'll call my driver and set things up for our next mission."

Hands still trembling, Mori quickly hurried away down the stairs to where Arakawa waited in the car.

He turned to look at Yuki. "Oh," he said belatedly, frowning. "Um, we should get you home."

Yuki shook her head once, moving a half-step closer to him, but not saying anything.

"You want to come with us?" he asked in surprise, while Tsuruya barked a string of orders into her cell phone. Yuki's gaze slowly rose to meet his, and she gave a single sharp nod. He was about to protest when he caught himself. This was Yuki, after all ... and even if she didn't have all her powers and abilities, she had to learn the martial arts he'd learned in order to train him. She outmatched him by several orders of magnitude; why wouldn't he want her help against an unknown yakuza?

Kyon wished he could shake the feeling of impending doom that seemed to hang over him. What protection was Mori going to get, anyway? Maybe he'd be lucky, and it'd be a bulletproof vest - or better. That was worth hoping for ... but he wasn't likely to get it before the next assignment.


	13. Chapter 12

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Heroic Antics Begin Arc V

Chapter Twelve: The Multi-Mook Melee

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Five: Disguises"_

_"A good disguise is useful for infiltration, escape, or just plain taking a day off without being recognized. Care is required in selecting your disguise, of course, and going with your natural intuition for what disguise would serve you best is not always a good idea. Chances are, people who know you have a much better idea of what would make you look like someone else than you do - if they make a suggestion, think about it seriously." _

_"Cover" - Author Unknown_

* * *

After reaching Tsuruya's house, Kyon and Yuki followed the green-haired girl into her room, where a trio of cloth-wrapped bundles were waiting. "I got your sizes from Mikuru-chan, since she measured you at lunch," Tsuruya explained, as Kyon unwrapped the one she handed him.

Within was a complete uniform for a school he didn't recognize. Their own school had boys wearing parochial-style school uniforms, but the unwrapped outfit was the more classic and traditional military-themed gakuran uniform. It looked very like the one he had seen on Koizumi in that alternate world...

"What school is this from?" he asked, looking up in time to realize that Tsuruya was unabashedly stripping in front of him - again. He quickly turned, closing the door, then decided he was best off just facing the wall and changing anyway.

"Hikami Gakuen," she answered, her voice muffled as she pulled her blouse over her head.

He couldn't resist the urge to sneak a peek at Yuki, to watch her changing, but she was merely watching him when he looked. Feeling more self-conscious than usual, he turned his eyes back to the wall and began undressing, trying not to think about it.

"They don't sound familiar," he said, hoping Yuki wasn't staring at him as he dropped his trousers and stepped into the jet-black gakuran pants. Then again, with Yuki's perceptions, she didn't need to look- He decided he was better off trying to think about other things. "How's that written?"

Tsuruya said something else that was muffled, as he pulled his shirt and undershirt off, reaching for their replacements. A moment later, she said, "Sorries. It's written like 'top of the day', but it can also read 'above the gutter'. It's the delinquent capital of our city!"

"I did not know that," he replied, grimacing at the thick, heavy shirt with bulky metal buttons. "This is what we'll use to get into ... wherever this last holdout is?"

"Um ... yeah," she replied somewhat hesitantly. "Ugh, Kyon-kun, help me out with this stuff."

"Sure," he said, dropping the heavy shirt to the floor and staring when he turned to look around. He'd gotten his wish, and ended up with a glance of Yuki wearing nothing more visible to him than a skirt and simple white bra before she finished pulling the blouse on with mechanical precision. But his attention was taken by Tsuruya, and Yuki's eyes were riveted on the taller girl as well. Tsuruya had put her hair up into a bun, and was currently wearing the matching sailor uniform to the outfit Kyon hadn't finished putting on yet.

She had tugged the uniform's collar very loose, and rolled up the sleeves. "There's a towel by my feet," she said, holding a jar of some strange orange cream in one hand, the other hand already covered in it. "Can you tuck it into my collar? I don't want to get this on my disguise."

"Er, sure," he managed, feeling a bit embarrassed, but doing as she requested, wrapping the towel around her shoulders and then tucking it into her collar. She flashed him a bright smile in gratitude, and then began slathering the orange cream across her exposed skin.

"Nn... I'll need some help around my eyes and on my face," she added, grimacing. "Nagato-chi, can you help me out, too?"

"W...what exactly are you doing?" Kyon finally asked, spotting a hand-mirror in the pile of discarded clothing and accessories by Tsuruya's feet, and holding it up for her. "Are you trying to look like a ganguro girl?" He shuddered at the idea of Tsuruya in that imagery. Fake tan, huge white circles around her eyes, bleached blonde hair, makeup caked on thickly... He found it precisely as attractive as a sumo wrestler in full kabuki makeup.

She giggled at that, shaking her head. "Not that far," she protested. "And not enough times for that. I'm going for a 'kogal' look. These guys ... eh ... they know me, right?"

Yuki finished adjusting her uniform, and wordlessly took the jar of cream from Tsuruya's fingers with one hand, evening out the application of it across the rest of her face. Tsuruya closed her eyes and pursed her lips very hard, but with Yuki's precise, delicate touch, it was done almost instantly. Once the makeup ... or whatever it was ... Kyon wasn't certain and decided he didn't really need to know ... was evenly layered on, it began to fade from too-bright orange, to colors that more closely resembled a tan.

Tsuruya made a few faces, then shook her head. "I hate this stuffs," she said primly. "But it should work. Now, Kyon-kun, can you get on your knees?"

He snorted in laughter and spread his arms in a helpless shrug. "Somehow," he said, "I really expected to hear that from Haruhi, first."

She gave him a curious look before her smile emerged from the tanning solution and she chuckled, shaking her head. "I have to do your hair," she explained, wiping her hands clean on the towel around her neck.

"Oh," he said, feeling his face color as he obediently knelt before her. She plucked some gel and a comb from the mess at her feet, and he held still while she brushed something through his hair and toyed with it for what seemed to be several minutes - long enough for his lower legs to start protesting.

"Done," she said, flashing him a grin and gesturing to the mirror he was still holding. With no small amount of trepidation, he tilted it up to see what she had done.

"Oh, wow," he managed, impressed at the ruffian staring back at him. "I look greasier than Taniguchi!"

"Interesting," Yuki agreed. His hair had been slicked back, only to break into a number of sharp-looking spikes. When he tried his normal dour expression, he found the newly stylized hair gave it a fresh aura of menace and impending violence.

Yuki turned to watch as Tsuruya finished rubbing tanning solution into her arms and legs, then removed the towel from her shoulders and rolled her sleeves down. She twirled slowly, lifting her skirt slightly. "I miss any spots?" she asked, flashing Kyon a smile.

"Ah..." He swallowed his apprehension and looked closely. "I don't see any," he said, shrugging. He grabbed the heavy shirt from the floor and put it on, debating buttoning it up at all. He eventually decided to leave it completely unbuttoned, and the shirt beneath un-tucked. Tsuruya gave a nod of approval, then finished applying some last minute makeup touches - lipstick, eyeliner, and a pair of dangling clip-on earrings.

Yuki didn't say anything or change her expression, but Kyon got the distinct feeling that she felt somehow left out. He studied her for a minute, trying to think what she could do to modify her own image to be more delinquent-like, finally spotting the answer in his own original 'disguise' bundle.

It was the traditional cadet's cap to go with a uniform like his own, black cloth with a short, hard bill. As per delinquent style on males, it was supposed to have a wedge cracked clean off the bill, allowing someone to pull it low and see through the crack, hiding some of the rest of their face. This one was intact, and Kyon didn't see much point in putting a cap on over his spiked hair. He adjusted the band, and then while Yuki blinked, set it on her head.

She held perfectly still while he shifted the cap around and found the perfect angle. Low, shadowing her eyes a little bit. "Nice!" Tsuruya said encouragingly. "But be careful it doesn't tip too far back, because then you go straight into moe-mode!"

Kyon held the mirror up for Yuki, uncertain if she really needed it. To his surprise, the smaller girl seemed very interested in her reflection, studying it closely as she tipped the cap back. When it was so far back he thought it was about to fall off, Tsuruya was right. It made Yuki look waifish and innocent, almost lost. Not menacing in the slightest.

"Understood," she said, her eyes locking onto Kyon's. She held perfectly still for a moment, then put it back the way he had left it.

"Okies," Tsuruya decided, pulling a blonde wig from the pile at her feet and adjusting it to hide the bun her hair was coiled in. Much to Kyon's surprise, the large bun fit beneath the very curly and springy blonde wig. "One last step!" She snapped her fingers, and the door slid open, revealing the maid that Kyon was beginning to suspect was a ninja.

The maid wordlessly stepped into the room, producing a digital camera from one apron pocket. That cinched it, Kyon decided. Either she was a ninja, or any real ninja aspired to be as skilled as a Tsuruya family maid.

"Haru-nyan will love these," Tsuruya added with a smirk, pulling Yuki closer to Kyon, herself between the two as she gave a bright grin at the camera. Kyon couldn't help but grin himself. He might as well enjoy what he could of this madness, before going back home. Maybe if he was really lucky, his future self would tell him to stay with Tsuruya again.

* * *

Maruyama Iyouji was happy with his role in life, generally. He had a job, regular hours, and a small bit of respect. He belonged to an organization that relied on his skills, while also protecting him from things he couldn't handle on his own.

All told, his life had only improved from the day he first joined the Fujiya branch of the Sumiyoshi-rengo. He had been recruited very young, while he was debating attending high school in the first place. He'd heard that those who elected not to go to high school and enter straight into the working world called middle school 'Yakuza Finishing School', but hadn't realized how close to the truth the phrase was until he started looking for work.

A middle school education hadn't left him equipped for anything better than manual labor, and even though he was quite good with numbers, he couldn't find work anywhere without a better diploma than the one he had. Fortune smiled upon him then, and he was approached by his current boss, Fujiya Masao. Masao had brought him in from the streets and gave him simple jobs to start out, and he quickly proved his worth, moving from the 'little brother' rank of shatei to the 'accountant' rank of kaikei.

From a technical standpoint, he knew the move was a lateral transition, but he didn't mind in the least. It would be the extent of his career, but he had a job in Masao's main headquarters, and got to rub elbows with the 'big brother' ranked kyoudai. He would never be revered as an advisor, or a legal guide, and he had no chance of becoming any form of boss... But he got to spend his days counting money and reporting where they were being shorted.

Sure, when they first started out, money was scarce, manpower was low, and the knowledge that they were operating on the edge of Yamaguchi-gumi territory was intimidating. But Masao had persevered, and Iyouji had happily preserver-ed along with him. Slowly but surely, the Fujiya branch of the Nishinomiya area Sumiyoshi-rengo had risen in power.

And everything had gone fairly well, despite some doubtful ventures into the area of internet-based sales. Not that he was involved with those; Masao had found another kaikei who was better equipped to deal with the technical parts. That did suit Iyouji, though. If something went wrong, and the police followed the trail from the internet to their headquarters, it wouldn't have anything to do with him.

But no, the rising concern lately had been something that happened last Sunday. Masao's top two enforcers and ten kyoudai... Not the entirety of their force, but almost all of their best fighters had been out, working on some plan that Iyouji didn't know the details of. They had encountered a lone girl and her bodyguard.

In this encounter (and Iyouji liked that word, it suggested minimal violence), the girl's bodyguard had broken one of the Fujiya enforcer's arms.

This demanded satisfaction on the part of the slighted force, naturally, and the twelve of them subdued the bodyguard (even though 'subdued' meant a trip to the hospital in this instance, Iyouji was more comfortable with that word) and had even begun articulating plans on what to do with the girl. Verbalizing them, no less, in shamed admissions to Masao when he questioned his men later. Iyouji had no practical experience with the idea, but knew the theory well enough; 'subdue' her, drug her, ship her off to someone who could find a 'use' for her, and never speak of it again.

Unsavory, but they'd already 'subdued' the bodyguard to a pulp in retaliation, so what was the sense in backing out? The problem had been that, according to the enforcers and kyoudai later, another bodyguard of the girl had shown up. And then singlehandedly proceeded to ... well, 'subdue' wasn't quite strong enough a word here. He decided that 'sternly chastise' worked reasonably. The other bodyguard had _very_ sternly chastised a force of twelve experienced and trained fighters, even if one of the best combatants in that group _did_ have a broken arm.

No one knew who this mysterious second bodyguard was. But they were able to piece together the identity of the first bodyguard, thanks to a few cautious questions to other locals. That was where their problems began in truth.

They hadn't found some nameless rich girl and her bodyguard in the wrong section of town at the worst possible time. They had unexpectedly run into a member of the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Not entirely surprising, admittedly; despite Masao's foothold, Nishinomiya was generally their city.

But, no, it had gotten worse! It wasn't merely a member of the Tsuruya _branch_. It was a member of the Tsuruya _family_. This had brought rather a lot of unwelcome attention upon their group. Moreover, in the encounter (such a safe word!), the second bodyguard had made a point of guaranteeing that the girl would never again face any of them without him at her side.

That led to very uncomfortable silences in the headquarters. The group's confidence was crushed two-fold. Firstly, at the staggering horror of the one-sided encounter involving the second bodyguard, who by all accounts was fairly young - probably a high school student. Secondly, at the realization that the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi, which had ignored them for so long, was now likely to seek revenge.

As if that wasn't bad enough ... a few days after that horrible Sunday, one of their outlying branch offices had endured an 'encounter' as well! Masao had become furious at the revelation that Watanabe, the only completely un-_chastised_ enforcer of his rank in the field, _hadn't gotten the memo_. He'd got the initial notice, certainly, but didn't realize that he was provoking a member of the _Tsuruya_ family. So naturally, she and her bodyguard-from-hell had _sternly chastised_ Watanabe and his men, consigned the computer and all records at the site to an eternal rest, and just to add insult to worse insult, _chastised_ a non-yakuza supplier to Watanabe's operation!

Despite Watanabe's belated insistence that the second bodyguard hadn't been _that_ much of a fighter (hard to believe, given that he still _chastised_ Watanabe and a trio of kyoudai), worse damage had been done. Watanabe had blathered on about _revenge_ against the Tsuruya family! And all they had for their trouble was a nickname for the bodyguard, and the fact that he wore a Kitago uniform?

Still, their woes weren't eternal. Only yesterday, they had been approached by a civilian seeking to supply them with more of the materials that had been lost at Watanabe's office.

Iyouji nodded to himself and rose from his spreadsheets, stretching his arms over his head and knuckling back a yawn. His desk was in one corner of a warehouse-like room, the rest of the space taken up with boxes of various goods, chairs, tables, personal effects, and at the moment, twenty three of the group's best fighters, split up into groups playing cards, mahjong, and dice. Masao's office was in the back, and the boss in question stepped into the room just as the accountant looked over.

That scene would be etched into Iyouji's mind forever. Just as he was trying to think of something witty to say, some clever joke to help relieve some of the stress floating around the room, the door to the pachinko parlor that served as a front opened. The 'little brother' on duty as an attendant stepped into the room, glancing around briefly, then moving to Iyouji's side.

"What is it?" Iyouji asked the man as he approached.

"Um, someone's here to see you," he said, frowning. "Well, I think it goes to you. A high school student? Says he wants to sell you some pictures? Has two of his classmates with him ... I guess they're a gang? From Hikami Gakuen."

"Show them in," Masao said, having drawn close enough to hear without Iyouji realizing it. "It pays to maintain good relationships with the local gangs. And they're not Kitago uniforms, so we should be fine."

"Got it, Boss," the underling said, scurrying off to do as he had been told.

"We still don't have the setup to get these new pictures on-line where we can sell them," Iyouji said with a frown.

Masao waved a hand dismissively. "That, we can fix. Our computer guy is coming in tonight. In any case, the positive relations are more important right now. Who knows? Some day, they could be the future of our operation right here!"

The door opened again, and a trio of stereotypical toughs walked through, following the taller underling. A boy with his hair spiked back, a ditsy bubble-gum chewing kogal behind him, and one of those small, sullen, quiet types who was probably good with unpleasant weapons, wearing a boy's uniform hat. Iyouji was immediately stricken with a strange sense of familiarity with the smaller girl. A picture he had seen recently, somewhere? Maybe he had passed her in the street?

Her eyes didn't go to him for a moment, instead moving to Masao and locking there.

"So," Masao said, crossing his arms over the chest of his suit and sizing up the trio. "You want to sell something?"

"Pictures," the boy said after a moment, scanning the room thoughtfully, his previous grin fading to a sour expression. "You buy them, right? I heard that there was some guy ... what was his name ... Watanabe? But he doesn't seem to be in business anymore."

Watanabe was recovering in a hospital, and only two of his immediate subordinates was still in good condition, escaping with just stun gun charges. "That's right," Masao said, shaking his head. "Listen, I'd like to explain something here, before you get the wrong impression of us. We are _businessmen_, after all. Mere thuggery and petty crimes are not our primary goal, but you know how it goes; it pays the bills, right?"

"Like, totally," the kogal agreed, snapping her bubblegum loudly.

"Anyway, what's your name?" Masao asked, squinting as he studied the boy's frame.

"Shirahama Kenichi," he answered without hesitation.

"Right. Well, Shirahama-kun," Masao said, grinning, "I'm Fujiya Masao. Even though you are in the presence of the oyabun of the Fujiya branch of the Sumiyoshi-rengo, relax a bit. I'll even let you call me 'aniki'." Iyouji blinked at that. This newcomer was already being allowed to call the head of the branch 'big brother'?

"Very kind of you," Shirahama said, raising one eyebrow. "But, I thought you were interested in buying...?"

"Of course," Masao agreed, nodding. "But you look a capable sort. Ambitious, too. It takes a strong man to keep two women, doesn't it?"

"My guy is totally cool enough to handle, like, way more than that, you know," the kogal said with a huge grin. After a moment, the silent girl nodded her agreement.

"Lucky," a few of the other men in the room grumbled, setting down their dice and cards to watch the exchange.

"Right," Masao continued, nodding. "So, this is small change in the grand scheme of things. Think of the opportunities you have! You could go much further with your abilities - I can tell that much at a glance!" Iyouji hid a grimace. Masao was trying to recruit the newcomer. Was their branch hurting _that_ badly for insulting the Tsuruya family? Or was Masao thinking of stringing the boy along like a patsy, throwing him to the wolves, so to speak, when the Tsuruya family actually came seeking revenge?

"You're trying to get me to join your boryokudan?" he asked, skeptical.

The other men in the room bristled at the term, and Iyouji felt himself grimacing as well. He wasn't a violent person, and didn't care for the label at _all_. 'Violence group'?

"Don't talk like that," Masao growled, his friendly demeanour vanishing for a moment before he recovered it, though his cheer was much diminished. "Ah, you watch too many crime dramas. We're ninkyo dantai. The Sumiyoshi-rengo is a democratic association of independent groups that all band together for survival. In this climate, with police, the NPA, and dangerous other groups like the Yamaguchi-gumi on the loose, we have to band together. Really, we're the underdogs, clinging to survival where we can."

The boy said nothing for a moment, while the kogal snapped her bubblegum again. "Okay, yeah, that's ... really great," Shirahama said, shaking his head. "No offense, but we're really just here about the pictures."

Masao scowled. "You're missing out on a great opportunity," he warned. "But, fine. What do you have?"

Shirahama pulled an envelope from his pocket. "SD cards," he answered. "Various students changing into uniforms. I heard from ... a friend that this was going on in other schools in town, right?"

"It has been," Iyouji agreed, holding a hand out for the envelope.

Shirahama didn't hand over the envelope, just waving it back and forth. "Yeah? There's this girl I'm trying to dig up some dirt on ... maybe instead of a sale, we could arrange a trade?"

"_Now_ you're speaking my language," Masao agreed, grinning. "What school?"

"You have pictures from more than one?" Shirahama asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A few," Iyouji said, his eyes drifting to the envelope again. "But you didn't answer the question."

"Kitago," Shirahama said, nodding. "She'd be a third year. Kind of tall, really long green hair." The kogal grinned, chewing away on her bubblegum. The shorter girl's eyes slowly drifted from Masao to Iyouji. The accountant felt his blood drop in temperature several degrees from the coolness of her gaze.

"We might have something like that," Iyouji said hesitantly. "Why the interest in this girl?"

"She's like, totally the heir to the Tsuruya family," the kogal explained. "She'd be like, super _mega_ pissed off if she found pictures of herself on the internet one day, you know?"

Masao worked his jaw for a moment, eyebrows drawing together before he turned and glared at Iyouji. "I don't do the computer stuff!" he said defensively to his boss. "You know that! I just do numbers!" Suddenly, Iyouji began to understand how the strange 'encounter' of the previous Sunday had come about. The Tsuruya heir didn't just _happen_ to run across a group of their branch ... she had been seeking them out for the insult to her and her family!

"Let's not do that," Masao said, one eyebrow twitching. "That girl ... has a very powerful bodyguard. I don't think you'd fend him off, and... Well. Just forget about it."

Shirahama glanced at the kogal. "Well?" he asked her.

"Just give us the pictures," she said. "_All_ of the Kitago pictures. Then we'll let this pass."

"Just who do you think you are?" Masao growled, his patience obviously worn thin.

The kogal swept one hand to her head, pulling her thick curly blonde hair - a wig, Iyouji realized with dismay - off and dropping it to her side. A long fall of green hair, reaching nearly to the floor, tumbled loose as she spat her bubblegum out. "_I_ am Tsuruya Haruka, heir to the Tsuruya family," she announced, her grin wide and malicious, one fang gleaming. She pointed at the boy, who stood in a loose, relaxed stance, dropping the envelope to the floor. "This is my bodyguard."

The dreaded bodyguard known to the Sumiyoshi-rengo only as 'Kyon' nodded, turning slightly towards the shorter girl and saying, "Try not to kill any of them."

"Understood," the girl replied.

And that was when all hell broke loose.

* * *

After finishing her arguments and glaring at the student council president, he finally relented, agreeing that Kyon's punishment would be handled by the police and his family. Ultimately, he _had_ done a service to the school, and the students would almost certainly rebel at seeing a hero punished. Haruhi grinned in triumph. "So," she said, unable to resist a few last digs, "what does this say when you find yourself suddenly in the debt of the SOS Brigade?"

"You are more useful to the school than I had previously understood," the president growled, eyes narrowed. "But capability does not automatically equate to respect. You may think it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. But do not expect such behavior to be routinely overlooked."

"We'll be more subtle next time," she agreed, smirking.

The president's scowl deepened. "You can leave, now," he said, his tone acid. "I expect the police detectives will also require a copy of your 'report', and they will absolutely need the evidence. Understand, I say this out of respect for Kyon-kun, since he is not a bad sort, and I personally have no interest in helping _you_. However, if they are to determine his fate, it is they who must be swayed as to his 'heroic' status, not myself. In my eyes, results or not, you are a loose cannon."

"You can't have my gun or my badge," she retorted, grinning.

"If you had either, I would demand them instantly," the president snapped. "Now go; my patience wears thin."

Triumphant, she closed the laptop, shooting one last amused smirk at Emiri in the corner as she recorded the final notes of the encounter. Koizumi was right at her heels, and the pair of them found a pair of detectives in the hallway, waiting with cool gazes and otherwise passive expressions. One was a thirty-ish looking man with a stocky build, and one was a slim woman in her mid twenties, both in very nice suits.

She gave her presentation to them in a private room, Koizumi at her side, answered all of their questions, and at their insistence, handed over all of the evidence, even the presentation and all copies of the pictures from the laptop. Haruhi didn't particularly see a need to keep them, herself - they were illegal, after all. But she did worry about giving away every copy of the evidence ... what if the detectives lost them?

No way around it, though; the law was the law. Once she was done, she and Koizumi were both released with warnings that they were likely to be contacted for further questioning in the future, and she was finally able to return to class. Two periods late, Haruhi took her seat near the end of the second-to-last class of the day, realizing belatedly that Kyon was missing, and she'd have no way to make up the notes for the portions of class they had both missed.

Kunikida got respectable grades, and would probably be more than willing to lend his notes to help Kyon, but she didn't really think highly of the boy. Didn't he need to attend cram school to keep his grades at the level they were at? She had just resigned herself to asking him for help anyway when the period ended.

When the teacher left, she was mildly surprised to see Yanagimoto's desk swarmed with other students - mostly girls, frantically trying to get her to talk about what had happened during lunch. She watched, curious, as Yanagimoto rose to her feet and slammed both hands on her desk. "Shut up!" the girl yelled, silencing the classroom.

"I don't want to talk about it, so I'll say _this_ much," she continued, glaring at the girls surrounding her. "Anyone can make mistakes in judgment! The SOS Brigade may be full of the craziest people in this school, but even if that's true - they are _good_ people! And Yamane Jun was not _anyone's_ friend! Now leave me alone, I'm not a rumormonger!"

At that, the crowd dispersed. Gathering papers from her desk, Yanagimoto stalked to Haruhi's side, not making eye-contact, and dropped them on her desk. "Notes," she said stiffly, her voice barely audible. "For Kyon."

Haruhi was taken aback. Before she could say anything, Yanagimoto's face began to turn red, and she quickly added, "Don't thank me!" before stomping back back to her own desk and sitting down with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at nothing in particular.

Sakanaka approached Haruhi from her own seat, an obvious relieved smile on her face. "I don't know everything that happened yet," she whispered, "but I'm glad it seems to have worked out!"

"Me, too," Haruhi agreed.

* * *

Twenty four.

After the boy's warning, there was an extended moment of awkward silence before the two men who had first been stunned rose to their feet, recognizing the trio - or at least, two of them - from the 'encounter' at Watanabe's headquarters. "You'll pay!" the brutish one screamed, leading in with a fierce punch towards the boy's face.

He never got close; the slight girl moved suddenly, standing in front of the large man and gently rebuffing him with a palm-strike to the solar plexus. The eighty kilo man was launched through the air in a high arc, landing with a resounding crash on one of the crates lining the room. The other man was knocked down with a foot-sweep from the boy, sending him hurtling to the floor to immediately be subdued with another charge from the Tsuruya heir's stun gun. The green-haired girl began to laugh from deep in her throat.

Twenty two.

The boy's stance shifted slightly and he snapped both arms out, launching a pair of collapsible batons from his sleeves into his hands, spinning both about in circles quickly enough to make whipping noises through the air. He stood protectively before the Tsuruya heir.

The remaining men lurched into action, Masao stumbling back and heading towards his office. "You're making a mistake!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Attacking me in my own headquarters?"

There was united roar from the other men, as Iyouji threw himself beneath his desk, watching everything unfold with horror.

The small girl was an unstoppable, untouchable storm. Two large brutes leapt to tackle her; she dashed towards them, flipping in midair and axe-kicking each in the back of the head simultaneously, using the recoil from her powerfully admonishing blows to launch herself knee-first at a third man, just readying a length of chain as a weapon. Her knee chastised him in the face with a muffled crunch and a surreal explosion of red; she flipped yet again, landing behind her latest foe as all three crashed to the floor. The heiress's laugh began to grow, booming and genuinely mirthful.

Nineteen.

Five men reached the boy at the same time as he leapt back, the heiress behind him moving towards the doorway. The five of Masao's men tangled, two of them falling down and scrambling away, one of the remaining three being rebuffed with a baton cracked onto his shoulder - hard. That man slammed to the floor, subdued, just as the heiress jabbed the enforcer in the front who had come to investigate, sending pulsing streaks of crackling electricity across his body.

Seventeen.

The smaller girl flowed around and through attacks, dodging larger well-trained combatants with casual, indifferent ease. The largest of her assailants received a double-palm strike to the abdomen. Despite the fact that he had to out-mass her by more than four times her weight, at a minimum, he was hurled lengthwise across the room, smashing through a table and continuing on to collide with another man. The top of the large man's skull impacted with another crunch into the face of the man he had struck, and both tumbled on in surreally slow motion to Iyouji's eyes, a shower of stray teeth and bright red flying outward.

Echoing, filling the entire warehouse and drowning out screams of anguish and moans of pain, the heiress's laughter made Iyouji shake and tremble, wishing for nothing more than the ability to burrow deep within the earth and hide there forever.

Fifteen.

Even as she straightened from the double-palm strike, she leaned to one side, a slashing knife just missing her. With artistic precision, she lashed out with her foot, striking the knife-wielding man on the inner thigh and causing his leg to fold at an unnatural angle as he was subdued with a gurgling scream.

After retreating nearly to the point where he collided with the heiress he was supposed to be protecting, the bodyguard suddenly sprang forward, bringing his left baton down on one man's wrist, another of those resoundingly crunching chastisements filling the room with an unholy shriek of pain as his right baton deflected a knife. He spun with the recoil of the deflection, faster than Iyouji thought was reasonable, but slower than the small girl. As he turned, he raised one foot and then brought it down on another man, subduing him with a brutal axe-kick.

Thirteen.

The boy had left himself vulnerable, and when another attacker moved to exploit the opening, the crackling discharge of another stun gun shock warned that it hadn't been an opening at all. Improbably, the Tsuruya heiress began to laugh even louder.

Twelve.

Iyouji tried to pretend that the boy was gently tucking the enforcers into naps, but the realization that the trio was handling nearly eight times their number with the same ease as a pre-school teacher taking care of a group of unruly children was not comforting. The smaller girl was liable to send her targets flying anywhere, but the boy had a dogged and steadfast tendency to subdue his opponents in one direction: _down_.

While she was in the center of the room, the smaller girl was surrounded, and four men tried to leap at her simultaneously. She shifted to shoulder-check the tallest of the men, and he retched behind her even as she seized his thigh and used him as a crude bludgeon against two of his fellows before flinging him bodily at the fourth.

Eight.

Another chain-wielder lashed out at the boy, his chain tangling around one of the batons. The boy released it, smashing his remaining baton across an exposed fist, disarming another enemy in return. His empty hand became a fist and he slid laterally before the heiress, turning with the motion and sternly warning another man's face with what was becoming a sickeningly familiar crunch and spray of red. The heiress held her chattering stun gun at the ready, but none of the men were willing to try passing the bodyguard to reach her, and her unnerving, terrifying laugh.

Six.

The shorter girl had a clear space around her, where none were willing to approach alone. Eyes turning to a man who glared at her from the other side of one of the tables, she kicked the tabletop suddenly, flipping it into a vertical surface, then leaping atop it. Before he could move, the surface smashed down on him, and she rode it with perfect balance, rebounding when the tangled mess beneath her reached the floor to tag another man with a flying kick.

Four.

The boy flung his baton at one of the three men still facing him, following it with a foot-sweep that downed the man. He didn't even look, just stepping over the downed man and snap-kicking a second man in the face, launching him back two meters into one of the few intact tables, sending it crashing to the floor.

The heiress moved forward, still laughing as she stooped to shock the man the boy had only knocked down.

Two.

The shorter girl caught a cudgel as it was swung at her, her right hand crushing the makeshift wooden bludgeon into splinters as her left hand chopped down on his collar, subduing her final opponent with a loud snap.

One.

The last remaining man grabbed a bottle and shattered it against the last intact table, charging the boy with a guttural roar. The boy used a spinning kick - a roundhouse, Iyouji thought it was called - and smashed what was left of the bottle in the man's hand, sending fragments of glass across the warehouse. The man screamed in agony and clutched his injured hand in his good one, but the boy hadn't finished. He seized the man's head in both hands and threw him down towards the floor, simultaneously raising one knee and slamming the man's face into it. There was a spray of crimson and another of those sickening crunches as the man fell to the floor, sternly chastised.

Zero.

The boy shifted his shoulders and surveyed the room, finally admitting, "That was much easier than I expected."

"I know, right?" the Tsuruya heir agreed, her laughter winding down to a chuckle. "Okies, let's get the boss, he went into the back."

"No need," Masao called, returning from his office, glaring. Iyouji stared in shock, surprised to see the man with a pair of katana over his shoulders. "You lot," he added, glaring at the men on the floor, "are pathetic! You couldn't hold the three of them for two solid _minutes_? Alright, let's settle this, fair, square, and for good."

The Tsuruya heir was taken aback, her amusement completely vanished. "You don't mean-"

"I do," Masao overrode her. "This blood feud has to end. I'll champion my cause, Tsuruya-san. Who champions yours?"

The taller girl hesitated. "What are your terms?" she pressed. "Only fools agree without knowing in advance."

Masao strode to the center of the room, where the only table that hadn't been knocked down still stood. He set the swords across it and glowered at the taller girl. The boy gathered his batons and collapsed them, stowing them in the sleeves of his uniform shirt, watching warily. "Alright," Masao said, his face reddening. "You've beaten the life out of all my men, you've ruined my operation in this town - and _why_?"

"Because you're selling naughty pictures of me on the internet," she snapped, shooting him an angry glare of her own. "So! You didn't know who I was? Does that make things better for _me_? No! Why am I here?! Because this is my _distinction_! To make up for the facts that some _stupid_ delinquent at my own school got _lucky_ and then sold pictures to _you_! You knows how this works just as well as I do; such a slight _cannot_ go unpunished."

"Well, why not go after him?" Masao growled plaintively. "I know what a distinction is as well as the next man, and you're getting off _easy_ avoiding yubitsume! Any of my men who disgraced our name wouldn't be given the chance for _distinction_. It'd be the loss of a finger joint right then and there - end of story."

"You call this a blood feud," the boy interjected, obviously very tense. "But none of your men are dead." He shot a questioning glance at the shorter girl as she scanned the room, then strode to his side, giving a single sharp nod. "Right. But they're dealt with. So is the cameraman who aspired to join your ranks. This doesn't have to be more serious than you make it."

Masao stared at the boy for a moment, then spat, "Shut up. You're a shatei at best; you shouldn't be speaking to an oyabun as an equal, no matter how good you are in a fight!"

"Badmouth my saiko-komon, and I'll ignore him when he says to be merciful," the Tsuruya heiress warned.

Iyouji had already had enough of a bad day. If the time for the unpleasant 'encounter' were over, he'd just as soon see that his boss didn't get himself killed for honor. "Boss," he called, crawling from beneath his desk and cowering away from the heiress and her group. "L...let's not be hasty!"

"You're speaking back to me!?" Masao cried, eyes widening. "The world is turned upside-down! What of the old ways? What of respect?"

"If you respected the old ways, you'd ask my father for permission to operate in this city," the heiress said dourly. "This is stupid. I don't want to be responsible for you thinking killing yourself will do anything but make the mercy we gave today pointless. I wants my distinction, and you want to get on with your life."

"Let's make it very simple, and say you just never work with voyeur pictures bought off highschool students again," the boy suggested, eyeing Iyouji before turning his gaze back to Masao.

Masao grit his teeth and bristled.

The Tsuruya heiress coughed, eyes narrowed. "Let's do this," she agreed. "And then we won't have to send a message to the _entire_ Sumiyoshi-rengo. We can stop it here at the Fujiya-branch. We can let this end before _you_ end up cutting off a finger for yubitsume to your own boss, or worse, insist on being killed, just to put your own men in line for that fate next!"

For a moment, Iyouji was afraid that Masao would refuse. But then one of the men on the floor moaned weakly, rolling onto his back and cradling a wounded arm. It seemed that, for the moment, concern for his own men beat out the need for pride. "Very well," Masao said, his voice thick with disgust. "I'm calling a medic for my men. Iyouji ... you make sure that the Haru-tachi leaves happy." He turned and strode away, the swords still lying on the table.

"How bad is it?" the boy asked the quiet girl, glancing across the still or only slowly moving forms scattered about the room.

"Most will recover within two months," she determined without hesitation. "Seven will require an additional three months. Two will require a further additional two months beyond that."

The boy looked uncomfortable, but nodded. Iyouji didn't understand how someone so powerful could be so unaware of the damage he did, but then, that wasn't his role in the organization. Bowing very low to the green-haired girl, he said, "I am Maruyama Iyouji; I am ranked kaikei. I will do everything in my power to satisfy your demands, Tsuruya-sama."

"Good," the girl replied, crossing her arms over her chest and looking down at him imperiously.

* * *

After about ten minutes, and a quick check to verify with Yuki, Kyon was reasonably satisfied that they had gotten everything they had come for. There was the possibility of further pictures still circulating around the internet, but by that time he was more than willing to ask Haruhi to take care of it, and then allow the change through Yuki. Rather than spend ... who knew _how_ long trying to track down every stray person with a copy of a picture of Tsuruya, or his other classmates...

Even better, the sniveling, whimpering accountant had provided an apology stating that the entire thing was a mistake on the part of his oyabun, which the bitter man had even consented to sign. After leaving the deserted pachinko parlor that served as a front, and escaping into the relatively fresher afternoon air, Tsuruya turned to him and beamed a bright smile. "Thank you, Kyon-kun!" she said, her voice earnest. "You were brilliant."

"Awesome," he answered her shakily. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to stumble to the nearest wall and throw up for a few minutes."

Her eyes widened in surprise when he unsteadily did exactly as he had suggested, retching until his stomach heaved, empty and clenching. He fumbled for his handkerchief, before realizing that he didn't have one in the 'disguise' uniform. Tsuruya handed him one wordlessly, her expression downcast.

"Sorry," he rasped, grimacing.

"We should gets out of here," she told him, pointing down the street. "There's a car waiting. Come back to my place and rest a bit? I can get you medicines, too."

"I've never done anything like that before," he managed, when not only Tsuruya, but Yuki helped him stagger away. "I guess ... I must look pretty pathetic to you, huh?"

"No," the taller girl answered, after half a block of walking. "Kyon-kun is capable, but a gentle soul. And that ... is a good thing."

"I still feel like a wuss," he mumbled, once they reached the car. Tsuruya still leaned against him once they were seated, one arm around his shoulders. Yuki sat at his other side, and much to his surprise, rested one of her small hands atop his. "S...sorry, we should be happy, right? That's it?"

"That's it," Tsuruya agreed, nodding. "But ... Kyon-kun, more than anything else we are, ninkyo dantai ranking, students who talk to eachothers at school, any of that... Um, Kyon-kun, I want to make sure we're friends. S...sos, I am very much in your debt. If there's anythings you need, let me know, and I will do it for you."

"I think," he said hesitantly, "I might want to talk about it for a bit?"

"Okies! You said you never fought like that before? But, you fought those fellows on Sunday to save me, didn't you?"

"I haven't actually done that yet," he confessed. "I have to travel back in time and take care of it. I'm not sure I'm good enough... T...tell me, was I as badly violent, then?"

"No," she said with reassuring confidence. "You gave them a stern talkings to. You maybe dislocated things, but you didn't break many bones, or do worse. Even though you were very mad... Hey, is it okay for me to tell you that?"

"Maybe not," he admitted, forcing a weak smile. "So, thanks, and I'll leave it at that. Despite everything, until very recently, I'd never actually used violence against another person. But now ... ever since I... Since... Last Sunday, I guess, I've been getting myself into these dangerous situations."

Tsuruya shifted at his side, her head turning away as she gazed out the window thoughtfully. "Really," she said softly, "it's _my_ faults. I got you involved, and-"

"No, no, don't even try that," he protested. "We can't... We just had a major victory, didn't we? And what am I doing? I'm getting us all depressed and-" He took a deep breath and shrugged his shoulders free of Tsuruya, then raised his arms and put one about the taller girl, pulling her close to him. "I do not regret helping you, Tsuruya-kun. I'm just ... a little afraid of what I can do now, you know?"

And even though she had said nothing, merely watching as always, he put another arm about Yuki, pulling her close on the other side. "And Nagato, I don't regret learning what you taught me for a minute, either. It's thanks to that teaching that I was able to save Kanae-chan from Ryuguu, and help Tsuruya-kun with her distinction. Hell, the entire school owes you and Tsuruya-kun a big thanks for this!"

Something sparked deep in Yuki's eyes at that. She said nothing, but her eternally cool gaze warmed for him, and she allowed herself to be pulled close. When he relaxed his impromptu hug, neither girl moved away from him. He had come to realize that Tsuruya was simply very affectionate, probably a side-effect of her typically energetic outlook. But when he studied Yuki, she merely turned her eyes away and bowed her head slightly, pressing it into the side of his chest.

Did that mean something? He was probably better off not thinking about it, all told.

"Okies," Tsuruya said, as the car rolled through the gates to her estate. "Our clothes should be clean soon, so let's all take a bath together!"

"Yes," Yuki agreed, before Kyon could voice his own opinion on the matter.

Well, he decided, if even Yuki thought it was for the best, who was he to complain?

* * *

After a bath with Yuki and Tsuruya - more work than he had expected, given the need to scrub Tsuruya clean of the tanning solution - the taller girl had explained she was going to meet with her father. Kyon thought the man lived on the estate, but evidently he spent most of his time in an apartment in the city.

He had stored images in his not-quite-photographic memory of Yuki's pale skin and soft touch when her fingers had gone through his hair, adeptly scrubbing the gel out and restoring him to normality. Tsuruya's image and the feel of her washing his back wasn't likely to fade any time soon, either. Memories stored safely between a record of walking in on Mikuru while changing, and a pair of kisses with Haruhi in closed space, he felt a certain peace of mind.

It lasted long enough for him to wave reassuringly to both of the girls when Tsuruya had her driver drop him off a block from his home. He got out of the car and stretched, watching the sleek black vehicle pull away, acutely aware of Yuki's gaze following him until it was out of sight around a corner. Clinging to what little good he'd gotten out of the day, he turned his cell phone back on, raising an eyebrow when a black taxicab pulled around a different corner, stopping directly before him.

Koizumi got out of the car, smiling broadly as Kyon's voice mail indicator chirped. A moment later, his text indicator beeped. A heartbeat after that, before the esper even reached his side, the phone began to ring. Kyon saw it was from his home, presumably his mother, and put the phone in his pocket without pressing any buttons.

Mori stepped out after Koizumi, her expression doubtful. The woman held his schoolbag, offering it towards him, and he accepted it with solemn gravity. "It's a bit late," she said in a low voice, as Koizumi walked around the car, "but your protection is inside. _Please_ be sure to use it, Sir."

He nodded, frowning slightly. He hoped it wasn't a weapon, or something his mother would find and yell at him for ... but he had time for that later. "So," he said, quickly checking to make sure no one else was in earshot, "how did things go at the school?"

"The police greatly enjoyed Suzumiya-san's presentation," Koizumi said cheerfully. "Administration has arranged for the quiet removal of all students noted as being involved in the incident, and you have escaped expulsion or suspension!"

"And ... the bad news?" he asked, turning his gaze to Mori and quirking an eyebrow higher.

She looked at him askance. "What are you talking about?" she asked. "This seems like a victory, generally speaking. Itsuki-kun even managed to convince Suzumiya-san not to come visit you today, or call your house. She's in good spirits, since everything went so well. We just came by to deliver your schoolbag."

"Well ... thank you," he said, smiling and nodding at the pair. "I appreciate that. Anything else?"

"I'm uncertain about the wisdom of bringing Tsuruya-san into the fold, so to speak, Sir," Mori finally said, looking uncomfortable. "I mean ... knowing what I _do_ know now of your ... relationship with her..." She trailed off and shrugged. Koizumi's smile faded and he began to look worried.

Well, it didn't matter that the esper found out about Tsuruya and Kyon being members of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Kyon decided. If Tsuruya was going to be throwing her lot in with the SOS Brigade, which seemed to be the case... "Come to think of it," he mused, "I'm not sure if Haruhi should know about that."

"I'm positive she shouldn't," Koizumi said quickly, shaking his head worriedly.

Kyon raised an eyebrow, but admitted that the other boy was probably right. "No," he finally said, frowning. "I don't think Tsuruya-kun could stay quiet about it. And Haruhi's demanding a full report. Plus, she okay-ed me working with Tsuruya-kun anyway." He nodded decisively. "Honesty is the best policy. I'll explain everything to her."

A sound that was a combination between a groan and a sigh escaped Mori's lips, and she adopted a pained expression. "W...well," Koizumi said shakily, giving a huge, obviously false smile, "we will ... entrust that responsibility to you, then."

"Naturally," Kyon agreed. "Anyway. I'm about to face my mother. You'd best clear the blast radius."

"Ah... Well, good luck with that, Sir," Mori said, shaking her head as she climbed back into the car. Koizumi looked like he wanted to say something, but bit his tongue and followed. Kyon watched them for a minute as Arakawa moved the car down the almost completely empty street.

"Well," Kyon said, to no one in particular. He pulled his phone from his pocket as another text arrived. "Twelve new texts," he grumbled, not checking to see who they were from. "Seven new voice mails. Twelve missed calls." He put it back in his pocket and rummaged through his school bag as he strolled back to his home.

Humming to himself, he opened the door and kicked off his shoes, not at all surprised to hear his mother mid-tirade into the phone, which she slammed down as he was putting on his house-slippers. His little sister charged into the entryway, skidding to a halt on the floor and staring at him with wide, amazed eyes.

"Is the world safe?" she asked worriedly.

"For today," he answered, as his mother stomped down the hallway towards him, murder in her gaze. A small part of his mind noted her stance and visage, recording the details for use the next time he needed to menace someone for Tsuruya.

"Kyon!" the woman snarled, fists trembling at her sides. "_What_ do you have to say for yourself!? I hope you're prepared for cram-school!"

"I got a ninety two," he answered, handing his test over to her as he walked past. "Thanks to Haruhi helping me study."

"Don't think this is over yet!" his mother yelled, glaring at the test as though expecting to see some sign of forgery. "I told you to stop acting like a delinquent! And what do you do? You _dangle a student out of the window_! What could _possibly_ justify that!?"

Kyon paused, one foot on the stairs, and mulled it over. "I broke up an illegal voyeur photography ring taking advantage of the school," he said, after consideration. "Then, after that, me and two of my delinquent friends cosplayed as students of a different school and went into a pachinko parlor. Once we got inside, we convinced a low-ranking member of the Sumiyoshi-rengo to let us into the back room, and hospitalized nearly thirty members of their boryokudan. After that, we took a bath together to wash the blood off."

"Kyon's saving the world," his little sister supplied helpfully, giving a judicious nod. "Just like a sentai hero! He's doing it for Tsuru-nee-san and Haru-nee-san!"

"I don't know who this 'Tsuru' character is," Kyon's mother growled, "but I am getting very tired of your behavior! Until further notice, you are _grounded_. No more club meetings for you! And you are taking your sister to Hinamizawa for Golden Week - you're going to be on the train to visit my brother Friday after school next week!"

Kyon felt his left eyebrow twitch. Okay, he told himself. Maybe he shouldn't have mouthed off to his mother. "Well," he said, shrugging, "that's about what I expected."

"We're going to Hinamizawa?" his little sister asked excitedly. "I didn't want to go unless Kyon-kun was going! But now that Kyon-kun is going, I want to go for sure!"

"Cram-school!" his mother yelled up the stairs after him when he plodded towards his room. "And you can expect to have a talk with your father tonight!"

* * *

After dropping Kyon off, the limo turned around, headed towards Yuki's apartment. It would have been faster to drop Yuki off first, but Tsuruya wanted a chance to talk with the other girl, anyway.

"Hey, Nagato-chi," she said, once Kyon was out of sight. "Do you mind if we talk about Kyon-kun a bit?"

"That is fine," Yuki replied, her eyes fixed on something outside of the window.

"Mmm. You know, I think that Haru-nyan and Kyon-kun like each other."

"Likely," Yuki agreed.

"But ... you know ... these days, I think I like Kyon-kun a lot, too." Tsuruya sighed, leaning her head against the glass of the window. "I feel a bit bad, because I know that Haru-nyan likes Kyon-kun, even if she's bad about saying it. But, do you think that Haru-nyan would share?"

"I have ... permission to borrow him," Yuki said slowly, as though uncertain. "But I require external confirmation that he has interest in me."

She smirked at the smaller girl. "Silly," she chastised Yuki. "He was trying not to be obvious, but Kyon-kun is a boy, you know. Wasn't he peeking at you in the bath?" Not, Tsuruya admitted to herself with a small amount of pride, that he didn't peek at her a bit, too. And she had managed to get a rewarding eyeful of her own, anyway.

Yuki's head tilted slightly in consideration.

"Mmm. Things may be confusing for Kyon-kun, and I hope it's not troublesome ... but he's got a big heart. I can tell he likes you a lot! I hope maybe he likes me a lot, too. I think he likes me a little, at least! Well! I think I'll try for Kyon-kun, just a little bit ... but I guess I can't be mischievous enough to upset Haru-nyan. I think you should, too! Even Mikuru-chan says she's trying!"

"I see," Yuki replied, quietly thoughtful.


	14. Chapter 13

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Filler Arc III

Chapter Thirteen: Close of Business

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, and so is every part of this fic that isn't the property of someone else.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Title: Admirable"_

_"He says it is 'like'  
"No absolute value, there  
"A strange inference_

_"Understanding is not full  
"But to call it 'like' and ____know_

_"Incomplete knowledge  
"With partial understanding  
"Yet still sufficient"_

_"Snow, Verses: A Compilation" - Committed to record: 2011.4.23_

* * *

Wondering how to deal with the punishment he'd been assigned, and how it would impact what he considered to be more important aspects of his club life - and his association with Tsuruya - Kyon tossed his schoolbag on his bed and began to rifle through it in earnest. His books were there, Haruhi had left him a stack of study notes, half of them in unfamiliar handwriting, and then he found the 'protection' Mori had left him.

Gods above, she didn't really think that he and Tsuruya... Or that he and Yuki... Or that...

Color draining from his face, he desperately searched his room for some sort of safe spot to stash the unexpected box of individually packaged foil-wrapped 'protection'; this was _not_ something he wanted his mother or sister to find! He finally settled for the ultimate hiding place, pulling out the bottom-most drawer on his dresser and hiding the small box beneath.

That done, he checked the notes for the assignment, spread his schoolbooks and papers across his desk, and promptly hunched over his cell phone, checking the messages he had missed while fighting the Sumiyoshi-rengo. A text from Haruhi, reminding him that he owed her. Two from Koizumi, outlining the details that he and Mori had already given him in person. One from Taniguchi, of all people, telling him that he had achieved the notoriety of being 'Kitago's greatest delinquent'. And one from Kanae, telling him she believed in him, whatever she meant by that.

A deluge of angry remarks and threats from his mother concerning his whereabouts followed. After clearing out the other texts, he messaged Haruhi back a 'thanks', followed by an apology for being grounded. That done, he proceeded to voice mail. One from his mother, demanding to know where he was, which he deleted. The next came from a detective he hadn't heard of, commenting that he would be by to take a statement from Kyon at some point.

Kyon pulled the card Tsuruya had given him with the Tsuruya family lawyer's contact information from his pocket, and decided to text her for her opinion on dealing with that one. The next voice mail was from his mother, which he deleted. A voice mail from Haruhi, cheerfully telling him she'd beaten the student council. One from Mikuru, saying she wasn't certain what was going on, but she hoped he would be okay, and she wished him luck. Another message from his mother, which he deleted.

And the final voice mail, unexpectedly, from someone he hadn't thought had his cell phone number. He knew she had his home number, but his cell...

"Hello," Sasaki's voice came from the recording, sounding the slightest, faintest bit nervous, "you should remember me, Kyon; it's Sasaki! Well, I'm certain you remember me, you aren't the sort to forget. Ah, this is a bit short notice, and I'm sorry for that, but..." She trailed off. He heard a car speed past on the message, followed by the dopplered effect of a horn vanishing away. "A...anyway! We really should meet at some point, and discuss things! I hope that you're well when you receive this message, so, take care, and please call me back, okay? I have some, um, friends who would really ... like to meet you." She sounded strangely stressed by that last remark. "Well, anyway, I hope to hear from you soon, so ... bye!"

He contemplated possible responses before remembering that he had resolved to ask Yuki about Sasaki. Yuki would probably be home by now, he thought. He dialed her home number from memory, some of his worry fading when the receiver picked up, and he heard the soft sound of her breath.

"Nagato," he said, glancing at the doorway, where his sister was peeking at him around the corner, "ah, if it's not too much trouble, there's something I would like to talk to you about tonight. Um, could you pick me up a bit before the ... session, so we could chat?"

"When?" she asked.

"Um ... thirty or forty minutes before you pick up the others?" he suggested.

"Understood."

He didn't want to hang up on the girl, but he doubted she would make the first move in that direction, and somehow, it felt like something important had gone unsaid. "So, I should say this, Nagato... Thank you for today. Thank you for everything."

"You," Yuki said slowly, as though carefully testing the words out, "are ... welcome."

For a moment, he could only stare incredulously at the phone. Not 'it is no problem'? Not 'it is fine'?

But the humanoid interface wasn't done, either. "Also ... thank you."

For what? He couldn't think of anything he had done that was particularly noteworthy compared to everything she had done. "Anything I can do for you," he told her, instead of asking something that would shatter the moment. "You only have to ask."

Her voice softened, and he once again knew it meant much more than it sounded when she whispered, "Understood," and disconnected the phone. He stared a minute longer, imagining her in her apartment, kneeling by the phone, her cheeks pink-tinged as she daydreamed about him... But he dismissed that thought. This was Yuki, after all. As much as he might wish that...

"What's up, Imouto?" he asked his sister, spinning his chair to face the door.

She charged into the room and glomped onto his side. "Tell me about saving the world!" she demanded, staring up at him with insistent eyes. "You wake up early, and you haven't played with me all week! I want to hear something good!"

* * *

Haruhi stared at her cell phone in disbelief. Okay, Kyon thanking her? Somewhat unusual, but in this instance, well deserved.

Still, the boy was seventeen years old. And he'd gotten _grounded_? That was beyond reasonable, in her mind. What next, Kyon's mother deciding - again! - to starve him, making those crappy bentos Kyon always got stuck with? Depriving him of dinner, as though that would accomplish anything?

More importantly, grounded from _club meetings_!? Haruhi was strongly tempted to call Yuki and demand the smaller girl allow a modification to Kyon's mother to make her more reasonable.

Grumbling as she paced back and forth in the clubroom, she belatedly realized that none of this was Kyon's fault, anyway. It was Tsuruya's. And as an honorary member of the brigade, Tsuruya had a duty to the full time members - aside from which, Haruhi had _warned_ the older girl that if Kyon got in trouble...

The only other person still there, Mikuru, was absorbed in her project, fixedly concentrating on finishing the greatcoat for Kyon. Kanae had left after Haruhi helped the girl with her homework, and Koizumi had left before the club meeting, citing a need to bring Kyon's schoolbag to him.

Well, she decided, punching up a quick text message outlining the situation, Tsuruya got Kyon into the mess he was in, so the green-haired girl could take care of it, too.

Or else _she_ would.

* * *

She had always known her brother wasn't the most popular or amazing person in the world - in other people's eyes. And that suited her fine, for the most part. She also knew that it was only a matter of time before everyone else in the world realized that her brother was a really cool guy, and then... Well, she was afraid of losing her brother.

Maybe it was silly and irrational, but she knew it was something much bigger than the adventures she watched on television. More real than whatever Trope-tan was up to, at any rate. Kyon was destined for a life of adventure, she could _feel_ it. Just like she knew when he said he was saving the world, he was being honest.

Well, not one hundred percent honest; he was exaggerating a tiny bit. But heroic adventures were absolutely happening, she was positive of that! She was a big girl, so she wasn't scared of the dark (as much) anymore. It had been a whole four months since the last time their parents were gone and the power was out, and she crawled into his bed to hide from anything scary!

Of course, that was before he had gone into 'adventure' mode, with his new light sleeping, so she had sneaked out when the sun rose, leaving him none-the-wiser. That was as good as making it not count, though!

So, she knew he wasn't telling the complete truth, but he was being relatively honest anyway, when he told her what he'd been busy with that day. She wasn't sure why someone would take pictures of girls in underwear, but Kyon had found and stopped the master pervert and his perverted underlings, then went across the city to beat up the Dark General and his footmen who were behind the scheme. He said Tsuruya and Yuki were with him, and she absolutely believed that! Kyon might not have known, but she was starting to believe that the abnormally quiet Yuki was actually a _magical girl_!

Especially when he told her how Yuki had subdued the most of the Dark General's footmen! She was especially proud of the way her brother explained that the Dark General wasn't killed or sealed away; he was ordered to redeem himself, and given a chance to do just that!

So, when he finished telling the story, she gave him a powerful hug, told him he was a good hero, and then their father came home.

Their mother had a bit of a temper, so she waved when her brother wearily went outside to speak with their father. Their mother stood in the doorway, observing the conversation, so she embarked on her very own brand of little-sister-espionage. The house had only the tiniest, most rudimentary of backyards, but it _did_ have a backyard of a sort, so she sneaked out the back door and made her way to the side of the house, crouched near the surrounding wall. The tiny space between the house and the wall was just big enough to squeeze through, and was where Kyon traditionally left his bike.

Creeping all the way to where he had left the bicycle, she hid in its shadow, catching part of the conversation.

"...real need to follow the rules of the school, you know," her father was saying, somewhat crossly. He must have been in a bad mood; he almost never smoked at home, but he had a lit cigarette in one hand as he went on.

Kyon had a demeanor she recognized. Adults would never understand it, or had forgotten what it meant a very long time ago. Not quite defiance, just resignation; an admission that the adults wouldn't _get_ it. He looked like he was just waiting for the talking to stop so he could move on to the next stage; waiting to stop being grounded. Her cheer was dashed instantly.

Why were her parents being so stupid about this? Kyon was a hero, wasn't he?

"Say something to your father," their mother barked.

"Right," Kyon said, straightening slightly. "Sorry. My bad."

"Are you even paying attention?" their father asked, running one hand through his hair. "This is pretty important stuff, you know!"

"Yeah, of course. Won't happen again," Kyon added.

"Hey," their father's voice became protesting. "Don't just pass this off with lip-service, Kyon! Listen, it's one thing to get into a fight. But this... You've gone too far, and while I don't understand how the school administration thinks it's okay to let you get away with it, you got lucky!"

"Oh, lucky, that's me alright," her brother said dryly.

"Be serious for a minute! You got lucky! So, if they don't punish you at all, we're going to make sure you understand this is the sort of thing that can't be allowed to happen again!"

"Right," he agreed. "Ignore criminal actions, don't help fellow students in distress, and above all, never be there for your friends, is that it?"

"You _should_ be there for your friends," their father disagreed.

"Your _taste_ in friends is another question entirely!" their mother added. "If your friends are getting you into this kind of trouble, you obviously need new ones! Now, what about Sasaki-chan? She was a _good_ friend, and a positive influence on you!"

She was taken aback at the way Kyon's eyes hardened at that. She'd never seen her brother angry, _really_ angry. She'd accidentally ruined pieces of his clothing, once spilled glue all over his bed borrowing it without asking, dropped things on his feet being careless, and generally had no real respect for his boundaries. Despite all that, the worst he'd ever seemed was annoyed, giving her a gentle admonishment, a few times tapping her on the forehead with a single fingertip, like a much smaller child.

Now, she saw something much stronger in his eyes. Still not _anger_, but more than the annoyance he'd ever shown her. Their mother seemed oblivious to this fact, somehow.

That was adults for you, she supposed; they never did understand.

"Look," his father said plaintively, "this is all for your future, Kyon. We just want to make sure you don't destroy your chances!"

"Is this speech going to come up every time I do anything?" he asked. "No offense, but I got it last time, and you're just repeating the same points."

"I feel we must," their father growled, dropping his cigarette and stamping it out. "Because even though we _did_ have this discussion, it doesn't seem to have sunk _in_."

"It did!" he retorted. "I was told, whatever else I did, get a ninety or better on assignments from this point on! Which I _did_. Granted, I also destroyed a crime-ring with Tsuruya-kun's help, but seriously, are you both unable to realize that? My grade went up from a seventy four to a ninety two between two tests! What do I get for my trouble? Yelled at. By _both_ of you. What kind of message are you trying to send?"

"First of all," their father said, "you need to listen, and not talk back so much." He sounded angry now, too, she realized with dismay. Kyon was in a lot of trouble, and she didn't like that at all! Where was a hero who could rescue Kyon when they were needed?

"Secondly," their mother began, falling short suddenly as a sleek black limousine drew to a halt just before their house. Everyone turned to stare in surprise, except for Kyon, who merely arched one eyebrow higher.

A driver got out and rushed to the side door to open it, allowing the tallest, largest man that Kyon's sister had ever seen in real life to emerge. His hair was green, not quite unruly, but tousled. He wore an immaculate dark blue suit, with a shiny pin on one lapel. She couldn't make out the detail, but she was willing to bet it was identical to the pin on Kyon's collar.

The tall man studied the scene with a broad grin, showing off one pronounced, extended fang. He then reached into the car, helping the familiar figure of Tsuruya out. Tsuruya was dressed in the prettiest kimono she thought she had seen, pink and green, her hair up in an elaborate bun, her face carefully made up. Behind her, a man almost as large as the fellow she guessed was Tsuruya's father painfully got out. He had a pin, too; in fact, everyone from the car had one, even Tsuruya, on the collar of her kimono.

He moved stiffly, his suit almost, but not quite as fine as Tsuruya's father's. One arm was in a cast, and he had a crutch beneath the other. Three men in similarly less fine suits followed, and the driver closed the door, retreating to wait near the front of the car.

"C...can we help you?" Kyon's mother asked, studying the group in confusion.

"Tsu...Tsuruya-san!?" their father managed, staring at the green-haired man in shock.

"We've met?" the man asked, looking at her father thoughtfully, then nodding. "Ah, yes, you're one of Yoshida's aides, right? You works for the firm that competes with us, what is it ... Nishinomiya Heavy Industries?"

"That's right! Um, I'm rather amazed you remember me! W...what brings you here?"

The green-haired man waved a hand dismissively, reaching into his coat and pulling out a cigar. "Please," he said, leaning slightly towards one of his aides, who whispered something in his ear, "Yuuto-kun, call me Kenshiro." Nodding at her mother, he introduced himself, "I am Tsuruya Kenshiro. You must be the lovely mother of my daughter's friends."

With tiny, mincing, demure steps, Tsuruya moved to Kyon's side and took one of his arms in her own, bowing her head slightly, her cheeks coloring with a blush.

"Is this about something Kyon has done?" The woman's voice was strained, on the edge of another explosion of fury.

Kyon's little sister clenched one fist expectantly. Tsuruya had arrived! She would find a way to fix things!

"Curious," the man remarked, running his lighter beneath his cigar as he turned it over, then snipping off the end before lighting it. After a few thoughtful puffs, he remarked, "You calls your son 'Kyon'?"

"That's right. What has he done?"

"He has saved my family face," the man said, tapping his cigar, ashes falling to the walkway. "And so, I have come to thanks the boy who saved my daughter's reputation. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised to finds more grateful parents, considering his great service to the girls at his school!"

Kyon abruptly bowed very low, a full ninety degree bow, and said, "I merely did what I felt I must in service to your family, Tsuruya-sama."

"Oh, stop that bowings immediately," Kenshiro grumbled. Kyon straightened nervously. "Kids these days ... put a man and his family in their debts, and then apologize for it? Really." The tall man shook his head. "It is we who should bow to you, Kyou- That is, Kyon-kun. You are the caliber of man I look forward to seeing in my organization! Every time a new hires is made, I can only pray that they approach your loyalty and competence!"

"...um," Kyon's mother managed.

"...what?" his father echoed.

"But, I digress," the man continued, puffing his cigar again. "This is Kasai," he added, indicating the injured man. "My daughter's bodyguards. Without any obligation to do so, while Kasai was injured, Kyon bravely volunteered to take his place, ensuring my daughter's safety!"

With obvious pain, Kasai limped forward on his crutch a half-step, then raised his injured arm to remove his dark glasses. "I am greatly in your debt, Kyon-dono," he said, attempting to bow.

"Cut that out!" Kyon insisted, stepping forward and seizing the man's shoulders before he could injure himself worse in the attempt. "Um, I appreciate that, Kasai-san, I do. But as much as I respect that, I won't have Tsuruya's bodyguard hurt himself on my account! My parents were just punishing me for helping out, so you'll need to be in good condition soon."

"...ah," Kasai allowed, grimacing.

"Punished?" Kenshiro asked, shooting Kyon's parents an incredulous look. "Why on earths for?!"

"T...there was violence at school," Kyon's mother hesitantly tried.

"W...well, we are worried for the boy's future," his father added.

Kenshiro looked significantly unimpressed. "Right," he said, shaking his head. "Yuuto-kun, I don't mean to tells you how to raise your son. That's not my place, and I understand that. All the same, his future is secure with the Tsuruya corporation. Bodyguard, advisor, whatever it is, I assures you that college or otherwise, a job awaits Kyon with my company whenever it's required. You work in finance, yes?"

"T...that's correct," Kyon's father said, nodding quickly.

"I could use a man like you in the Tsuruya Corporation," he said, nodding. "Yoshida's getting on in years, and you're not doing your own career any favors by staying with him. The old man's tenacious though. Even if he's slipping, he'll never retires. That's quite a shadow to choose to live under."

"Even so," the man replied stubbornly, "what is loyalty if I sell it out? I work for Nishinomiya Heavy, and I take pride in my work! Even if ... it may be something of a dead-end job..."

"Loyalty, eh? I like that," Kenshiro approved. He turned to one of the men at his side, in a brown suit. "Aida-chan, buy Nishinomiya Heavy Industries. Transfer Yuuto-kun and Yoshida appropriately."

Kyon's little sister grinned as her father's eyes bugged out, and his jaw dropped open. Well, of course she knew Tsuruya's family was rich... Really, if they just paid attention to her when she tried to tell them things like that, or that Kyon was a hero, things would have gone so much more smoothly!

"That will be a conflict of interests," Aida said apologetically.

"Eh, then liquidate all Nishinomiya Heavy assets we can't legally retain; sell the structure back to the original shareholders, but use a tertiary holding to retain ownership until reorganization is complete. No sense making anyone lose a jobs over it."

"Understood, Tsuruya-sama," Aida said, bowing. "Paperwork should be complete by Tuesday."

Clenching his cigar in his teeth, Kenshiro gave the man an absent nod. "Now," he said abruptly, "I hope whatever 'punishment' Kyon-kun must endure, he's still given the chance to meet with my daughter! After his service to our family, well, she's quite taken with him, and I can't blames her!" He abruptly roared in laughter, barely catching the cigar before it tumbled to the ground. "At any rate! We wanted to gives our regards, not interfere with a family moment. So, now that our gratitude has been given, let us withdraw!"

Kyon's father sputtered helplessly for a long minute, able to manage a jerky, shocked nod. Leaning heavily on his crutch, Kasai solemnly bowed his head to Kyon. "We are all very grateful, Kyon-dono."

While his parents were watching, Tsuruya added, "I am especially grateful! So, thank you very much, Kyon-kun. I only hopes that I haven't caused you any troubles." Before he could move away, she released his arm and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek, her blush intensifying as she followed her father into the car, shooting one last smile over her shoulder before she stepped in.

As suddenly as they had arrived, the well-dressed group drove away.

"Anyway," Kyon said, fingertips tracing the spot on his cheek where Tsuruya had kissed him. "You were reminding me that I don't have a future?"

"Go to your room!" his mother abruptly snapped, shooting him a death-glare. "You're _still_ grounded from attending your club!"

"Of course," he drawled, sticking his hands in his pocket and strolling casually into the house.

Torn between running into the house to ask Kyon the million questions bouncing through her head and watching further, his little sister finally decided to spy on the parents instead. When her father finally recovered himself, he managed, "D...do you think maybe Kyon has a better idea of what he's doing with his life than we gave him credit for?"

"Maybe," her mother grumbled. "But I don't like it! That's not the kind of life I wanted Kyon to have!"

"He's not exactly a child anymore," her father countered. "And as polite as Tsuruya-san was about the entire thing, he is pretty much the wealthiest man in the city. Starting next week, he's going to be my _boss_, too!"

"Fine," her mother allowed reluctantly, as though it were being pulled from her. "That Tsuruya girl ... I don't know her, but she has to be a better influence on him than that Suzumiya troublemaker! Even so, she obviously comes from a cultured, refined family. If anything, we need to strive _even harder_ to make sure that Kyon's not a delinquent; if his future is with her, he'd better be well behaved enough to not shame her family, right?!"

"Dear," her father said, his voice a bit pained, "I don't think you quite grasp the concept of letting Kyon make his own decisions."

Deciding she had heard enough, she crept back through the narrow passage to the back of the house, stepping into the kitchen. Kyon was there, glancing to one side when he saw her, and raising an eyebrow. He had just finished pouring himself a tall glass of milk, and pointed to it. "Want one?"

She nodded, and he poured her a glass as well. Once he had finished gulping his down, she asked, "Kyon-kun, are you going to date Tsuru-nee-san?"

He rubbed his cheek, frowning. "I'd rather not be killed by a furious Haruhi, so probably not," he said, shaking his head quickly. "She's just a really good friend."

"Hmm, so friends kiss like that?"

He winced, looking away. "Not usually," he admitted. "Look, if Haruhi finds out about that, she's going to get really jealous, and might blow up the world."

No trace of embellishment that she could sense, surprisingly. "Then I won't tell her," she assured him, holding up a hand with one pinky extended. "Promise!"

He grinned and ruffled her hair before linking his own pinky with hers. "Thanks, Imouto," he said. "I'll owe you one for that."

* * *

As per his request, Yuki summoned her primary protection target forty minutes before she planned to summon the others for the nightly error-correction session. She noted that his ability to withstand the transitions of teleportation had improved, because he very quickly recovered from disorientation.

She assumed the neutral state of kneeling at his side expectantly. He frowned and ran a hand through his hair.

"Nagato," he said, turning to look at her, "you'll tell me if I rely on you too much, won't you?"

She considered the words, but did not understand how interaction with him could reach a level she would term 'too much'. It was meaningless; a situation that was unlikely to occur, barring the Integrated Data Sentience Entity or Haruhi changing her on a fundamental level. "Yes," she said.

He looked uncomfortable, and she rose, moving to the table. In expectation of his arrival, she had already prepared tea.

In the silence, he joined her at the table. She wondered if he was going to say anything, but didn't particularly mind in any case. It was time spent in his presence, if he spoke or not.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, once she had poured him a cup of tea.

The subset of data contained within 'everything' was too vast for her to consider, and with no link to the IDSE, it would take longer than the remaining time before summoning the others to determine. Narrowing the scope of 'everything' further to only include events he would understand still included too many variables to consider easily. However, only one non 'okay' event was required to return an answer:

"I am fine," she said.

He sipped at his tea and set it down, leaning forward to stare at her eyes. She was confident that she had betrayed no physical cues that would suggest anything other than what she had said. One of his hands rose, and he pointed a single finger at her, pressing it against her forehead gently. She blinked, checking her local libraries to understand the meaning of the gesture: an adult's admonishment of a child.

"I may not understand a lot, Nagato," he said softly, "but I can tell when you're not being honest. After all, I said if I could help you, ask! But you never do." He sighed, letting his hand fall to the table. "So, let me know when I _can_ do something to make it up to you. You really saved our hides today against the Sumiyoshi-rengo, you know. I can't help but feel the need to repay that."

She contemplated, running simulations and checking local references. However, despite her consideration, she kept returning to the conclusion that all else aside, she could not accurately predict his behavior. But in any case, Tsuruya had confirmed what she could not simulate.

So: "Do you like me?"

His eyes widened in surprise for a moment before he chuckled, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Y...you know, the first time I ever spoke with you here, I actually had the idea that you wanted to ask me to your apartment to talk about things like this? I guess ... I hoped that, yeah, a beautiful, intelligent girl like you wanted to confess to me..." He swallowed, another sign of nervousness, and shook his head, dropping his hand to the table.

"I'm sorry, this isn't answering your question. Yeah, Nagato ... I'm no good about talking about this. I do like you. I like you a lot, but you've known that for a long while, haven't you? Isn't that why you made that other world, where you and I could be together?"

"I did not know," she answered. Her facial reaction parameters triggered unexpectedly as the capillary loops there were active beyond the norm. Temperature correspondingly also increased. Her local index suggested that the physical reaction was consistent with embarrassment, shame, or being in love. "That world was rejected."

"That _world_, maybe," he said in a soft tone, reaching one hand across the table and grasping the hand she had left on the teapot. She had the strength to easily resist, but did not. He plucked her hand free and clasped it gently between the two of them. A great deal of focus and attention went to the amount of heat, the sensation of physical contact, the minute, practically unobservable transfer of static electricity conducted between the two of them, and every other aspect of the connection. "But never you."

"At this juncture," she said, "I will attempt to communicate something to you, though I am uncertain as to the accuracy of the transmission. Words remain a weak vector for communicating vital information. Despite the lack of adherence to social norms and the correct protocols for this procedure, I am attempting to convey to you the positive emotive content of my current condition and regards for you." Her local library didn't contain more helpful contextual notes, and her social monitor was largely dependant on the IDSE, which she was no longer connected to. She briefly contemplated attempting to access Haruhi's memetic library for comparison, but decided against it; this was something she was going to attempt on her own.

"The outcome is uncertain; no accurate prediction can be made," she continued, raising her eyes from their clasped hands to meet his. "Regardless of the fact that determination is unclear, I have resolved to continue due to the content of the emotive concept I wish to relay. Despite the fact that I have no comparable metric, I am currently unable to conceive a greater intensity than the one I experience at this moment in relation to you."

He stared at her, and she realized almost immediately that the transmission had failed; he didn't understand.

"I attempted to use more words," she added, when he didn't speak. "It appears that the data was not conveyed accurately."

"C...can you try it again with less, maybe?" he asked, giving her a hopeful, somewhat forced smile.

"Yes," she agreed. "I like you. A lot."

"Oh," he said, his smile relaxing as he bowed his head slightly. Visible physical cues for tension faded from him. "I'm glad," he told her. "You have to believe that I like you too, though. Because ... I do. Even if it puts us at odds with your former bosses."

"I ... have a request," she said, struggling for words she had no protocols to relay.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking up. He appeared happy to be able to do something for her. "What can I do for you?"

Her lips moved silently until she found sounds close enough to what she wanted to communicate: "Kiss."

"U...uh, w...well," he started, stuttering nervously, his eyes darting away even as his grasp on her hand tightened. "W...we really... I mean, if this gets back to Haruhi, she'd get really mad, but..." He sighed, slumping slightly and shaking his head. "Who am I kidding? I'm going to burn in a very special hell for this - but it's worth it. Just to warn you, though ... I don't know if I'm any good at this."

He shifted his seat, moving to her side after releasing her hands. She watched him expectantly, her body remaining still as she had no practical experience with initiating the process. Hopefully he had a better understanding than she did. He took a quick breath, then turned her face towards his, tilting it upwards with a fingertip beneath her chin. A wealth of focus was invested in every point of contact as he brushed some hair from her face, and whispered, "Close your eyes."

She did as he instructed, even though that would hinder her ability to observe the act, then his lips pressed against hers.

* * *

He wasn't certain what to expect from the matter; while he didn't _think_ Yuki had any experience with kissing, either, he had no idea what kind of things she could just choose to learn, seemingly instantly. Their lips touched.

Hers were amazingly soft, but transmitted a strange shock to him. He could feel the hair on his scalp try to stand up straight in response to the surge, but before he could really think about it further, Yuki shifted about. Her hands rose, one going about his back, the other curling around the back of his head and pulling him more deeply into the kiss.

Those amazingly soft, gentle lips opened, and another jolting charge of something ran through him as her tongue parted his lips. After that, things got very hazy for Kyon.

Some minutes later, he wasn't sure, as he didn't have the energy to check his watch, she finally released him. She had wormed her way into his lap, one arm still about his back, her other hand sliding down to rest on his shoulder as she stared at him with her usual expression.

Almost, anyway. Her amazing abilities aside, her cheeks were pink with a blush, and her breath was coming quickly, if not quite in hurried gasps. Her eyes had thawed, and instead of studying him with the intensity of frozen helium, he felt inexplicable warmth from her gaze. Her head tilted to one side, until she was resting it on his shoulder as a pillow.

He felt he had to say something about the experience, but it took him a long moment to find the words. "That was amazing," he managed, giving her a nervous smile.

"Enjoyable," she agreed. She stirred slightly, as though to move away from him, and he realized his arms had gone about her while she was in his lap. Were they making out? He reluctantly let her go, as she smoothly slid free from his lap and retook her place at the table, refreshing his tea.

He checked his watch, realizing they had only a few minutes before she was supposed to be summoning Kanae and Mikuru. Probably best not for that to happen while they were... He shook his head. What was he doing, anyway? He drank the tea she had poured him, worried about what the future would bring. This wasn't the kind of person he was, to play around so callously behind someone else's back. This was something that he couldn't let Haruhi find out about, so it would be for the best if it was simply something he didn't let happen again.

He nodded to himself, resolved to apologize to Yuki for it, but knowing he needed to be firm.

"I would like to kiss again in the future," she announced, her eyes scanning something outside the windows of her apartment.

"Absolutely," his mouth betrayed him. "I would, too."

She gave that not-quite-a-smile look that she had, when he knew she was happy, and his resolve was crushed instantly.

"I am glad," she said, before she reached out with one hand, fingertips resting against his wristwatch. "I ... want ... permission to modify this device."

"Er ... okay?" he allowed cautiously, uncertain what she had in mind.

Nothing much of anything appeared to happen, but she drew her fingertips back, evidently satisfied. "I will include teaching this new functionality in your chosen training tonight."

He studied the watch, but it didn't feel or act differently. "Okay," he agreed. "Is it about time?"

She gave her tiny nod, reached out with the same hand, grabbed space itself, and twisted. Kanae appeared abruptly on the floor to his left, wearing her pajamas and snoring softly. Mikuru appeared sitting at the table to his right, looking up and shooting Yuki a wary glance as she set a pad of sketching paper down.

The underclassman's bare feet were near Kyon, so he tickled her cautiously, prompting her to giggle before groggily waking up. "Is it that time again?" she asked, yawning as she sat up. "And is it safe to practice sliding again, yet?"

"Yes," Yuki agreed. "You may return to your initially selected training material."

The girl threw her arms in the air. "Yay!" she cheered.

"I'm happy with cooking right now," Mikuru demurred.

"Tsuruya-kun says I get even better at martial arts," Kyon said, shifting his shoulders in a helpless shrug.

"Understood," Yuki said, beginning to raise one hand again.

"Wait," he protested. "I have one quick question, Nagato."

Her eyes fixed on him and shimmered, but did not blink.

"Um ... what ... do you get out of this, exactly? I know to us, we each go ... somewhere else to practice. What about you?"

She said nothing, just looking at him as her rarely seen blush returned.

He felt his own face color, and realized that he might already know. Even if he didn't remember it... Yuki had certainly known how to _return_ a kiss, despite the fact that she didn't seem to know how to initiate one. "A...actually, forget about that that for now," he said quickly, when Kanae and Mikuru both turned questioning stares at the pair of them.

Was that relief he saw in Yuki's eyes?! "Initializing," she announced, sending reality away.

* * *

With nothing else to do all day, Kyon quickly became bored. Admittedly, left to his own devices he probably wouldn't have chosen to leave the house, but with his mother's angry decree, he wasn't even allowed to leave his room, except at mealtimes and to use the washroom. The high point of the day was that Miyokichi had come to visit his younger sister, and the two weren't forbidden to visit him.

Having a spare deck of cards and long experience with children, he expertly lost nearly every hand to the pair. His little sister fell for it completely, but he was starting to think that Miyokichi was realizing that he was throwing the games in their favor. In his mind, it was just practice, since he was going to be surrounded by an endless sea of younger cousins once he reached Hinamizawa.

"I win!" his little sister exclaimed, as Kyon once again managed a losing hand. "I'm going to get us some snacks!"

She bounced up off his bed, rousing Shamisen, and dashed out the door, humming happily. Miyokichi turned to look at him thoughtfully, and tossed her cards onto the discard pile. He gathered them and began shuffling, glancing up at her as he asked, "Something on your mind, Miyokichi-chan?"

"I have a problem," she confessed, giving a small smile.

He shuffled as he nodded, studying the girl. She looked as physically mature as Kanae or Yuki, and most of the time she acted as mature as well, despite the fact that she and his sister were the same age. Dressed in the knee-length skirt, smart blouse, and with her dark hair styled more carefully than his sister usually bothered to, he could easily imagine she had a lot of problems with boys who thought she was older than she was asking her out. Or worse, boys who did know, and didn't care.

"What's that?" he asked.

"I...it's something you might understand very well," she said shyly. "It's actually one of the reasons I, um, rely on you, you know?"

He didn't ... and he wasn't sure he liked where this was going, either. But he nodded anyway. "Sure," he said.

"S...so," she said, starting to stutter as her face colored with a blush, and her index fingers began to poke at one another before her. "Um, um, that is..."

He braced himself. What would it be this time? Was she going to be a vampire? Magical girl? Maybe a member of another group like the Organization? Anything but a confession, he was sure he could handle. Please, he asked any god listening to his prayers, don't let it be a confession!

"Um, Kyon," she blurted out, looking up and locking eyes with him, her gaze watery and shimmering, her cheeks glowing with a blush, "when you have a nickname, are you stuck with it forever!?"

He raised one hand to his face and massaged his forehead. Okay, that went better than he had hoped. "Ah, well ... I am, but you don't have to be," he said, dropping his hand to his side. "Would you be happier if I called you Miyoko-chan?"

Instantly her expression brightened, and her blush faded. "That would be nice!" she said cheerfully.

"Snacks!" Kyon's sister announced, bearing a small tray of crackers into the room. "Kyon-kun, Miyokichi! Help yourselves!"

"Hey," Kyon warned his sister. "You should be a bit more respectful of your friends, Imouto! Has Miyoko-chan asked you to stop using that nickname, recently?"

"Yes," his sister allowed with a pout. "But, I still call you Kyon-kun, even though you don't like it - I think everyone should have a nickname!"

He turned to the taller girl and asked, "What kind of nickname should we give Imouto? I like 'Okkuu', since she's annoying ... maybe 'Imoukuu'?"

Miyoko giggled, narrowing her eyes and giving Kyon's sister a thoughtfully considering stare.

"I'll be good," his sister grumbled. "I forgot to get water!" She ran off.

"Thank you!" Miyoko cheered. "Um, um, can I ask you another favor, maybe?"

"I guess," he said, shrugging as he dealt out the next hand of cards. "I can't guarantee that I'll be able to help you, but it wouldn't hurt to try, right?"

"W...would you go to see a movie with me?" she asked shyly.

"I won't be free until after Golden Week," he said, frowning. What was this?! A _date_? "So, it would have to be an evening showing ... will it still be playing, then?"

"Yeah! It's a foreign film I've really been dying to see!" she said brightly. "But, I couldn't think of anyone else to ask!"

He crushed the thought that it was a date: "What's the title?"

Her cheeks took on a decidedly pink tinge again, and she demurely looked away. "Um, it's called 'Saw'."

Right, he remembered. Miyoko liked gory horror movies. She didn't _need_ to be supernatural; she was strange enough as it was. "Yeeeaah," he drawled, considering, while she tried to give him her best puppy-dog look.

"Please?" she begged. She was going to be very dangerous once she learned to use her looks more effectively ... or if she just developed a bit more. Mikuru might have real competition, then.

"I'll think about it," he told her, shaking his head as his sister came back into the room. Maybe he could convince Haruhi to come along ... she'd probably like weird things like that, too, and that would make sure that she didn't get the wrong idea about the younger girl and Kyon.

* * *

He woke early on Monday morning, his cell chirping a text message notice as he sat up and looked around. A request from Tsuruya to meet him before school? That sounded fine, he thought, finishing his morning routine in time to see his sister poke her head out of her room with a pout. "I'm heading to class early," he told her, tousling her hair in passing. "Tell Miyoko-chan I said hello when you see her!"

"Okay," his sister reluctantly agreed.

There was a bento waiting in the kitchen, but only one, and his mother was nowhere in sight.

"Figures," he sighed, leaving it for his sister and leaving the house. Before he could grab his bicycle, a familiar limousine pulled to a halt before the family home, and he shrugged, approaching it when Tsuruya popped the door open and excitedly gestured him in.

"Good morning," she chirped, handing him a bento. "How are you today, Kyon-kun?"

"My day's been getting better since I woke up," he assured her, rubbing at one eye. He had missed breakfast in his rush, but at least he had lunch. "Thanks for looking out for me, Tsuruya-kun."

"Glad to hear it!" Tsuruya cheered. "But looking out for you is parts of my job, you know? The boss has to look out for her henchmen!"

He snorted, nodding. At least whatever else happened, he would have a place with the Tsuruya family, as her father had told his family. "Well, I appreciate that," he allowed. Though, thinking about it, he wasn't really certain he wanted to spend the rest of his life as a major member of an organized crime syndicate.

"So," she said, reaching into the blouse of her school uniform and pulling out an envelope, "here's your pay for this week's work!"

Surprised, he accepted the envelope, resolving to open it later, when she wasn't watching him. He was relatively certain that was the polite way to handle things, anyway. Wasn't there some ritual dialog to go along with the payment? He really didn't want to mess this up... "Um, I am grateful to receive this," he said, bowing his head and hoping that was close enough.

"It's something you earned," she assured him. "Anyways! I want to talk to you about Haru-nyan, okies?"

"Sure," he agreed, pocketing the envelope. "What's up, then?"

Tsuruya looked thoughtful, gazing up at the roof of the car for a minute. "So ... I should tell Haru-nyan about my family, shouldn't I?"

"Well, she's going to want to know everything," he agreed. "She knows about the part at school, but the rest, with the Sumiyoshi-rengo..." He sighed. "Yeah, she'll want to know that, too."

The tall girl nodded, turning to look out the window as the scenery streamed by. "Do you think Haru-nyan will be mad at me?" she asked in a quiet voice. "That I made Kyon-kun my subordinate?"

"I don't think she'll mind that much," he said slowly. "I mean ... to her, the brigade comes first. So as long as she can say that the brigade ranking is more important than the ninkyo dantai ranking, she'll only be upset that she didn't get to be involved."

"You know," she said, giving him a weak grin, "becoming part of the family is supposed to means cutting ties with your old family. But, my father is a good man, maybe sometimes a bit soft. He says that in the Tsuruya branch, it's okay to have two families, even though his is supposed to come first. So ... it might make me look a little bad if it got out, but I don't minds." Her grin blossomed into a real smile. "I get to claim a little bit of Kyon-kun for myself, right?"

"Y...yeah," he agreed uncertainly, wondering why he had let himself become so entangled with so many girls. Haruhi was going to murder him into oblivion, once she found out. Might as well enjoy it while it lasted. "Really," he said, "if you ask Haruhi to join the brigade full time instead of just as an honorary member, I know she'd be happy to let you in. She'll think that means you're her subordinate, which means she won't mind you outranking me so much."

Tsuruya burst into laughter at that, nodding vigorously. "I'll do that!" she said cheerfully. "Then you and Haru-nyan can tell me more about the time travelers, aliens, and espers that Mori-san mentioned existed!"

"And sliders," he added, as the school came into view ahead of them, and the car pulled to a halt.

"Ooh, those too?" She burst into laughter again. "This is gonna be _fun_!"

* * *

After getting to school early, Haruhi was surprised to find Kyon already waiting in the classroom, flipping through pages of finished homework and looking bored. "Hey!" she called, slapping his back companionably. "How goes life at the family penitentiary?"

"Well, mom's being unreasonable," he replied, shrugging. "Tsuruya-kun tried to help me out, but my mom has pretty amazing stubbornness, so I'm still grounded." When she scowled, he hefted a bento and added, "At least thanks to Tsuruya-kun, I won't starve."

She felt mollified by that, somewhat, and grudgingly nodded. "Breakfast," she said suddenly, shoving a sealed plastic container at him. "I don't get why your mom thinks that starvation is good for discipline."

He accepted the cold breakfast gratefully. "Dunno," he said around mouthfuls of the rice and vegetables. "Doesn't matter. Anyway, like I warned you, I'm being sent to Hinamizawa for Golden Week."

Her expression shifted to a pout, and she crossed her arms over her chest, scowling out the window. "That sucks," she grumbled. "So, you're not allowed to come to club meetings, and you're going to be gone for an entire week because your little sister wants to go to visit your cousins?"

He chewed thoughtfully for a long minute, and then said, "Yeah. I heard her calling my aunt and uncle last night, so they're expecting me, now."

Haruhi drummed her fingers on her desk, then sighed. "I'm hardly going to be able to monitor the school for suspicious activity, if we're always having lunch meetings. But if we don't meet for lunch, then I'll-" She cut herself off with a fake cough. "I mean, you'll hardly ever get to be with the rest of us!"

"Yeah," he sighed. He shook his head abruptly. "Well, in a way, I guess I'm just glad that ordeal is over. That kind of thing shouldn't happen too often, right?"

She thought about it for a bit. Pictures of her and her classmates being taken while they were undressing... For some reason, it bothered her a lot more than it would have a year or so ago. Back then, she was indifferent to normal people seeing her take off her blouse; she remembered one instance where Asakura Ryouko had to bodily heave Kyon, Goto, and Kunikida out of the room because they weren't fast enough when she started to change.

But then, Kyon had become more interesting, and she realized if she gave everything away, there wouldn't be anything to entice him with-

A squeaking noise escaped her throat when Kyon pressed his right wrist against her forehead, frowning as he pressed his left wrist against his own. "You have a fever?" he asked. "You're all red."

"It's nothing!" she said quickly, realizing her face was hot with embarrassment. Okay, she decided, she could be a little honest at least; Kyon deserved that much. "W...well, actually," she allowed, as he lowered his wrist, one eyebrow raised at her, "I was just thinking how embarrassing it would be if those pictures got out..."

"I didn't really look at them," he said, shrugging. "I mean ... I caught a glance at a few of them, but it wasn't something I was really looking for."

Her face remained red; she'd had time to scan through quite a few of them. Not that she was trying to see what her classmates looked like in their underwear, or anything like that... "Y...yeah," she agreed. "It would be pretty wrong to take advantage of a classmate like that."

For some reason, he looked bothered by that. "So ... what about those 'knockout' pictures of Asahina-san that you took?" he asked.

She shifted her shoulders and turned to stare out the windows. "I was never that kind of person," she mumbled. "I mean, I guess..." Ugh, stupid Kyon, bringing that up! Now she was going to feel terrible about that all _day_! She steeled herself and shot him a glower. "Thank you," she muttered. "I didn't realize how bad that could have been."

He wasn't looking at her, though, he was staring at the floor between his feet, his expression downcast. What did he have to be upset about?! He'd done the right thing and stopped her! Or ... was he disappointed in her, still?

"I'll find a way to make it up to her," she decided, crossing her arms over her chest. "That's my job as the leader of the SOS Brigade! Right?"

"Yeah," he answered, nodding, but not shifting his gaze. He shook himself, smacking his forehead with the heel of one palm. "Sorry," he said, shooting her a wry grin. "I told you once I thought you were at your best when you were looking out for others, and I think that's still true."

She couldn't help but sit up perfectly straight and thrust her chest out a little with pride. "Of course!" she cheered. "And speaking of helping others, as much as I want a full report on what you and Tsuruya-san were up to, hmm, I guess we'll just have to study at lunch. Do you think Tsuruya-san would be willing to stay with the club and explain things after school? She is supposed to give me receipts, after all."

He raised his eyebrows, considering. "Yeah," he said, nodding after a moment, as the classroom door opened and a trio of girls from the choir club trooped in, chatting amiably. "I think she can explain quite a bit."

* * *

Heading home, strangely early, thanks to being 'grounded', Kyon found himself accosted by Taniguchi and Kunikida on the walk to the train station. "Hey, you two," he said, nodding as they fell into step together.

"Nice to get a chance to speak with the legend himself," Kunikida said, smirking.

Taniguchi nodded, running one hand across his slicked-back hair. "I'll agree to that. You know, the entire school is still talking about you!"

"My notoriety increases," Kyon observed. "Really, I just wanted a normal life. I kind of wish I could have it back, actually." Though, for the sake of Yuki, he didn't regret ending up on the course he had... Come to think of it, for Tsuruya, too, and it wasn't like he could complain about the way Haruhi acted around him that much, either. He worried that she wasn't being completely true to herself, but she _seemed_ happy...

"What's not to like?" the pervert asked, looking at him askance. "I mean, the ladies love you, you've rounded up all the best looking ones into your club, your grades are coming up, the ladies love you, word on the street is that you've been regularly fighting crime in dark alleys or something, super-hero style, the ladies love you, you're a badass martial artist now, the ladies love you, you were a super-athlete in physical education today, the ladies love you..." He frowned thoughtfully, then added, "Just that last point alone should satisfy any normal, healthy male, right?"

Kyon felt suddenly ill. Taniguchi considered his outlook to be that of a 'healthy male'? What did that say about the way Kyon considered himself!? Was he a pervert, too? He resolved to talk to Mikuru about something that had been nagging him since that morning.

"You don't look very good," Kunikida noted. "Something bothering you?"

"Just an unpleasant thought," Kyon said, shaking his head. "Nevermind that. Um, I guess I don't have much to complain about."

"Well, it must be something. You're with us, instead of your club today."

He waved a hand dismissively. "It turns out that even if everyone at the school thinks you did well, your parents tend to get pissed off when you go on a rule-breaking rampage and dangle someone out of a window until they wet themselves."

Taniguchi chuckled, adding, "Man, that was the most epic thing I've ever seen - Goto, our class rep, recorded it on his cell-phone. There's already a few clips on the internet of it! It starts from right when you and Nagato Yuki are pulling Tsuruya-sempai back in through the window, and ends right when you bring Yamane Jun back in."

"He will not be missed," Kunikida opined, shaking his head. "I always thought that Taniguchi here was the epitome of perversion, but I guess he was outdone!"

"Hey! I resent that!" Taniguchi protested, frowning.

"How are things between you and Yanagimoto, anyway?" Kyon asked.

Taniguchi's frown deepened. "We're going on a date on Showa Day, the Friday before Golden Week kicks off," he mumbled. "You don't think she thinks _I'm_ a pervert, do you?"

"She agreed to go on the date, didn't she?" Kunikida asked, smirking. "If she does think you're a pervert, she'd have to be one too to say yes."

"Actually," Taniguchi chuckled, grinning, "she asked me. Crazy, huh?"

"Stranger things have happened," Kyon decided. "But, good for you, Taniguchi."

"Haha, thanks, Kyon! How are things between you and Suzumiya? You were looking pretty close this morning!"

"No comment."

"Pssht. Fine," Taniguchi grumbled, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "At least I'll be going out on a date with Yanagimoto. Sometimes you make me feel like a sidekick character..."

"You, a sidekick?"

Kyon and Kunikida exchanged amused smirks, while Taniguchi gazed into the sky.

"Yeah, kinda," Taniguchi said. "You know how in harem anime, or most shonen anime, the male lead has two super-generic friends who go to school with them? They're usually a little different, but are just background characters. Might as well label them 'A' and 'B'."

Kyon raised an eyebrow and confessed, "Actually, no offense, but I always looked at you two that way. The ... girl-centric friend, and the smart friend."

"Why, thank you," Kunikida said, chuckling. "I admit; I considered you the same way! The girl-crazy friend, and the weirdness-magnet."

"Yeah, okay," Taniguchi grumbled. "I get the snarky friend and the condescending friend."

"It's not all bad," Kunikida assured him. "You're dating, after all, right?"

"And she's a gymnast, isn't she?" Kyon added. "That should work out really well for you."

Taniguchi narrowed his eyes at the pair. "I am _so_ going to focus on romance over physical intimacy, just to prove you wrong," he swore. "Anyway, see you two tomorrow."

Kyon and Kunikida stopped at the intersection and watched him walk away. "Hey, Kyon," Kunikida said, glancing at the taller student sidelong. "Did we just inadvertently encourage Taniguchi to behave sensibly on his date?"

"I think we did," Kyon agreed, rubbing his chin. "I guess I'll count that for today's good deed."

"Hehe, I suppose the hero must track his quota, eh? I'll consider that a sidekick point for myself. Take care!"

Kyon nodded, smirking as he watched Kunikida turn the opposite direction from Taniguchi, and walk away.


	15. Chapter 14

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Filler Arc IV

Chapter Fourteen: Loose Threads

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site!

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"File K:3419.8.19/2011.4.25"_

_"Even as an observer, sometimes it's nice to be ignorant about some things. At least until after the fact. I suppose that doesn't sound very good, does it? Maybe I shouldn't record this..."_

_"[CLASSIFIED]" - Peraea Mons T.E.S.A. Dataplume_

* * *

Kanae was a bit sad that her sempai wasn't able to attend the club meeting after school, and he'd been too busy studying to really chat during lunch. She also wasn't clear on what exactly he'd done to get in trouble with his family. She was certain it was his mother complaining about him being a good person; after all, she'd gotten worked up over her sempai rescuing her from Ryuguu.

She'd also been approached by a number of her classmates to ask about him, many with suspiciously dreamy eyes. She didn't know more than the rumors going around the school, and her classroom hadn't had a line of sight to the clubhouse where her sempai had supposedly rescued Tsuruya from falling, and then vanquished a terrible villain. Then again, those were just rumors.

People she didn't recognize assumed that because she was part of the club, she knew the 'real' story. Thankfully, before she could get overwhelmed, her sempai's friend Tsuruya had cheerfully bulldozed through the crowd and personally escorted her to the clubroom. The tall girl was eternally energetic, and found almost everything amusing, but Kanae was happy to have another friend in any case.

After reaching the clubroom with her green-haired guardian, Kanae took her usual seat. Mikuru was already industriously working on her sewing project, and Koizumi and Haruhi were engaged in a discussion about something over a game of Othello. Yuki was quietly flipping the pages of an unfamiliar hard-cover novel, 'The Complete Compleat Enchanter'.

"...some place called Hinamizawa for Golden Week," Haruhi concluded dourly.

"Even so," Koizumi said genially, setting down a piece and flipping several of Haruhi's, "isn't time with family to be treasured? I was planning on visiting my parents over the vacation, myself!"

"I guess," Haruhi sighed, placing a piece of her own.

"That place sounds familiar," Tsuruya mused, before brightening. "Oh! My bodyguard's father used to works there! I think he mentioned it once or twice!"

"Nevermind that," Haruhi decided, turning her attention to Tsuruya. "Kyon didn't have time to give me a full report, but he said you could help out."

"Yep!" Tsuruya said cheerfully, pulling a scroll from her schoolbag and then dropping into Kanae's sempai's usual seat. She handed the scroll to Haruhi, who accepted it dubiously, then pushed the Othello board closer to Tsuruya. The green-haired girl eyed the board thoughtfully, then placed a piece immediately after Koizumi took his move.

Haruhi carefully untied the heavy string sealing the scroll and unfurled it, raising an eyebrow at the contents. "Nice," she allowed. "You have very neat calligraphy, Tsuruya-san."

Unable to think of anything else to sketch at the moment, Kanae decided to draw Mikuru.

"Thanks!" the green-haired girl said. "Another game, Koizumi-kun?"

"Of course," the boy agreed.

"You ... tallied broken noses?" Haruhi asked, a bit surprised, before her eyes widened further and she lowered the scroll to stare at Tsuruya incredulously. "Assaulting a yakuza hideout? Tsuruya-san, what the hell were you doing!?"

"Boryokudan," Tsuruya corrected. "They were Sumiyoshi-rengo, an organizations that opposes my own. They were buying the pictures that Yamane's group was taking."

That calmed Haruhi a bit. It was something they _had_ to do, not just some wild whim. "Okay," she said, frowning as she scanned further. She stopped and assumed a quizzical expression, not actually looking at Tsuruya. "An organization that opposes your own? You called Kyon a 'saiko-komon' ... Tsuruya, are you a yakuza?"

Tsuruya shook her head, her eyes widening slightly as Koizumi played his piece on the Othello board. "Clevers," she remarked. Turning to Haruhi she explained, "My family is ninkyo dantai! We don't call ourselves 'yakuza'. I'm not _really_ supposed to talk about it ... but Kyon-kun says that it's no good to hide things from you. My family helps fund Koizumi-kun's organizations! But, officially, the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi doesn't look into the affairs of his group, and vice-versa. Since Koizumi-kun joined the SOS Brigade, I'd like to do that, too!"

Haruhi tapped the scroll thoughtfully. "What's this about 'kinship rituals'?" she asked.

"Sorries," Tsuruya said, sticking her tongue out and miming a blow to her head. "Um ... when we made the Sumiyoshi-rengo really mad, Kyon-kun asked me to make sure his family was safe. So, with my father's approval, Kyon-kun became my chief advisor, and my father's men watch Kyon-kun's family to make sure the Sumiyoshi-rengo leave them alone. But the ritual is to drink sake with salt and fish scales in it, spend a night in the family home - you remember when Kyon-kun stayed over?"

Making a disgusted face, Haruhi nodded. "I guess if it's for ceremony..." She perused the scroll further. "Ritual cleansing?" she asked, cocking her head to one side. Yuki's eyes rose from her book to watch Haruhi silently.

"Official words for washing, um ... after a fight," Tsuruya clarified, her face coloring as she stared intently at the board and placed a piece.

"'Washing'," Haruhi said in a flat tone.

Tsuruya began to look nervous. "W...well, it wasn't anything mischievous," she said insistently. "Um, when Kyon-kun was injured, I felt really bad ... that's on the report, too."

"Yeah," Haruhi grumbled, "I see it says 'stitches' here. Yuki-chan, you took care of that?"

"Yes," Yuki replied quietly.

"S...so, because he hit his head, and my wrist was cut - Nagato-chi took care of that on Saturdays - w...well..." Tsuruya's face was red, and she chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. Kanae was fairly certain she was even slightly trembling. "A...anyway, he, um, took a baths with me and scrubbed my back - but it was my idea! He was trying to be a gentleman about it and very polite!"

Kanae stared at the taller girl, her mouth dropping open as she finally realized what happened. "You got to take a bath with Sempai!?" she blurted out. "I'm jealous! Er, I mean, that is..." She clapped her hands over her mouth and felt her face heat up as she blushed dark red.

Mikuru roused from her intense study of her sewing project. "What's going on?" she asked, bewildered. Koizumi was frozen, his face pale. "Suzumiya-san?"

Haruhi slammed both palms onto the table, causing about half of the Othello tiles to flip, and the rest to clatter around the board. "Tsuruya-san! Do you expect me to just forgive this!?"

Squeaking in alarm, Mikuru leapt up from her seat and cowered behind Tsuruya; looking at Haruhi's expression, Kanae was strongly tempted to hide, too, but didn't think that the taller girl would make the best cover given the circumstances. She settled for ducking to the floor and peeking over the edge of the table nervously, wishing her sempai were there to cling to. Though, that might not end so well for him, to appearances.

Tsuruya reached into her bag and produced a flat rectangular object with a solid white backing. "I have a picture of Kyon-kun in delinquent costume," she offered, holding it between two fingers and presenting it to Haruhi.

Haruhi looked skeptical, but snatched it from Tsuruya, shooting her another glare before turning her attention to the picture. The girl's eyes immediately widened, and Kanae was surprised to see Haruhi's cheeks color, some of her anger vanishing instantly. "W...woah," she said slowly. Shaking her head, she looked at Tsuruya sharply again. "I am keeping this picture!"

Tsuruya produced another. "Nagato-chi in extra-moe delinquent mode!"

Yuki turned her attention back to her book.

Haruhi made a choking sound, snatching the next picture and staring at it. "Okay," she said dubiously, repeatedly glancing between it and the girl reading her book. "What else?"

Pulling out a third picture, Tsuruya announced, "And me, in kogal-mode! Plus, I still haves all the delinquent-mode costumes!"

The brigade chief looked mildly annoyed. "You'd better bring that here to hang on the costume rack," she mumbled. "Well, even so, taking a bath with Kyon - that's going too far, Tsuruya-san! It better not happen again! If you're joining, you'd better understand that it makes you my subordinate! Is that clear!?"

Tsuruya saluted sharply. "Understood completely!" she agreed. "Next time I want to take a bath with Kyon-kun, I'll invite you over to join us!"

"You'd better!" Haruhi said, nodding. She blinked, seeming to only just realize what she said, and quickly shook her head, blushing. "I mean, I'll let you in the brigade, but don't think like that! Penalty on you, Tsuruya; you're paying for our drinks for the next activity!"

"Okay!" She pulled out a smaller stack of additional photographs. "Here are the group pictures!"

Mikuru blinked several times, her eyes widening. "T...Tsuruya bathed with Kyon-kun?" she asked, staring at the green-haired girl she was trying to hide behind.

"All business," Tsuruya assured her. "No mischief! Just like when we take baths or sleep together!"

"O...oh," Mikuru managed, looking at Tsuruya askance. "That's ... very bold of you."

"This from the girl who felt Kyon up last week?" Haruhi asked, looking at Mikuru with one arched eyebrow.

"I wonder if it's okay for me to do something like that with Sempai?" Kanae mused, her face still warm. "Everyone else seems to be so free..." She realized she was babbling, and quickly climbed back into her seat, turning her attention back to her sketchpad. "Um! I'm drawing, don't mind me!"

"A...anyway," Haruhi continued, tapping one finger on the table before her, as Koizumi sighed and started collecting loose Othello pieces, "if _anyone_ were to get permission, it'd be Mikuru-chan, because I owe her an apology."

Mikuru looked at Haruhi as though the brigade chief had gone mad, then quickly shook her head. "Back to the project," she decided, folding the machine away and pulling out her hand-sewing kit.

"Ugh," Haruhi grumbled, as Koizumi finished putting away the Othello board. "We need to figure out an activity for after Golden Week ... I'm sure Kyon's mother will come around after sending him to Hinamizawa." She snapped her fingers absently, and the little pyramid on her desk with her rank on it wobbled unsteadily as it levitated, spinning in the air before her.

Yuki raised her gaze from her book and stared at the pyramid. Koizumi stared at it as well. Mikuru continued carefully affixing buttons to the coat she was working on. Tsuruya just shook her head and chuckled.

"I don't knows what to do after Golden Week," the tall girl said, grinning, "but everyone here knows my secret now, that I'm from a ninkyo dantai family! Kyon-kun and Koizumi-kun would have told me more, but there wasn't too much time before the fight we hads on Saturday. So! Haru-nyan, I know Kyon-kun said you could float things and change reality with Nagato-chi's help! What's everyone else do?"

"That'll pass the time," Haruhi agreed, frowning intently at the paperweight floating before her. "Koizumi-kun, why don't you go first?"

* * *

Knowing that he was supposed to return straight home, but not eager to return to confinement, Kyon decided to detour to his little sister's school first. After leaving the train station he hitched his bag high on his shoulder and broke into a trot; usually he would pick up his bike from the racks to one side, but Tsuruya had given him a ride. Thanks to Yuki's training and conditioning, he was able to make excellent time, arriving at the gates to her school in time to see her rounding the corner on the way home.

He quickly caught up with her, spotting a somewhat conspicuous man in a sharp suit and fedora glancing after the girl. Before announcing his presence to his sister, he slowed, eyeing the man. Seeing him, the suited figure nodded, pulling his fedora down and lowering one hand to the pin on his lapel. Relieved to realize it was one of the Tsuruya clan's men, watching over his family as promised, he nodded back, a hand rising to the pin he'd started wearing habitually as well.

"Kyon-kun?" his sister asked, seeming to sense his approach before he spoke.

"Yep," he answered, tousling her hair when she looked back at him. "Just thought I'd walk you home, Imouto. How was class?"

"It was fun! I got to tell my friends about you fighting the dark general! Miyoko-chan had a newspaper clipping about your school, too, and in social studies we got to talk about it!"

They made small-talk about the article, which he was glad to discover didn't name him, or anyone else from the brigade. Naturally, it didn't name any suspects, either, but that didn't bother him very much.

After getting home and exchanging wary, silent glances with his mother, he returned to his room and spread his homework across his desk again. A chirp from his phone alerted him of a text message, and he checked it curiously, frowning when he saw it was from Sasaki. "Why..." he said aloud, suddenly chilled. He didn't wonder why she was trying to contact him, but he had lost count of the number of times he'd thought he should ask Yuki about it - and hadn't.

What else had he let slip? What other important things had gotten dropped by the wayside? The sudden shift in his life, parallel to the more dramatic shift in Haruhi's... Grabbing a sheet of paper, he quickly started scribbling notes, his face marked with an intent frown.

"Temporal displacement," he grumbled, remembering the older Mikuru's warning of what he needed to learn about. "Sasaki," he added. "And Kanae-chan's alien invaders." Was he forgetting anything? "I need that vacation more than I thought."

He opened the text from Sasaki: "Hello Kyon! I suppose you must be very busy lately? I read in the paper about your school! I hope you are okay. I don't mean to bother you, so if you don't respond, I'll leave you be - until after Golden Week, at least! So, if I don't hear from you, have a nice vacation! :)"

Strangely, her use of a smiley face in the text message bothered him more than anything else. She wasn't the type to usually do that, at least, in his memory. Had she done it to try and calm him? To warn him?

He forced himself to take a calming breath. He was becoming needlessly paranoid about all of this. Something strange certainly seemed to be going on, but that had frequently been the case since starting high school. One last item that had been bothering him could be dealt with first. He prepared a text of his own, asking Mikuru to meet with him at school early the next day. That should take care of all the loose ends he'd been dropping.

And while he was on the subject... He pulled the envelope from his blazer pocket thoughtfully, wondering how much money Tsuruya had given him. If he was lucky, it was a few thousand yen, not likely to be anything near the ten thousand he had managed to get once, when he sold a certain baseball bat to the Kamigahara Pirates, but-

He gawked, staring in shock at ten, crisp, sequential, seemingly never-before-used ten thousand yen bills. "One hundred thousand yen," he managed, aloud. "It's good to work for Tsuruya-kun." In fact, other than being grounded, he was confident his day couldn't get any better!

As though to underscore that thought, his mother suddenly called up the stairs, "Kyon! A classmate is here to see you!"

He shrugged, folding the bills together and putting them in his wallet. He turned his chair around and rose in time to see Koizumi stepping into the room, looking somewhat stressed. "Everything okay?" Kyon asked, eyeing the esper up and down.

"It's been better," the esper said, his usually calm voice slightly strained. He glanced over his shoulder, to where Kyon could faintly make out Mori's voice as she engaged Kyon's mother in discussion about something. Koizumi closed the door and rubbed his forehead. "Um, I must point out I did question the wisdom of sharing the details of your ... activities ... with Suzumiya-san, but it also seems you were correct; Tsuruya-san brought it up anyway."

"Is there closed space?" Kyon asked worriedly.

Koizumi paused a moment before grudgingly admitting, "No, actually. Much to my consternation. I have never seen Suzumiya-san so frustrated without closed space being created. It seems she has given herself an ... alternative method of relieving that frustration, but I am aware enough of her emotional state to know that it's not completely effective."

"Okay, so ... what's she frustrated about?" Kyon wondered.

The esper coughed politely. "Your ... activities ... with Tsuruya-san, naturally."

"What, fighting the Sumiyoshi-rengo?"

One of Koizumi's eyebrow's twitched. "No, Kyon-kun ... the thing which Mori-san gave you ... equipment for?"

Kyon winced, raising his hands and shaking his head. "Okay, you and Mori have the wrong idea - there is _nothing_ like that going on- Wait, Haruhi thinks it _is_ happening!?"

"She's not best pleased about the 'ceremonial cleansing' you evidently undertook with Tsuruya-san, I can assure you of that," Koizumi said, spreading his hands in a shrug.

"But there's no closed space?"

"It's ... possible that closed space will not be created anymore," Koizumi allowed. "Which concerns me if her frustration is allowed to build too much without a sufficient outlet."

Kyon frowned. Would that burden fall to Yuki, he wondered? "And, naturally, you want me to take care of it?"

"With due respect," the esper said, smiling, "it seems to me that this situation was caused by you in the first place, so, yes, that would be greatly appreciated."

"So ... am I in trouble with the Organization?" Didn't this contradict what his future self would tell Mori?

"No ... the espers are aware of Suzumiya-san's emotional state, as I've said before, but it seems that I am the most sensitive, either through proximity, or just a better personal knowledge of Suzumiya-san." Koizumi shook his head. "This in no way lessens my concern, however."

"Right. So ... Haruhi's mad because Tsuruya let her know about the bath thing?"

Koizumi gave him a flat stare. "Kyon-kun ... please be very careful about these things. I realize your new-found authority may come with certain ... temptations ... but, surely you're not oblivious as to Suzumiya-san's regard concerning you?"

"I get it," Kyon grumbled, annoyed with the esper's attitude. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "So I should talk to Haruhi?"

"You certainly need to be more careful with concerns to your treatment of other girls as it gets back to Suzumiya-san," Koizumi advised. "Personally, I would suggest not ... playing around with anyone else. Suzumiya-san is a very interesting person, and in many ways her eccentricity makes her more tolerant than another might be ... but everyone has limits."

Kyon opened his eyes and stared at Koizumi. The esper was gazing out the window absently. "I get it," he said quietly.

"Good," Koizumi said, turning his gaze back to Kyon and smiling. "Mori-san will try and smooth things over with your family to make it possible, but I trust that you will take care of this quickly, then?"

Kyon's phone warned him that he had a text, and he checked it, not surprised to see that it was from himself: "Hi! Need the phone. Turn back on tomorrow morning."

Smirking at the esper as he turned his phone off, he said, "You and Mori don't need to worry; I already am."

* * *

He remembered the day his tenshi had stopped coming to class. No one else seemed to catch it, but the boy who was too strange to use his own name hadn't seemed at all surprised. That wasn't much of a clue, in and of itself... But he had followed his tenshi _everywhere_. He knew she had left a message in that villain's shoe locker.

He hadn't read the note, but he wasn't blind, and he could guess. So he'd waited in the hall, watching quietly, pretending to be busy with straightening out his backpack. He had no illusions; he was one of those not-quite-attractive-enough-to-be-noticed people. Not hideous enough to be stared at, just the right level of plain and uninspiring features to generally vanish into the background.

And he'd seen the nameless fiend walk into the 1-5 classroom, nearly a year ago. The classroom he'd last seen his tenshi stride into.

Time passed. Eventually, Taniguchi, that good-for-nothing pompous... That boy had opened the door to the classroom, seen something that caused him to panic and apologize, and then ran away, yelling something inane.

He hadn't waited to watch his tenshi come out, sullied by the fiend's touch.

He had gone home, to feel his hopes and dreams wither just a little bit more. She'd been forever out of his reach before, but now... Now, thanks to that villain...

The detective at the foot of his bed snapped his fingers, drawing him back to the present. He stared at the irritated looking man in uniform, then shifted his shoulders. "I hit my head," he said by way of explanation. "Everything is a bit fuzzy."

"I'm sure," the detective replied doubtfully, glancing at his notepad. "We'll take a break here. I'll be back in a few hours." The detective gave a wide, unfriendly grin. "Don't go anywhere."

He sneered at the man's turned back, the handcuff securing him to the bed-rail making a quiet metallic clang.

Alone with his thoughts for a minute, he replayed the day after the villain had defiled his beloved. He knew, somehow, that because she had been tainted, corrupted by that disgusting sub-human ... she wouldn't come back. Arriving before class the next day, he had gathered some personal effects from her locker outside the classroom. When the announcement came that she had left, his tenshi vanished forever, he watched, somehow knowing.

The excitable girl behind him was delighted that 'something' had happened, but the fiend himself did not betray the slightest iota of surprise. Of course, why would he be surprised? He had driven her away.

He'd done nothing, merely remaining silent and watching the nameless one act unconcerned. Days turned to weeks and months, and all he had to console himself was the physical education outfit he'd taken before it was too late, the one small bit of her left. But...

...something about those clothes, some scent on it... It made him feel _closer_ to her, somehow. He wanted, more than anything, vengeance for the loss of his tenshi. And yet... And yet, somehow, the closer he felt to her, the more he knew he had to be subtle. He had to find some way of either overwhelming the nameless thug, or undermining him without ever being seen.

Initially, he'd had just _one_ intended target, that being the girl that the villain _seemed_ to care about. But then, the others in the club had found out, and it had become an opportunity to become something larger, more profitable... Money wasn't the most important thing in the world, but it helped. And making that money established _connections_. He just needed to wait for it all to pan out...

He looked up sharply, as the door to his room opened, and an unfamiliar-looking man in a clean suit limped in, leaning heavily on a cane. He was followed by a boy that he knew quite well, however. "Yamane Jun," the man said, giving a shark-like grin. "Well, well, well... How low the mighty have fallen, hum?"

"What do you want?" Jun asked, scowling. "This room is being watched-"

"Shut up," the familiar looking boy warned tersely. "Getting in here wasn't cheap, so you had better make it _damn_ well worth his time, or we're both screwed."

"You're not my boss, Ryuguu," Jun sneered. "As I remember it, it went the other way around."

"Maybe your memory needs adjustment," Ryuguu spat back.

"Boys, boys," the man said, shaking his head. "Calm down. You can kill each other once we address a matter of personal vengeance."

Ryuguu and Jun both fell silent, eyes turning to the man. He tenderly limped to a chair near the foot of Jun's bed, wincing as he sat, one hand going to his back.

"Now," he said, once he was seated, "you're in a bit of luck, Yamane. It seems that the school doesn't want to press charges, because that would make their mistake much more visible on the record. And the Tsuruya family doesn't want to press charges, because they don't want this brought further to light either. Oh, certain ... others ... might want justice, but it's hard to press charges when you aren't named, isn't it?"

"And?" Yamane asked, straightening up slightly. He wasn't actually badly injured, other than massive bruising across his back, a black eye, and one very stressed ankle. Now that he was recovering from his concussion, at least. "You mean, I'll be able to get out of here, soon?" And go back home, where he could console himself with his tenshi's scent... Oh, what sweet bliss that would be!

"Oh, yes," the man said, nodding. "Your uncle Watanabe here is looking out for you."

"Uncle?" he asked doubtfully.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Ryuguu warned.

"Fine," he allowed, grimacing. "What do you want from me, then?"

Watanabe grimaced. "That dirty punk, Kyon, messed up my operation. My boss is pretty angry about things, and even though I'll be released soon, that elbow slam has made me piss blood all week," he growled, wincing as one hand went to his back, over his kidney. "This is where you two come in. My boss can't make an obvious move against him. And neither can I." He jerked his head at Ryuguu. "But you can. And once Kyon is ... out of the picture ... we can take care of that air-headed Tsuruya bimbo."

The boy was wearing casual clothing, but suddenly looked nervous, reaching deep into a pocket on his very baggy trousers and withdrawing a pistol in his unbandaged hand. Jun's eyes widened in shock; gun control laws being what they were in Japan, obtaining a handgun was all-but impossible ... this one was almost certainly illegal.

Jun could name over seventy different models of camera, but not a single model of handgun; he had no idea what the piece was called, except that it looked like it belonged in a Hong Kong blood opera. "We each get one," Ryuguu said, uncomfortably. "We do this ... our uncle here will make sure that when we're done, nothing comes back to us. We get fresh starts, benefit packages, new allies..."

"Naturally," Watanabe added, grimacing when he struggled to his feet, leaning heavily on his cane as Ryuguu shoved the pistol back out of sight, "screw this up, don't do what we say ... then I've never seen you in my life - either of you. But I think you understand how this works. I gather neither of you have happy family lives at the moment anyway. So, what do you say, kid?"

Jun stared blankly at Ryuguu's pocket for a long minute, then gave a slow nod. For his tenshi, he would do this. "I'm not a kid," he mumbled, shooting a warning glance at the man before him.

"Good," Watanabe said, grinning through the pain. "Once you're out of here, Ryuguu will contact you for the next step. But don't worry ... you'll be released soon enough. Then we'll make sure you know how to use those things ... it's not that different from a camera. Point, and shoot. Think of it, boys ... soon, you can be free..."

Feeling the first smile in a long time form on his face, Jun nodded again.

* * *

Mikuru wasn't certain why Kyon wanted to meet with her, but she had no objections to it. And it was in the clubroom, at school, so surely it wasn't anything that would upset Haruhi. At least, it shouldn't be. She felt a little bit sad he hadn't asked to come to her apartment, but the greater part of her knew that she would be in quite a bit of trouble if that happened. Anyway, Haruhi's 'permission' aside, she had to behave herself.

And part of behaving herself was believing that Kyon was good enough to behave himself, too. Which, so far, he had. He'd never made a move to ask her on a date, even though he did frequently compliment her outfits, her hair, her cooking... It wasn't like she'd kept a mental journal of all those events, or logged it in a private note to herself to examine in the future... Well, okay, she did have a fairly extensive collection of recorded memories to peruse later, once her actual mission was over - but until such time as she returned to her _own_ time, she wasn't able to browse through those.

So she relied on good old fashioned chemical memories of those incidents. And she was just remembering how long it had actually been since she'd actually gotten to make him tea when she reached the clubroom door, pleased to find him inside, sitting at Haruhi's desk and puttering with the computer.

"Good morning, Kyon-kun!" she said cheerfully, trying to force her smile even brighter when she saw that his expression was a bit downcast. He tried to smile back, but she knew it wasn't completely genuine. She closed the door behind her, approaching the desk nervously. "I...is everything okay?"

He scratched behind one ear uncomfortably, and said, "Ah, sorry ... I just... Before last night's session with Nagato, I asked her about something that has been bothering me. She didn't know anything about it, though, so it's been troubling me."

She had a hard time imagining what Yuki wouldn't know about. "What is it?" she pressed, curious.

"Sasaki's name has coming up a lot, lately, and just recently she's been trying to get in touch with me," he said, shrugging. "Something about her really bothers Haruhi. Koizumi could even tell when Sasaki's name made Haruhi create a new kind of closed space."

She nodded absently, taking a seat and contemplating asking her superiors if they knew anything about it. They would just give her that old standby line, most likely ... or worse, answer her questions and then forbid her to tell Kyon. Her smile fading, she spent a moment of focus forming the questions and relaying them anyway. She wondered what it looked like to Kyon, who would have no understanding of what augmented reality was, or what the curious gesture she made next to her face meant. From his point of view, she probably looked like she was daydreaming, maybe trying to shield her eyes from the light.

The answer came back more quickly than she had expected ... but the contents were exactly what she had predicted. "I don't know anything about that," she said apologetically.

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. "That's not why I asked you here. Um ... so ... Nagato mentioned it last night, but can you tell me what temporal displacement is? It seemed it might be something you'd know about..."

"That's a very complex thing," she said, surprised he knew to ask. Well, not if Yuki had mentioned it, she supposed. Yuki seemed to know everything, but she herself had a hard time understanding why Kyon would worry about it. "Um ... let's see ... to put it into words..." She just _knew_ she was going to explain it terribly, and Kyon was going to come up with simpler words that were completely sufficient for it.

He shifted in the seat behind the desk slightly, glancing at the doorway briefly.

"Um, think of it as a way to track time relative to your departure point? Basically, if you were to travel back in time thirty minutes, you would have a thirty minute temporal deviation value. If you waited fifteen minutes and then traveled forward fifteen more minutes, you would return just after you originally left, but your deviance would be fifteen minutes, still."

"So, basically, it's an offset? How far off you are from the initial point you left, if time were to continue moving forward?"

She didn't like the explanation being so simple when he reworded it, but he seemed to understand it. "Yes," she said, nodding. "'Offset'. That's a good word... Anyway, it's useful for us in some situations because it lets us try and preserve our relative age in relation to the world around us. Er, um..." She paused, but realized even if she had let something slip, none of it had been classified. "A...anyway, mostly it's only important because a high deviation value causes a kind of temporal resonance. This will naturally fade away off after taking the slow path long enough, but that resonance makes you highly susceptible to time quakes."

"So only a time traveler could notice a time quake?" he asked.

"Er ... yes," she said, nodding. "But generally, such things only happen when paradoxes are resolved or incurred."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully, studying the bookshelves. "What would my deviation value have been last December?" he asked, turning to look back at her.

"U...um..." She flinched, not liking that memory at all. "My memories aren't clear," she told him honestly. "It should have been a few days, at most, but something was very strange about that journey." She shook her head. "I'm sorry..."

"Well," he mused, rubbing his chin, "we'd both be off by about three years in any case, thanks to last year's Tanabata, right?"

She sighed, lowering her head and staring at the bookcases that the interface had filled. "Nagato-san seems to be very good at it," she admitted. "She did ... something else. When it was done we were both synchronized without any resonance to the time she released us. Um, when I said that our form of time travel made a 'noise', while it is also a sound, that's not really what I meant. It's more of a ... ripple on the fabric of space-time? A resonance _there_."

"Not so good at resonance theory," Kyon murmured, giving her a glum look. "But, basically, vibrations connect everything?"

"Something like that!" she agreed, nodding quickly. "But, in any case, Nagato-san's ability to suspend us didn't cause any resonance at all. We were both synchronized to the time we were released."

Kyon looked thoughtful. "I guess I understand it," he allowed. "But I don't see how it would be useful to me ... unless there's a way to detect that resonance ... then I suppose I could find time travelers?"

"Or they could find you if you're displaced yourself," she agreed. "But you would need classified-" She cut herself off with a wince and shrugged apologetically.

"Well. If it's important, I'm sure you or Nagato will tell me at the time. Thank you, Asahina-san." He gave her a weak, somehow troubled smile. "Now, do you have authorization to take us back in time to, let's say ... a few minutes after everyone left the clubroom yesterday?"

She contemplated, thinking back. "Well, Suzumiya-san decided to stay behind a bit," she admitted, frowning. "I'm not sure when she actually left."

"Oh? Well ... that's actually fine," he said, his smile widening. "Makes things easier for me. I need to talk to her yesterday."

She nodded, trying to recall the specific times. "I think that would have been about ... four forty five, or so?"

He checked his phone, flipping through some messages before he nodded. "That should be about perfect," he agreed. "Let's see ... I've noticed you seem to be able to move us through space and time simultaneously - can you send us to the roof? That should be empty at that time."

"Ah," she managed, giggling. "You figured that out?"

"I'm not clear on the specifics," he admitted. "But it didn't seem likely you carried me from here to the park last Tanabata. I'm guessing it's probably something like ... I don't know ... our planet is still spinning through space, so if you were to only move through time we'd be in the wrong place."

"T...that's exactly it," she allowed, astonished.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to end up in Canada, or something," he chuckled.

She blinked. "N...no, it would be somewhere else in the Earth's orbit," she managed. "Because of the Principle of classified-" She winced. "W...well, you've done very well figuring out something that we don't usually express in words." She gave him a bright smile. "You're quite good at this!" If he had only been born in her time, he could easily have gotten placed within her organization ... perhaps even as her partner- She tried to make herself stop thinking of that. A passing daydream was just fancy, after all... He was tied to this time, and even though it wasn't visible, the breach between them was years beyond his understanding.

"Asahina-san?"

"Ah," she managed, blushing slightly as authorization for the transfer came through. She hadn't even submitted the request! How did he do that? "Um, approval has been granted. Close your eyes, please?"

He nodded, washing away his look of concern, and did as she asked. She felt her blush intensify as she drew close enough to put her hands on his shoulders and triggered the transfer.

* * *

He was getting far too used to this, Kyon decided, opening his eyes on the rooftop of the school building. Mikuru lowered her hands from his shoulders and stepped away, glancing around uncomfortably. Then again, the last time she was here, she had been cowering in terror from fireworks they hadn't had permission to use...

Biting his lip, he realized one flaw in his plan. Clubs were over or letting out; what should he do with Mikuru while he spoke with Haruhi? He quickly sent himself the text message he had received the previous day and shut off his phone. "Um, Kyon-kun," she asked, as he was watching his phone power down, "what are we here for?"

"Haruhi got upset or frustrated about something yesterday," he answered, grimacing. "Because I was careless."

"O...oh?" she managed, frowning. "She didn't seem that upset, though ... she got a bit angry with Tsuruya-chan, but she seemed to get over it... Um, Kyon-kun, is it true you, um, took a bath with Tsuruya-chan?"

He felt his face color, but nodded. "Yeah, the first time, we were both injured ... the second time, I was just... Well, it was after big fights in either case, for me."

Her face paled. "S...Suzumiya-san didn't hear about a second time," she said worriedly. "Um, s...she probably shouldn't..."

Running a hand through his hair nervously, he allowed, "You're probably right. Okay. Ah ... would it be okay to leave you with the calligraphy club again?"

"Ah..." She thought for a moment, then nodded. "If they let out, is it okay to call you?"

He nodded back. "I'll turn my phone on in about five minutes; my past self knows not to use it for the rest of today."

"Good planning," she approved. "But, my past self didn't know, so it might be problematic if you tried to call me."

"Got it," he agreed, as they trooped into the school building and marched to the clubhouse. Mikuru waved to him as she walked down the hall to the calligraphy club, just past the door to the now-defunct idol research club. Taking another breath to steel himself, he rapped on the door to the door beneath the literature club sign.

"What?" Haruhi's voice grumbled from inside, barely audible.

He shook his head and opened the door. Haruhi was at the computer desk, her head pillowed on her folded arms. She looked up with a glare, straightening up with surprise when she saw him. "Kyon!?" she managed, as he stepped in and closed the door behind him. "What are you doing here?! Shouldn't you be at home?"

He checked his wristwatch. "I am, right now," he agreed, turning on his phone once more. "I'm just about ready to start working on my homework."

She sighed, looking away. "You're having another time travel adventure?" she grumbled. "Where's Mikuru-chan?"

"I asked her to wait in another clubroom, so I could talk to you," he said cautiously, walking to the desk and glancing out the window. "That's all I'm here for, actually."

"Yeah?" she sighed. "So, what world-shaking conversation do we have to have?"

"You tell me?" he asked. "I heard you were upset."

"Bleah," she grumped. "I'm not sure I like his creepy stalker organization, but I _really_ don't like Koizumi's creepy stalker esper power."

He nodded. "I can get that," he agreed. "I'd be a bit weirded out, too."

She sighed, turning to stare out the window as well. "Hey ... you like ... Tsuruya-san, don't you?"

"She's a good friend," he said cautiously, studying her. "But ... don't get the wrong idea. It's..." He trailed off.

"You took a bath with her," Haruhi growled, shooting a glance over her shoulder at him. He could read a trace of hurt along with the anger in that gaze. Subtle tones of regret, mostly hidden, but still there. He could try and pretend he hadn't seen them, but that hadn't ended well for him those months ago, when the boy she tutored told her that he and Mikuru were on a 'date'. If only the kid could have the decency to mention that Kyon saved him from being flattened by a malicious time traveler in a green minivan.

"Well," he said slowly, "it was just a bath, Haruhi. And it was after a fight. I'd been kicked in the face - which really hurt, by the way - so I wasn't at my best. Anyway, why are you so upset about it?" Not that he didn't know, but it wasn't like he could _do_ anything about it if she couldn't admit it.

She seemed to realize that, too, and much of her visible anger dispersed. "You can like whoever you want," she mumbled. "I just..."

"Whoever I want?" he mused.

"I'm not blind or stupid," she sighed, turning away. "I see how you look at Mikuru-chan. I know what you did for Yuki-chan and Tsuruya-san. And ... Yuki-chan gets to borrow you when she needs it ... but it's not like _I_ should be the one to give that permission to her..." Her voice was thickening, and she cut off with a muffled choke. "S...so it's nothing! It's nothing! Y...you..."

He put one hand on her shoulder, marveling that someone so powerful was capable of appearing so vulnerable. She squeaked a bit, managing to resolutely look away at the last instant. "Haruhi," he said uneasily. "Look... With Tsuruya-kun, I mean... It's not like I'm trying to start a relationship with her, or anything - and anyway, as far as her family goes, she's my _boss_."

"That used to be _me_," she managed, her voice hoarse. "Now what am I?"

He grimaced, seeing his mistake. "No, Haruhi... Tsuruya's your subordinate, isn't she? And, I said a long time ago ... even if I am working for part of Tsuruya's family, and somehow inadvertently ended up joining an organized crime syndicate, it's secondary to the brigade."

She didn't say anything in response, just hunching slightly in on herself.

"But that's not what this is about," he realized aloud. "Haruhi, um..." He paused, thinking. How to phrase it? "I'm not ... looking for something with anyone else. I mean, you know me. It's only because we'd had that fight. This doesn't mean ... I don't like you." He took another breath, as she stilled suddenly, cautiously turning her face, but not enough for him to see her eyes.

The words had come easily with Yuki ... but then, Yuki had _asked_. And what was he telling Haruhi, anyway? That he was shiftless and didn't have the initiative to say the important things? That he'd just go along with what anyone else started? He had to take a step forward.

"You know," he said, breaking the silence he had let drag on too long, "I l...like you a lot, Haruhi. That's why ... all of this is even happening in the first place."

Slowly, her face turned to look at his, hope and fear warring in her eyes, which shimmered with unshed tears. Her voice was soft, but level, when she said, "You're an idiot."

He sighed, giving her a weak smile. "I thought I didn't like tsundere characters, but maybe I'm wrong if I like you," he tried.

She stood suddenly, wiping her eyes with the back of one sleeve and giving him a hard stare, full of fire and confidence again. "I can't stand those characters! And I'm not like that! But you'd better be serious, Kyon; is that really true?" she demanded. "Or are you just saying that?!"

"It's true!" he insisted, holding his ground. "I don't think anyone should just _say_ something like that and not _mean_ it!"

"Oh? Well, you've got a funny way of showing it, if you like me, and then go that far with Tsuruya-san!" Something approaching a smile flickered about one corner of her mouth, and lightning fast, even more quickly than his new training took into account, she snatched his tie and jerked on it sharply, pulling his face close to hers. "So, if you really _do_ like me, I don't want to see you doing things with other girls that you haven't ever done with me!"

For a heartbeat, he struggled for breath, staring into her eyes. Then he regained his resolve and met her empowered gaze, leaning even closer, so that their noses were almost touching. "Is that what you want?" he growled.

She gave a tiny, but firm nod, unblinking. "Those are the rules," she insisted. "Do you understand!?"

"Heh," he chuckled. For some reason, being so close to her, he thought of Yuki. He thought of Tsuruya kissing him on the cheek. Then he leaned in and watched her eyes widen in alarm as he kissed her. She pulled him even closer with his tie, and his arms went around her, holding her tight until he thought he would pass out. Breaking the kiss, he pulled his tie loose enough to breathe again, and managed, "Deal."

Her eyes were still wide, and her face was slightly red. "G...good," she managed, breathing heavily as she crossed her arms over her chest and shakily nodded. "S...so, you came back in time just to ... tell me you like me?"

"Only from tomorrow," he told her, checking his wristwatch. "But ... yeah."

She smirked. "Good," she decided. "If I'm at least that important to you, then I know it's sincere- But you'd better listen to me on this one! I don't want to have to sit out the next time you have an adventure! I'm not some delicate flower that needs to be protected - I have powers, too!"

"I don't look for adventure," he protested. "It just happens!"

"Yeah? Well, next time, I want to be involved from the beginning, and not have to be the background character that just cleans up after you!" she demanded, jabbing a finger into his chest. "Then maybe next time you won't end up taking a bath with Tsuruya-san behind my back, or getting into so much trouble with your family!"

"I'll do my best," he agreed. He frowned as his phone rang, and pulled it from his pocket warily. Mikuru's name appeared on the caller ID, and Haruhi raised an eyebrow.

"The future demands your presence?" she asked.

He nodded apologetically. "You'll see me tomorrow," he assured her, answering the phone as he hurried from the room. "Take care!"

"Okay, hero," she allowed, giving him an appraising look. "I'll count this as enough involvement for this adventure ... for now. Any messages for your past self?"

"Not today," he said, waving as he jogged out the door and answered his phone. Running to the stairwell before speaking, because of Haruhi's unreasonably sharp hearing, he whispered, "Hello?"

"Kyon-kun?" Mikuru asked cautiously across the connection.

"Yeah," he answered, looking down the hall to the clubroom that he had sent Mikuru to. "Everything okay?"

"I'm waiting on the roof," she answered nervously. "Um, I didn't mean to bother you, or anything like that..."

"No problem," he assured her. "I'll be right there and we can head back to tomorrow morning."

* * *

Unsurprisingly, to Mikuru, the authorization for transfer came through just before Kyon returned to the roof, looking over his shoulder at something. "Thanks, Asahina-san," he told her, smiling. "Ready to go back?"

She nodded, trying not to glance at the club house, which was easily visible from the roof. "Y...yes," she agreed. "Um, close your eyes?"

He did as she instructed, and for a heartbeat, while his eyes were closed, she considered- But, no, that would be wrong. If only there _were_ some gesture along those lines she could make... She placed her hands on his shoulders and invoked the transfer, her safeguards and conditioning protecting her from the worst of the effects.

His eyes opened and she backed away from him, giving an encouraging smile. He had done what he'd set out to do, and they'd even returned to the room where he'd done it. That seemed like a victory, all things considered. For some reason, he looked troubled, though.

"Is everything okay?" she asked him worriedly.

"I'm fine," he said, checking his wristwatch. "Uh ... so, what's our deviation right now?"

"Oh," she managed, her face coloring. "W...we shouldn't have had one. We're the same amount of relative time forward. Isn't that okay?"

"Yeah, that should be fine," he agreed. "Um, thank you, Asahina-san." He shook his head as though to banish some lingering thought and went to the computer, still running from when they had left. "I ... really liked talking with you. And I appreciated your help, too." That seemed worrisomely final, to her! "A...anyway, you know what happened last week, right? Tsuruya-kun and Haruhi explained the investigation?"

She nodded, shivering a tiny bit. It was embarrassing enough having a role in Haruhi's movie, but if somewhere in her own time images of her undressing were still circulating... What a terrible thought that was!

"W...well," he began, suddenly looking away, unable to meet her eyes. "S...so, I have to tell you something, because I was thinking about it. I mean ... the issue was bigger than it seemed on the surface, but the Sumiyoshi-rengo aside, just ... sticking with the surface, which is what the idol research club was doing, well, we both think that it was wrong of them to take pictures without permission, right?"

"Yes," she agreed, nodding. Was Kyon feeling bad about getting involved in ... shady activities and using force to resolve the situation? She could understand that ... but the world was never really clearly black and white, so at some point it seemed an inevitable issue. Still, if someone as steadfast and generally reliable as him thought she was worth discussing it with, well, that was a small mark of pride for her. "But I don't think there was anything wrong with how you took care of it!"

He sighed and slumped slightly. "I'd be a hypocrite if- No, I _am_ a hypocrite," he said. "So, you even asked me about this, and ... I didn't tell you the truth." He tapped a few keys on the keyboard. "When I took the camera from Haruhi, after she took those pictures of you ... er ... right after I failed to stand up for you from the computer club incident..." He trailed off and rubbed at his forehead.

She was stunned, uncertain what to say, or where he was going. Really, she did not like to remember that incident at _all_. Haruhi had thankfully gotten much better at respecting her boundaries, and Kyon had done a much better job of trying to stand up for her since then... But when had Kyon ever lied to her!?

"W...well, I kept those pictures," he confessed, standing up. "So, I'm going to delete them now ... like I should have when I told Haruhi I had." Then he managed to turn to her, and she could see in his eyes how much he really _was_ bothered by it. "I'm sorry, Asahina-san."

She still couldn't think of anything to say before he quietly left the room.


	16. Chapter 15

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Fanservice Arc I

Chapter Fifteen: Welcome to Hinamizawa

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter One: Threats and Allies"_

_"Not every threat is physical. Really, it's the more subtle ones that are the scariest ... but maybe they shouldn't be. If you can't handle it yourself, and you're tired of running away (who wouldn't be!?), then you need to find good allies and stick with them! At least, you'd have to find one really solid ally, and then make sure you're there for them enough so that they can be there for you too! It's not optional - so do it!"_

_"Mirror, Mirror" - T.K._

* * *

Humming Trope-tan's image song to herself, Kanae trotted into the school's shoe locker area early, spotting a fellow classmate and waving before she changed her shoes. "Good morning, Kanae-chan," the other girl said, smiling brightly.

"Good morning, Mitsuki-chan," Kanae answered, nodding. She'd met several instances of the girl through her time sliding; most of them were genial and friendly. She put her outdoor shoes in her locker and gave a cautious smile back. "How's everything today?"

"Oh, not too bad," Mitsuki said, giggling. "Um, say, you're on good terms with that sempai, right?"

She blinked, uncertain. Technically, everyone in the SOS Brigade was her sempai. Of course, only _Sempai_ was her sempai, in her mind, but Mitsuki didn't need to know that. "Which one is 'that' sempai?" she asked cautiously.

"I don't know his real name," the other girl confessed, giggling again. "But he's called Kyon-sempai, I hear?"

Kanae found herself at a total loss for words. Why did this girl want to talk to her sempai!? Still, at just that moment, as though summoned by mention of his nickname, he appeared behind Mitsuki. Despite herself, she called out to greet him. "Sempai!" she cheered.

The other girl's eyes widened, and her face flushed. "K...Kyon-sempai!" she echoed.

"Oh?" her sempai managed, raising an eyebrow, then shaking his head and managing a smile. He seemed distracted, Kanae thought. Was something else bothering him? He had enough to worry about as things were, these days. "Good morning, Kanae-chan. You're here a bit early, aren't you?"

"Yep!" she answered, nodding. "I didn't have any real reason, though."

He nodded at her and glanced at the other girl. "Oh, sorry, are you Kanae-chan's friend?"

"Yes!" Mitsuki blurted out, nodding vigorously.

"Well," he said, before she could continue, "I'm sorry to be abrupt, but I needed to talk to Kanae-chan about something." He nodded politely to the girl, and Kanae felt her heart skip a beat as a smile she couldn't keep down formed on her lips. "If that's alright," he added quickly.

"Y...yes, of course, Sempai!" Kanae said quickly, giving an apologetic glance to Mitsuki. To Kanae's surprise, the other girl was holding a pink envelope with heart-shaped stickers on it, as though to offer to the oblivious sempai. As much as she felt for Mitsuki, she couldn't bring herself to tell him to turn back for it. After all, Mitsuki had only just shown up; he was _her_ sempai!

"But..." the other girl managed in a quiet, forlorn voice, as Kanae followed her sempai eagerly into the school.

He stopped on one of the external stairwells leading up towards her classroom, leaning on the concrete banister and giving her an appraising look. "Sorry if this is so sudden," he said, glancing across the city. Even from the second story, the view was very good, thanks to the school's location on the hilltop. "Um ... let's see, you've been here about a week, right?"

"What? I... Er, yes," she agreed, realizing he was addressing her ability to slide. "That's right. I slid here on Sunday of last week, so a week and two days."

"And you don't think anyone who's chasing you will appear for at least ... three more weeks?" he asked hopefully.

She nodded. "I don't _think_ so," she said. "But ... I don't really know. Maybe they could get lucky?"

"Maybe," he said, frowning. "Well, as long as it doesn't happen until after Golden Week. Okay, good. I've been distracted by the investigation ... so I haven't really had time to think about it very much. Hopefully that's enough time to arrange things with Nagato ... to prepare for whatever is going to happen next."

"I'm optimistic," she told him. "It's ... really hard, but with Nagato-san's help, I'm _much_ more confident about how sliding works, now! I haven't tried doing it in the real world, because I'm still afraid of getting lost ... but..." She trailed off, suddenly at a loss. Why did he need to worry about that right now? "You have other things that are bothering you, don't you?" she asked. After all, she could just run away again, if she had to. Not that she wanted to give up on this world, which was the best she had seen in a very, very long time, but she wanted to cause a problem even _less_.

"Kind of," he admitted, giving her a wry smirk. "But I don't know if you want to hear about them."

"If it's anything I can help with, I want to help!" she insisted. "I may not be like your other allies, Sempai, but I still want to do everything I can to pay you back the help that you and Nagato-san have given me!"

"Well, it's thanks to your help that Nagato is able to manage the error-data or whatever that she's generating, because of the Entity being difficult," he pointed out. "That's worth quite a bit already."

She giggled, reassured. "Thanks, Sempai! But I meant things that are bothering _you_. You're very good at making other people's problems your own, too, but what about things that bother just you?"

"Hmm," he mused, frowning. "Other than my parents, I don't really have many problems that are just mine, and ... well. Maybe you can help me out a little bit. Did Haruhi seem upset yesterday?"

She felt her face color at the reminder of the bathing incident, and what she had carelessly blabbed in front of everyone else. "Um, yeah," she said, nodding. "She seemed to mostly get over it, though... Well, maybe not completely. But Tsuruya-san said that it wouldn't happen again without Suzumiya-san's permission, and that seemed to trouble her a lot less!"

"She..." He trailed off and looked at her oddly. "I have to admit that even though I think I know her about as well as anyone does, I have a hard time understanding that girl," he confessed. "But then ... I guess you'd probably know pretty well? How well did Haruhi and I usually get along in other worlds where you saw us?"

She thought about that for a minute. "Actually," she admitted hesitantly, "she seems the jealous type. S...so if you didn't know me before I slid to a given world, you tried to keep her from knowing about me. Um ... this world, where you are so open with her ... seems to be very different from anything I've seen, except for worlds where she had no power."

He raised an eyebrow at that, then checked his watch. "It's sad that honesty is unusual, in retrospect," he commented.

Unable to keep from giggling, Kanae shrugged her shoulders. "You say it a bit funny, Sempai, but maybe that's true."

"Alright," he allowed, smirking at her. "If you don't want me to worry about the alien invaders for a while, I'll trust you that we can put off worrying about it for now. I guess it's actually a relief to only have to worry about normal things for a while. Still ... if you do want to talk about it, let me know; we'll probably have to trouble Nagato yet again, but I'd like to put that off as much as possible. She's reliable, but I don't like to make her shoulder so much responsibility."

Kanae grinned at him. That was her sempai, alright, trying to help, reluctant to demand help from others. "Okay," she said, nodding. "Um, Sempai, if it's not too much ... um ... can we trade cell phone numbers? That way, if there's an emergency..."

"No problem," he agreed, pulling his phone from one pocket. "We should have enough time for that before class starts."

* * *

The school day had not started off particularly well. First, Haruhi didn't see Kyon at the train station, the gates, or the school entrance. In fact, she was irked to see the edges of a great number of envelopes sticking out of the sides of his shoe locker - even though he didn't seem to be around. A surreptitious peek showed that his indoor shoes were missing, but his outdoor shoes were inside. It also caused quite a few envelopes to fall to the floor, but she didn't particularly care to put them back.

Still, if his shoes were in the locker, that meant he had come to school early. So she raced to the club room, but it was empty. Then she dashed to the classroom, but he wasn't _there_, either. Annoyed, she waited until class started - he arrived just barely in time for class representative Goto to order the class to rise, bow, and greet Okabe.

She was pleased he was there, and evidently unharmed and unshaken. He even gave her a weak smile while he was sitting down. Then again, it took a lot to shake him up, generally. When the first break finally came around, instead of running off to investigate the school (all the better to be aware of things changing, were that to happen), she prodded his back with her mechanical pencil.

"What's up?" he asked, turning to look at her and raise an eyebrow.

"Where were you this morning?" she pressed, curious.

"Ah, just taking care of some stuff," he said, looking uncomfortable. "You remember what happened yesterday?"

"Of course!" It was hard not to yell at him. As if she'd forget something _that_ important!? "What about it? You'd better not be trying to change your mind! If you do, it's the death penalty!"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, looking mildly amused. "That was this morning for me. Remember?"

She felt her face heat up. Well, it _was_ time travel... "You didn't specify when!"

"Wouldn't it have been embarrassing if it was this afternoon, and not this morning?" he teased, smirking.

"Pfft. You're supposed to be _good_ at that; I'd be surprised if you screwed things up that badly," she mumbled.

His smirk was replaced with a surprisingly pleased smile. "Praise from Haruhi," he mused. "Well, thank you for having that much faith in me, then. I hope I don't disappoint you."

"You haven't so far," she said, not meeting his eyes. "Not in the important ways."

"Hmm," he replied absently. Further conversation was prevented by the arrival of the next teacher, and the beginning of their lessons. Taniguchi and Kunikida moved to speak with him during the next break, so she decided to explore the school again, giving herself a little space to think about things.

By the time lunch rolled around and she got to the clubroom, she was not surprised to see Yuki there, as always. Koizumi was absent for the moment, and Kyon had gotten slowed by Taniguchi - again. Tsuruya and Mikuru came together, with Kanae in tow - Tsuruya took her promise to escort Kanae seriously, but Haruhi was beginning to understand that matters of personal responsibility were very important to the green-haired girl, given her background.

"...and, anyway, what's 'healthy' mean otherwise?" Tsuruya chuckled, as she opened the door and gestured the other two into the room. "Oh? No Kyon-kun today?"

"O...or Koizumi?" Mikuru asked curiously after she stepped inside.

The usually cheerful slider's eyes were wide, but she took her seat quietly and took out her sketchpad, occasionally shooting wondering glances at the two senior girls. Mikuru appeared troubled, while Tsuruya looked on the verge of bursting into laughter. Well, those outlooks were fairly typical, and even though Kanae was usually cheerful, she also wandered into strange daydream-like states, so that seemed normal, to Haruhi.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon enough," Haruhi said, making a vague gesture. "Kyon's probably trying to get Taniguchi to help him out with the notes he ended up getting." She sighed, shaking her head. "He could have just asked me."

"Notes?" Kanae and Tsuruya asked together.

Yuki flipped to the next page of her book. Haruhi glanced at the title, 'Snow Crash'.

"Mmm. His shoe locker's overflowing with them," she explained, nodding. "What's so great about leaving a message in a shoe locker, anyway? The last time he got one, it was actually for Mikuru-chan anyway. I guess it makes sense for time travelers, but if someone else has something to say, isn't the way to say it in person?"

"Oh, one of my classmates wanted to give Sempai a note," Kanae mentioned belatedly, looking away from her study of Tsuruya. "I think after rescuing the school from the evil perverts, he's got something of a following, now!"

Haruhi felt one eyebrow twitch, and stared at the computer monitor before her, even though she hadn't turned it on.

"Well, that's true," Tsuruya commented leaning back in her seat next to Mikuru and rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "But, really, they don't know some of the most impressive stuffs he did!"

"Like what?" Haruhi asked, curious. She'd gotten the receipt from Tsuruya, but the details had been something she hadn't gotten a chance to hear.

"He talked down an angry oyabun from the Sumiyoshi-rengo," the heiress said proudly. "Fujiya wanted a fight to the death, but Kyon-kun made him see reason! When he has to be, he's good at negotiations!"

Kyon stepped into the clubroom, one eyebrow raised as he glanced behind him. "Careful," he admonished Tsuruya, taking a seat at the table next to Kanae, where Koizumi usually sat. "People might overhear when the door's left open."

"Ah, my bad," Tsuruya chuckled. "You're right."

He shook his head in a dismissive manner, setting a bento on the table and grimacing at the contents when he unwrapped it. "If I could negotiate with anyone, I wish it was my mother," he said, somewhat mournfully.

"Sorry I'm late," Koizumi said cheerfully as he entered the room, shutting the door behind him after seeing everyone else was there.

"Making a report to your creepy stalker organization?" Haruhi asked him, moving from the desk to hand Kyon the spare bento she had made that morning. Koizumi watched Kyon accept the offered food with a bow of his head. She tried to pretend it hadn't happened as she returned to her seat behind the monitor.

"Um, well, yes," the esper allowed, his smile fading slightly.

"Hey," Kyon jibed, glancing at her, "wasn't your Tanabata wish to be the center of the universe?"

Mikuru suddenly sat up straight at that, for some reason. Haruhi frowned, nodding at Kyon grudgingly. "I guess, but they're not the universe, and I hardly feel I _earned_ that as much as I just _got_ it," she muttered. As much as she was glad to have reduced the ambiguity between herself and Kyon, something felt ... _off_. Usually he stole glances at Mikuru, as though she wouldn't notice. He spent a good bit of time studying Yuki, too, and he still seemed to be doing that, but with the time traveler, there was no eye contact.

Then again ... Mikuru insisted that it wasn't possible for her to have a relationship with anyone from the current time. And she had goaded Mikuru to try. And, though she wasn't certain she wanted to know the details beyond the limitation she had recently imposed on Kyon yet, Yuki evidently _needed_ some level of ... interaction with Kyon.

Kyon had also told her that he wasn't looking for a relationship with Tsuruya, but there was no mistaking the fact that the green-haired girl was obviously interested in him - to say nothing of the fact that she'd gotten him entangled in her organized crime syndicate as her chief advisor. And she had a hard time seeing Kyon doing everything that he had for Tsuruya _just_ out of friendship, despite what he said.

Okay, she had admitted that she liked Kyon. She wasn't about to complain about the kiss she'd gotten. But she also liked having her friends. Yuki, dependable as always. Mikuru, charming and unbelievably cute. Tsuruya, excitable and energetic. Kanae, too, though she didn't know the slider as well yet.

Sure, she'd started forming friendships with others, too, like Sakanaka, and the members of ENOZ... But they weren't as close as the friends in the room with her. The same friends that liked Kyon, probably as much as she did, if not more, in some cases. And what had she done? She'd gotten worked up and depressed - so much so that Kyon had gone _back in time_, just to cheer her up and tell her how he felt about her?

"Earth to Haru-nyan!" Tsuruya caroled, waving a hand before her face. "Whatcha got on the computer that's so distracting?"

She snapped herself out of her reverie. "Ah," she managed, "I...I'm just thinking about things." She shook her head and turned her attention to her unfinished lunch. Kyon was looking at her in bemusement, and Mikuru seemed lost in her own world. "The computer's not even on. I'm..." She trailed off, then realized that she could say something true after all. "I'm working on a plan to bring the SOS Brigade back to what it should be," she explained, grinning. "We've been distracted by all these things that are keeping us from having fun!"

"Great!" Tsuruya cheered, grinning. "What can I do to help? I wants to be part of this, too!"

"You will," Haruhi promised. "And Mikuru-chan, Yuki-chan, and Kanae-chan, too," she added. There were still things she'd need to figure out, but she was confident that she'd find a way.

Some strange half-dream memory echoed with her, something half-heard from somewhere... "Find happiness," it said. And she knew she would, but finding happiness for herself was _easy_. Finding it for _everyone_, now _that_ was going to be a worthy challenge!

"I suddenly have the strangest sense of foreboding," Kyon commented, frowning into his empty bento boxes.

"You worry too much," she chastised him. "Everything is going to work out great!"

* * *

After arriving home to find his father already there, grumbling about 'restructuring' and all of the paperwork required to complete his transfer to his new position in the Tsuruya Corporation - a legitimate company, not merely a front, as far as Kyon could tell - he returned to his room. He was still somewhat haunted by the inevitable reaction Mikuru would have, but felt better for being honest with her.

He wasn't at all sure what the overly affectionate older Mikuru had to say about it ... but was glad that he hadn't thought about _her_ until after the fact. That meant that he had acted out of genuine intent, not knowledge that - seemingly - he could do absolutely anything with or to the younger Mikuru and get away with it. He hoped she forgave him sooner than later ... but at least he was confident that he wasn't going to make things actively worse.

Finishing his homework, and helping his younger sister with hers, he managed to convince her to move the house's one game system to his room, so he wouldn't die of boredom. Of course, that meant playing a few rounds with her, but that was a small price to pay. Especially given that she was the family's most supportive member, at the moment.

It wasn't until after she sleepily called it quits that he noticed an e-mail on his phone, frowning at the size of it. Two e-mails, he observed, both with attachments... Curious, he opened the first one, seeing it was from Mikuru: "Kyon-kun, if it's a gift, it's okay to keep, right? So, don't feel bad about this!"

He blinked, then scrolled to the attachment, which was a picture. A picture of Mikuru wearing practically nothing, her face timidly smiling, marked with an intense blush as she winked at the camera. She was laying on her side on a futon somewhere, propped up on one elbow, leaning forward. A man could get lost in that view, he thought, rounded globes barely contained in semitransparent strawberry pink patterned-

He felt a sudden urge to kill the cameraman who had gotten to take such a picture, and hurriedly scrolled to the next e-mail.

From Tsuruya? Her message was very simple, punctuated with smileys both before and after: ":3 Kyon-kun~! I can't let Mikuru-chan get too far ahead, can I? Enjoy this picture of me~! :D"

Tsuruya was unabashed as always, and even though he'd actually seen _more_ of her in a bath... Sitting upright on the same futon as in Mikuru's photo, also winking, but without a trace of shyness as she gave the camera a victory sign. Her assets weren't as bountiful as Mikuru's, but she was still amazingly shapely. Concealed in a blueberry colored lingerie set not that different from Mikuru's... Moreover, with her hair in a fan behind her, her paler skin was brought into sharp relief, highlighting her shapely legs-

Well, fine, then. If it was Tsuruya and Mikuru taking pictures of one another, then no cameraman needed to be killed. Switching between the two images in astonishment he murmured aloud, "I am keeping these pictures." Yes, he decided. With such things, given to him freely, he could die happy.

Best make sure it wasn't by Haruhi's hand for discovering them, though.

* * *

After Haruhi's thankfully brief bout of melancholy, and an equally brief echo of it from Kyon, Koizumi was happy to see that the entire brigade had more-or-less come back together. Everyone was more cheerful, with none of the forced falseness that stressful 'investigations' or unwelcome mention of Sasaki in Haruhi's presence seemed to engender. Kyon was still grounded, and Haruhi herself was a bit more subdued, thoughtfully planning some secret thing she wasn't sharing details on - with anyone.

But those things suited him; even though he probably didn't know it, quite a bit was dependant on Kyon holding things together. Even though Mori and Tsuruya had openly discussed things, they were still some distance from having a working partnership between their organizations. That step would have to wait until after Golden Week, but that was hardly the worst thing in the world, in Koizumi's mind.

The school schedule had undergone a slightly alteration in light of the upcoming holiday, too, which signaled an early start to the highly welcome vacation. The Friday before Golden Week - Showa Day - was technically a holiday, but school was still to be held, and the observed holiday would be on Saturday, giving the students and staff nine consecutive days off. Even though it was a full day, unlike the typical Saturday half-days, the atmosphere in classes was jovial and inattentive.

So when they met for lunch, the only person with diminished cheer was Kanae, staring mournfully at a heavily marked sheet of paper. "What's wrong, Kanae-chan?" Mikuru asked, leaning close to the girl and patting her shoulder comfortingly. "Did you get a bad grade?"

"I got a forty two," the slider answered glumly, sniffling. "I'm so bad at history, because it's different everywhere I go! I have to start over from scratch every time..."

"Aw," Mikuru soothed, "I often do poorly in history, too, since my information isn't always accurate."

"That's not as surprising as it probably should be," Haruhi mused. "Well, that's easy to take care of. Kyon still needs constant study help, since there's no _way_ I'm letting his grades drop enough for him to get stuck in cram school. You can join us!"

The younger girl brightened instantly. "I can?" she asked excitedly. "That would be great! Thank you, Suzumiya-san, Sempai! I got assigned a bunch of extra vacation homework for Golden Week, since I scored so poorly. C...can you help me out?"

"I can't," Kyon said apologetically, shaking his head. "In fact, I have to run to make it home quickly enough to make it to the train station once school lets out. I should be in Hinamizawa by ... a bit before midnight tonight."

Haruhi grimaced. "You'd better not forget your vacation homework," she warned him. "But I meant in general, not just right now, Kyon."

"She's a slave driver," Kyon told Kanae, "but your grades will improve."

"Hey!"

"Well, if it makes you feel better, you're my favorite slave driver."

"Aw, thanks- HEY! Sheesh, you'd better make sure you do something useful with your vacation time, Kyon!"

"Aside from finishing my homework?" he asked, smirking.

She narrowed her eyes. "No, but it's a country village, right? Learn your family's ancestral sword style, or uncover a legacy artifact, or something. I'm sure there's a sealed shrine or something with a legend of an ancient demon! Make sure you do something worthy of the SOS Brigade while you're there!"

"...right," he said, rolling his eyes. "Of course."

* * *

The train station was crowded with people preparing for their trips for Golden Week, evidently everyone having the same idea to head out early in the afternoon and 'beat the rush'. Kyon's figure was obvious, bearing his luggage and most of his sister's; the small girl had only one very large backpack.

As much as Haruhi wanted to say goodbye, maybe even demand a hug from him on the train platform before he left... Well, his mother and father were there, giving him a list of warnings or instructions. She couldn't make it out, as far apart as they were. Kanae stood at her side, bouncing on the tips of her toes and trying desperately to see over anyone's heads, and Yuki stood next to her impassively. Mikuru stood behind Haruhi, peeking over her shoulder and uncomfortable with the crowd.

Tsuruya had been invited, but apologetically declined; she was visiting family in Switzerland again. Koizumi had already left for a different train station, headed to Tokyo to see his own family.

So, it was just the four of them. While she suspected Yuki was aware of Kyon's presence, anyway, Kanae was unable and Mikuru was too shy to try to see through the crowds milling about...

Kyon nodded at some final command, withstood a hug and a kiss on the cheek from his mother with stoic nobility, and then took his sister's hand in his and shouldered his way through the crowd to board the train.

And just like that... No, she decided with determination, she wasn't going to have it end like that. She quickly pulled out her cell phone and sent a simple text message, before stowing it in one pocket. "Alright," she ordered, "to the end of the platform!"

Yuki fell into step behind her wordlessly, while Haruhi herself took Kanae's and Mikuru's hands, towing the other girls through the unwilling crowd until she found a thinner spot towards the front of the train. "Yuki-chan," she said, glancing at her figure worriedly, "I know it might be hard for you, but can you please make sure Kyon's ... okay while he's on vacation?"

She blinked in response, then nodded slightly. "Understood," she answered.

A minute later, the train noisily lurched into motion. Standing right on the edge of the safety line, Haruhi studied each window intently as it picked up speed, until she saw Kyon. In typical Kyon fashion, he looked annoyed, trying to sit comfortably in his seat while his sister had crawled atop him to press her nose to the glass and wave frantically at the trio.

Haruhi smiled, waving along with with Kanae and Mikuru ... and Kyon's irritation vanished long enough for him to smirk and wave back.

"Bye, Sempai!" Kanae shouted, even though there was no way he'd be able to hear it. Haruhi and Mikuru added their own yells, anyway, echoing the other girl's. Not everything she wanted, but enough, for now.

"Okay," she announced, realizing with a start that Yuki had disappeared somewhere. "Huh. Anyway, come on, Kanae-chan, Mikuru-chan, let's finish our homework before the vacation really starts, okay?"

"Right!" Kanae said cheerfully, watching the train pick up speed and vanish around a nearby curve, while Mikuru nodded wordlessly.

* * *

"Honestly," she murmured, glancing at her husband as he drove their car down the quiet, poorly lit road. "Is she that desperate for free time with Yuuto-kun, or is she upset with Kyon?"

"Eh, well, you know Imouto," he said with a half-shrug. "She burns bright, but even when she's mad, it's only because she loves her family."

"Even so," she countered, glancing at the clock set in the dashboard, "they easily could have left at a much more reasonable time tomorrow. I suppose the real point is we both know that she's upset, or she wouldn't have had them sent out of town so quickly."

"Maybe not," he said, flashing that heart-melting grin he'd refined over the years from his boyhood at her. "Yuuto-kun mentioned he got a promotion. She might want to 'celebrate', you know? Yeah, let's be optimistic, and believe it's that!"

"You'd better watch yourself and your language," she warned him, unable to restrain her answering smile. "Kyon is one of my very favorite nephews, and Nonoko-chan is one of my very favorite nieces. I won't have you corrupting them with careless words or bad ideas!"

"When am I not on my best behavior?" he asked with a chuckle.

"You only have one behavior."

"That's not true! At night, beneath the light of a full moon ... in fact, a few nights ago ... and a few times this week, if Kyon's willing to watch the kids..."

Her cheeks lit up, and she playfully smacked his shoulder. "You're a big old pervert, Kei-chan," she insisted. "None of that around the kids, or I'll sacrifice you to Oyashiro-sama!"

"Understood, my lovely Rika-sama!" he answered, slowing the car as they pulled into the parking lot for the Okinomiya train station.

"Oh, you," she said with a giggle.

They fell companionably silent as they strode into the terminal, the old digital display notifying them that the train they were waiting for was two minutes behind schedule. He put one arm around her waist and pulled her closer in a half hug before making a thoughtful noise and spotting a vending machine. "We've got about seven minutes ... does Kyon-kun drink coffee? I'm thinking of getting one for him."

"At this hour?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Her face fell, and she shot him a dour look. "Are you working tonight?"

"Nah, nothing like that," he said, shaking his head quickly. "I mean, not for Mion-chan. Rena-chan gave me another manuscript and wanted my feedback on it. Looks like it's going to be the final volume in her 'Brave Detective Sasha' series. Might end up being a long night for me."

She nodded thoughtfully. Lately, Rena had been down, irked by her long-estranged mother's side of the family asking her to take in a nephew that had gotten into some trouble at his school. Rika didn't know all of the circumstances, and Rena insisted that she didn't _want_ to know ... because family that only showed up to rely on you wasn't true family, and why would she want to take in a delinquent boy who she'd never even met before? Of course, more likely than not, she hadn't talked about that with Keiichi yet.

Mentally rescheduling things, she asked, "Are you doing anything for Mion-chan or Satoko-chan this week?"

He broke from their half embrace and scratched his chin with one fingertip as he gazed at the terminal's overhanging raincover thoughtfully. "Wednesday is Greenery Day," he said slowly. After a glance around, seeing they were the only people in the terminal, aside from a security guard, dozing in his chair at the far end, he continued, "Mion-chan is meeting with a representative from another family on Thursday, from Kansai or something. That and Rena's manuscript are the only work things I really have this week. Not a whole lot of call for a motivational speaker on holidays, you know?"

She nodded. "I didn't mean 'work'," she elaborated.

He blinked at her and then grinned knowingly, spreading his hands in a shrug. "Tonight I'm home, obviously," he said, "as well as Sunday night. Saturday and Thursday are Mion-chan, Tuesday and next Saturday are Satoko-chan, and Rena-chan has Monday and next Sunday. But, you know all that; it's on the calendar in our closet."

"Wouldn't last night have been Rena-chan's?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Would have been," he agreed, "but she said she was focusing on her writing, and needed to work something out. You know how she gets. She just called this morning to say she'd finished and ran the manuscript over."

She gave him a hard stare. "And you just left it at that?"

He grimaced. "You know how she gets," he reiterated. "If I pushed, I knew she wouldn't open up about it to you, because we talk about these kinds of things. I'm guessing she finally mentioned something to you?"

The smile that came to her lips couldn't be held back. "True," she allowed. "Alright. After we get Kyon-kun and his little sister home and in bed, go to Rena-chan."

He raised an eyebrow at her and looked at the clock on the station wall, then shrugged. "Well, if it's instructions from you, the light will be on in her study when I get there," he acknowledged. "Good. I'm glad she's ready to talk about it, then."

"Ah," she said, smiling as a light appeared in the distance down the tracks, and the rails began to hum. "There they are!"

* * *

After taking the express to the north end of Honshu, Kyon led his sister and all of their luggage to a transfer line, using a much slower and more rickety train. The first leg of the trip was spent doing his homework, instead of putting it off (for once), while his sister napped. The second leg left him half dozing from the rocking motion of the older train, and his sister bouncing excitedly while she looked out the window.

Where had the convenient energy that had kept him going ever since... He felt oddly chilled to realize that he had started waking earlier ever since the last time he found himself in a closed space with Haruhi... But when he really stopped to think about it ... she could have done far worse.

That was something he could cope with. The need for such energy was gone though, and he was looking forward to a relaxing week of nothing more than babysitting. Especially after everything that had been going on, and especially the excruciating effort that Haruhi demanded he put into studying...

When the train finally pulled into the Okinomiya station, the closest stop to Hinamizawa, he nudged his sister to grab her backpack and picked up the rest of the luggage. Only a handful of others were on a train to such a location, and the only people waiting were his aunt and uncle.

Keiichi was a lean man of very slightly taller than average height with brown hair that wasn't quite shaggy or unkempt, but he took no obvious care to style or comb it. Kyon didn't spend a lot of time cataloging the features of other men, but wouldn't really call him handsome - or ugly - merely decent looking. Still, he had a natural, eternally pleased grin, and Kyon couldn't remember a time he'd seen the man look worried, upset, or serious about things. Even despite that, and his typically lackadaisical attitude he seemed responsible. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans with a worn but obviously cared for red vest, despite how cold the spring was so far north.

Beside him was his wife, Rika, her dark blue hair swaying behind her to the small of her back. Neatly trimmed bangs reminded him uncomfortably of Asakura Ryouko, their hairstyles and colors were so similar. Rika's eyes, though, were purple, and her smile felt more genuine than anything he had ever received from the interface that had tried to kill him with a knife on more than one terrifying occasion. He also wasn't in the habit of looking at his aunt in the same way as a girl his own age, but she was somewhat taller, with elegant fingers and a certain grace that he'd never really seen matched. She at least wore a light sweater over her sun dress in concession to the chill.

Even though he knew he shouldn't dismiss his own parents so easily, he was instantly reassured by the warmth he felt from the pair. His sister, too, as she leaped directly at Keiichi, and the man caught her, spinning. "Haha!" he chuckled, before setting her down so she could glomp onto Rika's side. "A fireball, as always!"

"Auntie Rika!" his sister cheered. "Uncle Kei!"

"It's good to see you two again," Rika said, smiling at the pair. "My, my, little one, you haven't been eating your vegetables, have you?"

Kyon smirked as his sister allowed an indignant squeak to escape, then pouted fiercely. "Maybe not," she mumbled.

Rika ruffled the small girl's hair and shook her head before turning her gaze to Kyon. "Oh, my, Kyon, you're becoming quite handsome now, aren't you? I bet you must have girls after you constantly!"

"Not normal ones," he slipped, before realizing what he had said. "Er..."

Keiichi laughed, taking half of the luggage from Kyon. "So, you have a steady girlfriend, then?" he asked, elbowing Kyon in the ribs lightly, his eternal grin widening.

"It's really complicated," he said, offering a wry grin of his own, before a sudden yawn came over him. "Sorry," he managed, "long week."

"Have you eaten?" Rika asked, taking Kyon's sister's hand and leading the way to the car.

"I'm not hungry," the little girl answered.

"Mom gave us bentos," Kyon added, as they stepped outside, and the chill air made him wish he'd thought to bring his coat, as worn as it had gotten over the winter. "So we ate on the train."

"That face says my sister's being unreasonable," Keiichi deduced. "Or _still_ hasn't learned to cook. Well, if you're tired we'll get you home so you can sleep. But in the morning, you'll have to tell us all about it, alright?"

"Thanks for having us over," Kyon said. "It's nice to be in the country again."

Keiichi chuckled, opening the trunk of his car and helping Kyon stow the luggage. "I may not drive as fast as your father, but you'll be able to sleep soon enough."

He nodded absently, mumbling pleasantries and inconsequential things after taking the seat behind Rika. His sister was talking animatedly with Keiichi about her classmates and her upcoming school field trip, and he felt himself dozing again, even when he leaned his head against the glass of the window. Just before he completely fell asleep, he thought for some reason he heard his aunt whisper, "As long as she isn't trying to hurt him, Hanyuu-chan..."

* * *

Hanyuu's life was generally happy and uncomplicated. Outside of a few painful centuries that she tried not to dwell on, anyway. After surviving _that_ unfortunate disaster with Rika, finally arriving in a world where they could overcome that terrible fate...

Since then, Rika had built herself a very happy - if very unorthodox - lifestyle. Having no physical form to interact with the world directly, Hanyuu instead followed her closest friend, advising of unfortunate events in advance when possible, and enjoying the physical world vicariously through Rika on occasion. Keiichi really was adorable, and these days, people were constantly inventing intriguing new sweets to taste. Both were delectable, in their own ways.

Still, Rika meant that she wasn't alone in the world; she was the precious link Hanyuu had to the world around her, the reason she could consider herself more than a phantom, outside of some occasional uses of her power. And she loved Rika - they were closer than sisters ever could be. Naturally, when Rika had set her strange plan in motion, Hanyuu realized that who Rika loved, she too loved.

And that meant that even though she was not, strictly speaking, related by blood to Kyon and his sister, she loved them, too. She didn't see them outside of their visits to Hinamizawa, but just like Rika's children, and the children of their friends, they were precious to her.

So when she found a strange girl, as ethereal as herself watching Kyon and his sister, she had to do something about it. Rika wasn't very concerned, yet ... but she _was_ curious. And for her family, Hanyuu would keep an eye on the strange girl.

She was scared to the point of crying and waking Rika up in the middle of the night when Kyon - somehow - suddenly _vanished_ into nothingness, leaving no trace behind. The mysterious figure that had been following him likewise vanished, but before Rika and Hanyuu could press into the situation and investigate further ... he reappeared just as abruptly! As far as Hanyuu could determine, he either slept through the entire thing, or had simply fallen asleep again before reappearing.

The girl had reappeared, too, watching distantly, her eyes studying Hanyuu curiously. And even though she could _tell_ Rika about the other girl, Rika herself couldn't _see_ her.

Naturally, _that_ was why she was watching Kyon soak in the tub the morning after he arrived. She had no ulterior motive to keep an eye on him, or admire his surprisingly toned physique as he patiently watched over one of his younger cousins - Rika and Keiichi's son, Shutaro - while they soaked. She was just ensuring he was okay, unhurt after the mysterious events, and that was the only reason she was staring at him so closely!

Shutaro decided he had enough soaking and climbed out of the bath, and as he finished toweling off and headed out, Hanyuu realized uncomfortably that the other spirit was there, too. The quiet girl with short, light purple hair, staring fixedly at her. Fine, then, if it was going to come to spying on her loved ones, Hanyuu was willing to use force!

"I am a being that has gone beyond man," she warned the smaller girl, raising her hands threateningly.

"Interesting," the girl remarked, her own hands shooting out lightning-fast, and seizing Hanyuu's.

She had to fight to restrain her shock; she hadn't expected to actually be able to _touch_ the other spirit so easily! Kyon, naturally, was aware of neither of them, just leaning back in the tub and staring at the ceiling.

"I will not let you hurt him," both Hanyuu and the girl insisted, staring at one-another, hands linked.

"Right," Kyon announced to no one in particular, standing up in the tub, water sloughing off him. Hanyuu and the other girl both found their heads turning, eyes flicking to the young man as he stepped out of the bathtub and looked around for a towel. From the vantage of the doorway, Hanyuu bemusedly thought that their linked hands might provide inadvertent modesty to him, covering up the most interesting areas.

From the vantage of her and the other girl, such a thing was not an issue. After a few gloriously silent minutes, holding hands and watching Kyon search for a towel, Hanyuu finally wrenched her attention back to the other girl. Her intentions weren't absolutely clear, but 'harm' didn't seem to be on that list.

"We have just shared a wonderful experience," Hanyuu stated. "We should use this opportunity to become friends."

The other girl slowly raised her face, her eyes tearing from Kyon to study her appraisingly before she released the held hands and gave a single, terse nod. "Wonderful," she agreed.

* * *

After drying and redressing, Kyon ambled into the living room of his uncle's house, running his fingers through his hair and realizing that he generally had the same style as Keiichi. For whatever reason - Kyon wasn't clear on it - the man had to run out and attend some errand, and as a result, had returned home shortly after sunrise. He probably wouldn't be waking up before the afternoon, but judging by the low murmur from the kitchen and the sounds of pans being rattled on the stove, his aunt was already awake.

His sister was sitting on the couch, staring avidly at the television as an overly-cute anime character with watery eyes screamed, "Chekhov ... BEEEEEEAM!" and obliterated some enemy with a blinding salvo of beam-spam. Shutaro and his older sister Matsuri watched just as raptly, 'ooh'ing softly as the watery-eyed character added, "No one could survive that!"

"I think Dark Lord Skweeniks will live," Matsuri predicted, nodding.

Sure enough, a moment later the enemy reappeared, gloating darkly, and boomed out, "Now you must face my _next_ form!"

"But," the watery-eyed girl protested, holding a quill of some sort in one hand, "don't you mean _true_ form!?"

"_No_!" the enemy roared. Then the anime cut to some upbeat ending theme, and Kyon decided to step into the kitchen before any of the younger family noticed him.

Rika was busily preparing some eggs, almost everything else finished cooking, but nodded at him and pointed one finger to the ear-piece she was wearing. He shrugged and moved to the cupboard to collect a stack of clean dishes. His own phone got such terrible reception at his uncle's place that he briefly wondered what carrier she had.

"If you're certain she means well," Rika said, her tone doubtful as she turned off the stove. "No, of course I respect your opinion; don't be silly. Well, just ... keep an eye on things for the moment. I'll discuss it with him later, but I have a good sense that today isn't the best day for it." She finished turning off the last few burners and rolled her eyes at something, a smile coming to her lips anyway. "I am not dismissing a person suddenly vanishing in the dead of night, but all the same, he's back now. Thank you, Hanyuu-chan."

He wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but thought he understood well enough; Rika obviously hadn't heard all of the details behind Keiichi running out to take care of his errand, either. It also meant whatever he'd heard in the car had happened, but it was just his aunt speaking to a friend on her cell phone.

She sighed and removed the ear-piece, tucking it in one apron pocket. "Thank you, Kyon," she said, eyeing the stack of dishes he was carrying. "I think the kids should have finished watching their anime, so could you ask them to wash up before eating, please?"

"Sure thing," he agreed, walking into the living room. The preview for next week's episode, promising an exciting new character, was just finishing. "Okay," he called, "let's get cleaned up for breakfast!"

The young ones obediently trooped to the washroom while he set the dishes at the table and turned the television off. His aunt brought out most of the platters, and he hurried to grab the rice pot so she wouldn't have to strain herself. "Thank you again, Kyon," she said cheerfully. "Would you care for coffee?"

"Sure," he answered. "I mean, please." She giggled, puttering back into the kitchen and returning with a mug of coffee for him, and hot chocolate for herself.

It was peaceful, he decided, once his sister and the cousins returned, swarming the table. He couldn't help but smirk at the extra portion of vegetables on his sister's plate, and Rika's sharp-eyed gaze, ensuring she finished everything.

His phone only got reception occasionally, which meant he didn't imagine he would get any phone calls unless he went all the way back to Okinomiya, but text messages and e-mail would eventually get through. He wasn't precisely trying to avoid Haruhi, or any of the other girls - in fact, he didn't need any kind of connection at all to check the pictures that Tsuruya and Mikuru had mailed him, but somehow ... it was nice having a small aura of calm space around him.

"Kyon," Rika said suddenly, when they were finished eating, and his sister and Shutaro were assigned the task of clearing the table, "your uncle Keiichi and I were going to see about visiting your other aunts for a bit tonight, Satoko-chan, Mion-chan, and Rena-chan." Technically, they weren't really his aunts at all; just very close friends of the family for Keiichi and Rika. But they were so close that frequently they traded around the tasks of babysitting, and their children were still considered cousins to himself and his sister.

Rika turned to Matsuri, who was staring at him for some reason with a wide grin. "Matsuri-chan, put away the leftovers and wash up the dishes that have been collected," she instructed. The girl pouted, but did as she was told, slinking off into the kitchen.

Kyon watched her leave in bemusement. She was only a year older than his own sister, but she reminded him of the only 'cousin' older than himself. In fact, Kyon's first crush had been with her, the girl he called 'Nee-chan', Mion's eldest daughter before she eloped with some worthless... Not that it was worth obsessing over; that had been a few years ago, traumatic or not.

"You want me to babysit?" he asked, peering into his empty coffee cup, before his sister dashed in from the kitchen to snatch it away from him, and vanished just as quickly.

"Well, if it's not too much trouble," she agreed, smiling. "But you are getting older ... I suppose it's only fair to offer you payment in exchange for the difficulty."

That was new. Not that it would come close to matching Tsuruya's weekly pay to him ... but it wasn't going to be a walk in the park in any case, and it might look odd if he passed. "You don't have to pay me much," he said, shrugging. "Really, there's no one else here my own age, so I'd probably end up hanging out with the kids anyway." He paused, considering. None of the cousins should be infants, so that would spare him the most tedious and egregious of duties, like diaper changing or worse. "How many are there, now?"

"Let's see," Rika mused. "Shutaro and Matsuri, naturally, Rena-chan's daughter Yurie-chan, the Sonozaki twins, Naota and Makoto-chan, and Satoko-chan's daughter Aiko-chan."

He took a breath and nodded slowly. "Almost the full compliment," he said wryly. "If the Houjou twins get mixed up, I'll want danger pay."

Rika giggled at him. "Now, now, are Yoko-chan and Azusa-chan that bad?" she asked. "Shion-chan and Satoshi-kun are fine parents!"

"Green-haired demons," he said insistently. "The terrible twosome! Honestly, who digs a pit trap in this day and age?!"

Rika laughed aloud, not meeting his eyes. "Satoko-chan used to do that, too, so it must run in her family," she said. "But that's fine. How does five hundred yen an hour per cousin sound?"

He thought about it for a moment, resisting the urge to use the calculator on his cell phone. "That seems like quite a bit," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I'd be willing to do it for less..."

"Well, I'm hardly the only aunt who will be paying you," she assured him. Winking, she added, "And if Shion-chan wants you to look after her children, we'll tell her we're paying you eight hundred an hour instead."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Sure," he agreed. "Oh, now that I think of it, how is Grandmother Maebara?"

"Ah," Rika allowed, her smile fading. "She's not doing as well, these days," she said apologetically. "After her husband..." She trailed off and shrugged.

Kyon nodded, not really remembering the man he was told he resembled very well. He had passed away at around the same time Kyon had managed - however briefly - to lose the hated nickname.

"At any rate, Rena-chan and Satoko-chan are helping to look after her as well, but if you wanted to visit her with your sister, I think that's a grand idea."

He nodded again, deciding he might as well do that before his parents came up for the more formal visit. The trio in the kitchen burst back into the front room, swarming over him and demanding that he go outside and play with them. Well, he thought, as his sister and cousins conspired to bodily drag him out the door, it could be worse.

"We should chat tomorrow," Rika called before he was out of earshot. "We have a lot to discuss! Take care until then, Kyon!"


	17. Chapter 16

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Fanservice Arc II

Chapter Sixteen: Raising Hell

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Higurashi spoilers abound. Beware!

* * *

_"Chapter Two: More Training"_

_"...so, yes, congratulations for finishing your first regimen successfully. But now that you've acquired those skills, you must retain them, while also refining new skills. The purpose of training is improvement, after all."_

_"Training and You: the Eternal Nightmare" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

Much to Kyon's surprise, by the time lunch came around, Keiichi was awake, though the man still looked tired. Matsuri sat next to her mother, looking almost identical to what Kyon could remember of Rika's childhood pictures. Shutaro sat next to Keiichi, providing another eerily symmetrical flash to the past, save that his hair was neater, and a dusty blue color.

His own sister was trying to explain to their cousins that Kyon had gotten a part time job as a bodyguard _and_ a world-saving hero, but he tuned that out when Keiichi struck up a conversation, asking how school had been. Discounting the oddity of events surrounding the SOS Brigade - not just Haruhi, these days - he admitted that there wasn't much worth mentioning, but lately his grades had been improving.

"Well," Keiichi advised, "don't get too stressed about your test scores, whatever else happens. Your friends are doing well?"

He thought about that a bit. What friends, really? He had a number of casual acquaintances, and a handful of friends like Kunikida and Taniguchi, but really ... his closer friends were the club members. Then again, there was Sasaki, but... "Generally," he allowed, thinking of the recent difficulties that he and Tsuruya had overcome, and the changes made to save Yuki's life, "there are rough spots, but we stick together."

"That's the most important thing," Keiichi and Rika said together, in unnerving synchronization.

They shared a glance, and Rika giggled, while Keiichi just smirked, continuing, "Really, though, trust us on this one. Good friends are worth more than their weight in gold."

"So, tell me, Kyon," Rika said, still smiling, "do you have a girlfriend?"

"Of course he doesn't, nih-pah~!" Matsuri said confidently.

He scratched the back of his head and looked at the sandwich on the plate before him. "Well..." he began uncertainly.

"He's got _two_!" his little sister said helpfully. "Tsuru-nee-san, and Haru-nee-san!"

"No!" Matsuri protested, her smile instantly replaced with a pout. "Kyon-nii-sama is mine!"

"Now, now," Rika chastised her daughter, patting her head. "We've talked about this, Matsuri-chan."

Ignoring the girl for the moment, Keiichi raised an eyebrow and studied Kyon thoughtfully. "Really?" he asked, smirking. "So you're a player, eh?"

"Girls," Shutaro contributed. "Icky!"

"It's not like that!" Kyon protested quickly. "I don't have any kind of girlfriend at all! Imouto's just being silly."

"But Tsuru-nee-san kissed Kyon-kun," his sister insisted, turning to look at him. "And he said Haru-nee-san shouldn't know, so I promised never to tell her!"

"Yeah, you've really proved the worth of that promise just now," he grumbled. "Anyway, Tsuruya-kun and Haruhi are very good friends, like Asahina-san, or Nagato, or Kanae-chan ... I'm not _dating_ anyone."

"Good!" Matsuri cheered, smiling once more.

Keiichi chuckled, shaking his head. "Alright, nevermind that for now," he decided. Across the table, Rika's glance at Kyon suggested that she thought it would be worth discussing more later. "Have you caught any Hanshin Tigers games lately? You're pretty close to Koushien stadium."

"Not since middle school," he answered, shrugging.

"Dad's almost never home these days to take us," his sister contributed with a sigh. "But that's okay! Kyon-kun rescued Tsuru-nee-san from a dark general, like I was saying, so her father bought Dad's company! He'll get to spend more time at home, soon!"

"Really?" Rika asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it wasn't quite like that," he temporized, frowning. "I just looked after Tsuruya-kun, really..."

* * *

After abandoning Kyon to the collected children, Rika, Keiichi, and the other women met up at Rena's house. Rena had seen better days, obviously having woken up not long before their arrival.

Stepping in through the doorway, Rika sized up the taller woman with an appraising eye. She had a glow of recently-regained peace about her, and blushed like a much younger woman under Rika's stare. "Good," Rika judged, nodding. After kicking off her shoes, she smirked and raised an eyebrow, asking, "Did Kei-chan treat you well?"

"We _talked_," Rena retorted, giggling. "But yes, as always."

Mion and Satoko were already inside, Satoko nimbly shuffling a deck of cards while Mion flipped through a notebook. "About time you two showed up," the green-haired woman remarked, setting her notebook down as Keiichi stepped in behind Rika.

"Sorry," Keiichi said with a grin. "We were just making sure that Kyon and his sister were going to be okay."

"Ah, Kyon's in town?" Satoko asked, brightening. "I should have remembered that... Well, Aiko-chan will be happy to see him and his sister. Thanks for picking her up earlier."

Rena nodded thoughtfully, joining the group at the table. Keiichi got a side to himself, while Rika and Satoko sat opposite him, with Rena and Mion on either side. "No problem, Satoko-chan. We don't have to worry about the kids for a little while," Keiichi said, as Satoko began dealing the cards out. "They're in good hands."

"Oh, Kei-chan, don't let me forget to thank Kyon for watching over Yurie-chan," Rena mused. "Do you think he might want some ohagi? Or maybe I could make him some cookies?"

"I think he might want some advice," Rika noted, while Mion doled out poker chips. "According to his sister, he's got quite a few 'close friends', but they almost all seem to be girls."

"Our cute little Kyon!?" Rena asked, sounding scandalized.

Mion snorted, shooting Rena a toothy grin. "You know, I wouldn't have thought I'd see our cute little Rika-chan throwing herself at Kei-chan like she did, back in the day," she noted. "But obviously that kind of thing happens."

"Little girls grow up eventually," Satoko remarked, smirking.

Rika finished, "But that doesn't mean they must forget how to share!"

Mion snorted again. "Fair enough," she allowed. "I don't think Rena or I could have done that ... so, I'm glad it worked out this way."

Rena's hands balled into fists beneath her chin. "No~!" she wailed, her eyes watery. "Not our cute little Kyon! He's too innocent for that - I'll pick him up and take him home! He'll be safe with me!"

"Oh, is Kyon's Auntie Rena planning something naughty?" Rika teased.

"No, no!" Rena protested, shaking her head quickly. "But I want to save our cute little Kyon!"

"Cute?" Keiichi asked with a chuckle. "He's got Maebara blood in him, you know. We may only look average, but we're the most charming people on Earth!" He gave a huge grin. "I'd have to believe that, considering ... well ... us!"

"I _would_ believe it," Satoko said, doubtfully, "but it sure seems to have skipped Kyon's mother."

"But not his sister! Maybe with the women it skips a generation here and there, but the men have it!"

"Sure thing, Casanova," Mion retorted. "But we can talk about and torment Kyon and Nonoko all week - what's going on with Rena-chan?"

"Well, it's not that interesting a story," Rena demurred, calming herself and smoothing her still somewhat tousled hair.

"And ... what's the rule on keeping things like that to yourself?" Mion pressed, arching one eyebrow.

Rena pouted, then checked her hand as bidding opened. "If you must know," she said, her cheer fading, "the ex-wife of my father has a grandson that's gotten himself into some bad trouble." Rika knew that Rena's roundabout way of putting as much distance between her mother and that woman's other family was a product of long habit, no longer conscious effort. From her point of view, the boy in question didn't even qualify as a nephew, which he technically would have been. "He's been expelled from his school for assaulting a classmate, or something, and then there was an embarrassing scandal... I don't know all of the details-"

"Trivial for someone with your sleuthing skills," Satoko interrupted, glancing at the others. They all nodded their agreement.

Blushing faintly at the praise, Rena acquiesced, "W...well, evidently the school had a problem with some of the male students secretly taking photographs of the girls while they changed clothing, and this boy was involved in selling those pictures to a yakuza family."

"Oh, yeah?" Mion mused, calling, grimacing when Rika claimed the pot. "Actually, I heard something about that, too."

"Now I want to put all the pieces together and see what happened," Satoko mused.

Keiichi shook his head doubtfully. "Not if Rena-chan doesn't want to deal with this boy," he opined, as the next round was dealt out. Rika smiled at him covertly; ever the diplomat, Keiichi too was aware and side-stepped the obvious pitfall.

"Well, as a thought exercise it's not so bad," Rena said, smiling weakly. "Setting aside my ... unfortunate relations, what have you heard about it, Mion-chan?"

Mion looked thoughtful, ignoring her cards for the moment. "Let's see ... assuming it was the same area, it would have been in Yamaguchi-gumi territory, but the yakuza who did it were Sumiyoshi-rengo. The details aren't all clear to me, but evidently the local Yamaguchi-gumi got really riled up about it when they found a smaller group operating in their territory. So, the area head's daughter got saddled with a distinction." She couldn't help but wince at that, running the fingertips of one hand across the other.

Rika and Keiichi wordlessly reached out to the green-haired woman, Keiichi placing a hand on her shoulder and giving a reassuring squeeze, and Rika patting her hands comfortingly.

"Um, anyway, it seems that she and her only two subordinates went in and really worked over the Sumiyoshi-rengo group behind it," Mion continued, collecting her cards and flashing the pair a grateful smile. "Which is good for her ... evidently their distinction isn't as harsh as the Sonozaki family distinction, though it sounds a bit more dangerous."

"Hmm... I'm not sure I know all about a 'distinction'," Rena said thoughtfully, "but it doesn't sound cute. Still, I suppose one could deduce that if this family head's daughter had to make up for something... Could it be that she had gotten her picture taken, I wonder, I wonder?"

"There's no official story about _that_," Mion said, "but it would make sense, and that's the kind of thing no one would want to advertise."

"It sounds like this boy's more trouble than he's worth," Satoko said, shaking her head in disgust at her hand and discarding most of it. "Especially if he's made enemies out of those yakuza."

"Oh, I agree," Rena said, nodding quickly. "Kei-chan and I ended up talking about that late last night. Ah, that is, not the yakuza involvement, but the fact that I don't really want to take responsibility for a third year high school dropout I don't even know."

"Sometimes your kids don't do what you expect," Mion commented. "Look at my first daughter! But, really, a child you don't even know... That's a lot of trouble, especially considering which part of the family he comes from. What's the boy's name, anyway?"

Rena grimaced. "My father's ex-wife didn't ever get around to changing her name, and her second marriage fell apart - or maybe she just got sick of it. So as embarrassing as this is to me, he's a Ryuguu, too. Ryuguu Ryo."

"Maybe we should talk about something more cheerful," Satoko suggested. "Like family that's less problematic - just look at Kyon, right? I'm sure he'd never get into that kind of trouble."

"That's very true!"

* * *

Rika hadn't slept particularly well after sending Keiichi off with Mion for the evening. Not that she was particularly worried about either of them, save that Keiichi would probably be quite worn out later. And Kyon had done a fine job of watching over the children, even with Matsuri clinging to him on the couch in the living room in her sleep. The other children had fallen asleep beneath the kotatsu, cutely bundled up in pairs, even Shutaro and Naota.

Kyon was still awake, and helped carry the Sonozaki twins to put them in bed properly, Naota with Shutaro, and Makoto with Kyon's sister and Matsuri (despite the youngest Fuurude girl's sleepily mumbled protests of staying with 'her Kyon-nii-sama'). Satoko and Rena had come with Rika to take their own daughters home, and Kyon went back to the small guest room he had to himself.

Hanyuu watched everything quietly, and assured Rika that Kyon had done a fine job of caring for the children, so Rika went to her own bed, thinking she would get a night of restful sleep and speak with Kyon in the morning. Except, before she even dozed, Hanyuu frantically cried out that Kyon had gone missing - again.

Still awake, she had gone to her nephew's room, unsettled to see it empty. She was sure she would have heard him leave through the front door, or even climbing out the window... Of course, Hanyuu said he had _vanished_ and there was no reason to disbelieve her. So she sat on the floor of the guest room and thought about things, while Hanyuu whimpered that his disappearance had nothing to do with the kami plane that she could see, and she didn't know how to follow him wherever he had gone.

"He came back last night," Rika reasoned to her friend, partially to settle her own nerves. "Why wouldn't he come back again?"

Hanyuu whimpered in response. "That girl... I'm trying to be friends with her, it is so," she explained hesitantly. "Because I don't think she wants to harm him ... she says she wants to protect him! But she won't tell me very much at all, and she doesn't use many words! And most of the words she uses are very complicated, it is so."

"Complicated?" Rika mused. Hanyuu's vocabulary was centuries old; she knew more words that had fallen out of use than any living person was likely to. The only thing she could think of that her friend wouldn't know would be technical terms, because of their relative newness. "Like what?"

"Hum... She won't call Kyon by his nickname, it is so," Hanyuu said softly. "When I asked her what her goal was, she said something like... 'Observation and protective purposes', it is so. But ... she must like him, because she followed him, um, into the bath to watch him..."

Rika blinked, raising an eyebrow at Hanyuu. "Are you peeping on our nephew?" she asked, half amused, half amazed.

"Ah, no!" Hanyuu protested, flailing her arms rapidly in denial. "No, no! I was just following her, it is so! Yeah! To make sure she didn't do anything bad to him, it is so!"

Shaking her head, Rika wondered what Kyon could have done to attract the attention of a semi-perverted spectre. Further contemplating was interrupted by the blankets from Kyon's empty futon vanishing for a heartbeat. Before she could really react, Kyon reappeared just as abruptly, evidently asleep, still, and the blankets reappeared above him, quickly settling into place. If she hadn't seen it happen...

Rika tapped her lower lip with a fingertip thoughtfully. "I'm glad he got at least a day to rest," she sighed, finally, shaking her head. Even if that 'rest' was watching over the village children for most of a day. "But we should speak of this in the morning."

Hanyuu whimpered again, her gaze turning to an empty corner of the room. Or perhaps, Rika thought, frowning at the corner, it wasn't so empty after all. But with the moon vanished, there was no source of second sight for her to try and see the spirit world. It would be a week, at best, before she could hope to do that, and Kyon would be gone by then.

She had meant to sleep, but it was hard to dismiss those strange happenings. And then, after she had dozed off, but before she felt anything approaching rested, morning had come around. She was woken shortly after sunrise by Keiichi stumbling home, mumbling an apology to her as he climbed into the futon they shared. She kissed him briefly, pondering his scent.

"New perfume?" she whispered. No reason to burden him with the things that were bothering her, just yet. He was very perceptive, but this tired, even he would most likely miss her agitation.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Almost forgot to compliment it. Nice, though."

She nodded her agreement; she'd have to ask Mion if she'd share some with her. "Rest well," she told him, tucking the blankets around him and rising for the day. She checked on Kyon first, curious.

His futon had already been folded neatly in one corner, and Hanyuu floated in the window, gazing outside. Rika moved to her friend's side and looked out with her. Kyon was in the front yard, smoothly going through a series of martial forms. She didn't know enough martial arts herself to know what style or maneuvers he was performing, but she recognized the smooth confidence of motion that came only with years of practice.

Shutaro and Naota had gotten up as early as Kyon, and were clumsily trying to mimic their older cousin. Naota was a fast learner of all things physical; his struggle to follow Kyon's slow, smooth forms only highlighted the older boy's expertise. Rika wasn't sure about Kyon's sister, but had no doubts that Matsuri was watching him.

She went to the front door, and sure enough her daughter was peeking around the door frame, along with Kyon's sister and Makoto. "Alright, girls," Rika said sternly. "Let's get you in the bathtub. The boys are going to want a turn when they're done with their practice."

* * *

After waking early to the sound of his uncle Keiichi - again - arriving home near sunrise, Kyon decided to get up. He wouldn't have much time to himself in any case, so thought he'd make the most of the morning before a gaggle of screaming cousins made him the referee of another round of zombie tag. Or a 'life-or-death' squirt-gun battle. Or...

Banishing those thoughts, he slipped out the front door and went through a series of kata from the training that Yuki had instilled into him. When Naota and Shutaro stumbled out to try and join him, he switched from a series of wushuu kata to slower, easier-to-follow tai chi. It was eerie to recall tiny bits and pieces of the training ... more like the _gist_ of it, really, but not the specifics.

Still, practicing with his cousins harmlessly was more enjoyable for him than getting into a fight with twenty plus angry criminals.

He heard his aunt calling the girls in to take a bath, feeling a bit embarrassed that he'd gotten an audience he hadn't even noticed, but finished out the series anyway. After that, he went over the finer points of the forms for Naota, who seemed interested in perfecting them, and Shutaro, who didn't really care for the hard parts, but thought it was fun to mimic.

Then the girls finished their bath, and he was given the duty of making sure that Shutaro and Naota scrubbed behind their ears. He wanted to enjoy a longer soak once the boys finished and dashed out to the living room, since the scent of his aunt's cooking was already filling the house, but had a strange, unnerving sense of being watched.

So he dressed and joined the others at the table, trying not to roll his eyes at the way Matsuri instantly latched onto his side. "Did you guys have fun last night?" he asked his aunt as she served his breakfast and handed him a plate.

"Oh, yes," she agreed, smiling softly, though she looked tired and bothered by something. "Thank you again for watching over the children."

"No problem," he told her, shrugging. "Like I said before."

"It was interesting seeing you practice this morning," she mused, gazing into the depths of her cup of hot chocolate. "You must have worked quite hard to become so skilled."

He nervously wondered if he'd caused himself unwanted trouble by demonstrating skill he shouldn't have. Strange that everyone else seemed to accept it ... even his parents didn't seem surprised that he had become a 'temporary bodyguard' for Tsuruya. Though, there was the possibility they simply hadn't really _believed_ it...

"Oh, sorry," Rika managed, forcing a smile at his expression. "There's nothing wrong with that, Kyon. I know you're very responsible."

"Kyon-nii-sama," Matsuri said, insistently, "you use your powers for good, right?"

"Nope," his sister told her, smirking. "He uses his powers for _awesome_! Just like Trope-tan's mysterious protector!"

"Yeah, something like that," he agreed.

"Hmm. Kyon, I need to go up to the shrine for a bit today," Rika commented. Setting down her empty mug, she added, "Could I trouble you to come with me?"

"As long as it doesn't involve sealed shrines and ancient legends of demons," he joked, thinking of Haruhi's strange demands.

For some reason, Rika looked even more troubled about that for the merest heartbeat, before a facade that Koizumi could never hope to equal hid her true feelings, and she giggled at him. "Silly," she pronounced, leaning forward and tapping his forehead with one fingertip chidingly. "But I will hold you to that."

He winced at that reaction, realizing he should have known better than to tease the village's resident shrine maiden, given the legends of the god Oyashiro. She wasn't just his aunt, after all...

Turning to the children, she added, "Matsuri-chan, your turn to round up the dishes; Makoto-chan, Nonoko-chan, your turn to wash up."

"Okay!" Kyon's little sister chirped, running to the hall closet for the step-stool she needed to access the sink, Makoto right on her heels.

* * *

After asking Satoko to take up the wearying task of watching over the children, Rika left for the shrine, her eldest nephew in tow. The home she and Keiichi shared was her old family home, not the house she and Satoko had shared when they were younger. It had to be renovated, naturally, after the long years of abandonment between her own parents passing away, and her and Keiichi moving in, but it was still the ancestral Fuurude home, built very near the shrine.

Kyon said nothing, merely looking off down the hill towards the rest of the village, until they reached the torii before the grounds proper, where he paused to bow as per tradition.

Rika did the same, and for reasons she'd never understood and didn't care to ask, so did Hanyuu.

The shrine was actually a small complex of buildings, the largest of which frequently served as the town's meeting hall, and the smallest of which was the saiguden, the sealed ritual equipment temple. She detoured to the meeting hall briefly to drop off the basket she had brought with her, then led Kyon to that locked building, not much larger than a shed.

His eyes went to the ancient lock on the door, as she produced a key from the pocket of her sun dress. "Isn't this...?" he began, before trailing off uncomfortably.

"You're in no danger," she assured him. "It is forbidden to enter the saiguden, except to those of the Fuurude family, or those who are accompanied by them. While you enter this place, you are under my protection."

He nodded hesitantly when she opened the door and stepped in. It had been nearly a year since she had gone into the room, last Watanagashi, for the annual festival. It was the first year that Matsuri had been allowed inside, as well, and the thick layer of collected dust reminded her that she needed to spend more time cleaning that gloomy place.

When he still seemed uncertain, she took his hand in hers, leading him within. The sunlight filtering in from the back of the room outlined the statue of the god Oyashiro with an ominous dusty halo. When Kyon stopped to stare at the various pieces of ritual equipment lining the walls, his face paled.

"D...do you know someone by the name of Asakura Ryouko?" he asked, looking half-ready to bolt out the door.

She gave him a curious look and thought about it seriously. "I know a few girls named Ryouko," she allowed. It was a fairly common name, after all. "But I don't think so."

He nodded uneasily and winced when his eyes fell upon a low table with a spiked roller on one end. "Um, did you ... need help cleaning this up?" he asked nervously, staring at the dusty floor.

"I just wanted to talk," she said. "But I think it might go easier for you if I told you a bit of a story, first."

"Yeah, sure," he managed. "This place really establishes a certain mood." He shook his head quickly, and turned his attention to her completely, holding one hand up, palm towards her in a placating gesture. "So, Auntie Rika, I don't know what kind of poor impression I gave you, but I assure you, the fact that I have no girlfriend in _no_ way suggests that I'm interested in Matsuri-chan in that way. I guarantee, and in fact, swear on my life that my intentions are pure; despite her behavior, for me, she is just a cute younger cousin that in my mind may as well be a less annoying younger sister. I promise you, I do not look at little girls in such a light, and will endeavor to ensure you never get the impression I am such a person again."

She couldn't help but smile at the outburst. "Don't misunderstand," she told him. "I don't mean to unsettle you, just underscore the gravity of the situation. It would be in poor keeping as a host to offer my protection and then threaten you." She couldn't resist adding, "Besides, if I were to threaten you in any way, it would be to say that I might not stop your aunt Rena from trying to run off with you if you don't take this seriously."

"That, also could be misconstrued," he joked weakly, managing a slightly forced smile. "But yes, I apologize. Whatever it is you need to tell me, I will listen."

The earnestness in his voice was matched only by some memories of Keiichi... She coughed quietly and stepped around him, suspecting that placing herself on the far side of him from the open doorway would reassure him somewhat. "This statue," she explained, gesturing to the fierce looking deity with a missing hand, "is how the villagers saw Oyashiro-sama for a great many years.

"Almost all of these tools," she said, gesturing at the ancient implements of torture lining every wall, "were used a very long time ago to establish a code of behavior for the village. Anyone who defied that code was punished, in this very spot ... though the original building has been replaced many times through the years." He shivered, and she turned her attention to the ceremonial hoe she used for the Watanagashi ritual. "The reason for being punished here, before the statue of those who they thought was Oyashiro-sama, was to spare them Oyashiro-sama's curse.

"Because if Oyashiro-sama's wrath were invoked, then he would merely demon away the offender, and also slay one villager. For each sin, two lives would end. One would vanish, one would be visited with the furious violence of an angry god." She realized her gaze had been slowly drifting to the floor. Unpleasant memories, those not wholly accurate legends. She looked Kyon in the eyes, worried at the seriousness of his gaze.

Startling as it was, she could not glean a single whit of doubt or disbelief from the boy. He stood attentively, absorbing her every word.

"Those legends weren't precisely the true story," she added, smiling weakly. "Most of these things ... as grim as they are ... were probably never used." She gestured to a particularly impractical construct, something shaped like a very spiky lantern with no panes. "Not for more than intimidation. The goal was to scare people into behaving, so that the code would remain intact. But ... people began to abuse the belief of being demoned away. It was an ugly and simple matter to murder two people, and ensure that only one body was found, then blaming it on the god...

"One of my ancestors, Fuurude Hanyuu, created Oyashiro-sama. She took the sin of the entire village into herself, and had her own daughter sacrifice her. Fuurude Hanyuu became the terrible god, in the minds of the people." She glanced back at the statue wistfully. "This idol is Oyashiro-sama, perhaps. But it is not Hanyuu." Kyon nodded, studying the statue.

"There's more," she added, after a pause, "but let's leave such a gloomy place for now."

He nodded again, more eagerly, stepping out of the shed before she did, waiting patiently while she relocked it and led the way across the grounds to the larger meeting hall.

She opened the door and gestured him inside. "This is actually just a meeting room," she explained, looking across the area. "It's still used by the village for things like the festival committee, and town meetings. In fact, long ago, before your mother was even born, when I was very tiny, this same room was used to discuss the Hinamizawa Dam project."

"I think I remember Auntie Rena mentioning something about that," he murmured, stepping inside and leaving his shoes on the stairs. The building was a single hall with large closets in the back. Low tables formed a squared 'U' shape, with the open end facing the entrance, and cushions lined the outer perimeter. Hanyuu drifted in through the wall and watched silently.

After slipping off her own shoes, Rika closed the door behind him and walked to the center of the tables, reaching over to grab two cushions and set them down. She took one for herself and patted the other cushion. He sat as she indicated, while she poured tea from the thermos in her picnic basket for each of them. Wordlessly nodding his thanks, he sipped at his tea, before regarding her curiously.

"This may sound far-fetched," she began, hesitant, uncertain where to begin, "but are you familiar with the theory of alternate realities?"

With careful deliberation, he set his cup down, looking at her suspiciously. "I am familiar with the theory," he answered, his tone oddly flat, trying to conceal some hidden stress. If she hadn't been watching for it...

She pursed her lips and considered pressing him to see what he knew ... but she had to open up to him before she could really expect him to open up to her. "Let us imagine, then," she said, "that in the late seventies and early eighties, something terrible happened, right here, in this village.

"Let us imagine that the history of the curse and the code was being studied by scientists and doctors. And one of these doctors and scientists was ... sick in the mind. She was obsessed with discovering the true nature of 'Hinamizawa syndrome'. To those ends, she wanted to use one of the village's spiritual leaders and trusted families as a test subject. This syndrome was some sort of blood-borne ... thing. A parasite, a virus ... it was difficult, if not impossible, to determine."

Kyon nodded uneasily, listening attentively. She paused to sip her tea, steeling herself for the next part.

"Her chosen test subject is the family line of priests and shrine maidens that have tended Oyashiro-sama's shrine since the legend was established. But ... the girl she needs to study has protective parents. They decide not to allow the doctor to test their child." She smiled bitterly. "Though it was not clear for several years, the doctor arranges for those parents to be killed, and makes it look like an accident. Similarly, unfortunate events befall many children her own age.

"The years pass, we imagine, as they must, until June of 1983. As unfortunate as things have been for this girl and her friends, true tragedy strikes. One of her friends goes mad due to the influence of Hinezawa syndrome. In a fit of rage, he..." She hesitated, then sipped her tea again before setting the cup on the floor. "He takes the lives of two of the friends he loves most.

"Shortly after that, he takes his own life, though not willingly, and in his madness, he believes that he was defending himself from his friends - that _they_ had gone mad. And when he tears his own throat out, he believes that it is not his own hands that do it, but Oyashiro-sama's."

Hanyuu sobbed, whimpering, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry ... a thousand times and more, it is so, I am sorry!" Rika remembered he incident well enough, and knew how Hanyuu blamed herself, even though it wasn't her fault...

Kyon looked very disturbed, but nodded again. "Okay," he managed, his voice shaking only the merest bit. "As terrible as that is ... I am imagining it."

"And then, with three of her best friends dead, the girl herself is murdered," Rika murmured. "Her life ends ... but the true god, Hanyuu, can do this one thing. She takes their souls, and sends them back in time, to a world so similar it is nearly identical. They return to that endless June, and try to live through it again, to find a future where their friends live, and the girl herself survives."

He swallowed uncomfortably, meeting her eyes as his troubled voice asked, "How... How many times?"

"Weeks and months blur into years," she finally said. "Well over a century of bloody Junes with no seeming end... There are changes. Sometimes, different friends go mad. Sometimes, it's the same ones. On very few occasions, none go mad... But the girl is murdered, every time. Mere numbers couldn't be remembered so easily." She shook her head. "But that doesn't matter. Traveling back to alternate Junes, that was powerful magic, the right of a god. In the end, it took a true miracle to break the cycle. Do you know what that miracle was?"

He shook his head numbly, and she smiled at him, trying not to remember the old suffering, burying the centuries of pain under the bright decades of happiness she'd had.

"Don't think less of it than it is; the miracle happened when the girl finally did something she should have long ago. She learned to rely on her friends and loved ones. Her family may have been gone, but she wasn't alone. Only by everyone working together were they able to overcome the seemingly impossible." That singular bright moment, that searing joy, was marked onto her indelibly. She would never forget it, even if she had to cross centuries again, for some unfathomable reason.

"It was a bond of immense trust." She hadn't meant to dig so deeply into herself, to pour those truths out where her nephew could see them. They were heavy, and he was far too young to deserve the task of trying to shoulder that weight. But even so... "Kyon, can you imagine that?"

"No, I can't," he whispered, his eyes watery, his gaze unwavering. "But I believe it."

She leaned forward and embraced her nephew, holding him tightly and burying his face in her shoulder. "Oh, Kyon," she sighed. "What have you endured to know this? What has happened that you can accept this without flinching? I don't know what trials you face, but I want to help you. Will you let me?"

Hanyuu sniffled quietly, nodding her agreement.

"I...it's... It's nothing nearly that bad," he finally managed, when she released him and looked at him sternly, her hands resting on his shoulders. "I wouldn't... You may still think I'm crazy, and... Well, parts of this are secrets I don't really tell anyone else, but..."

* * *

As she had been asked by Haruhi, Yuki watched Kyon. Not that she had any objections to the task, by any means. She would have preferred to have remained visible, and at his side, but social issues would likely arise from her physical presence, and she had an acknowledged lack of capability for handling many of those.

Other than the anomalous encounter with an intriguing human-based data-entity, who was _also_ watching Kyon, there was little of concern. The wavelength she and the other data-entity shared was able to allow unhindered observation of baseline physical reality, while also rendering her insubstantial to most physical objects and standard energy forms. As a side-benefit, the intangibility and energy incorporeality also allowed her to float through things, meaning she could navigate in perfectly straight lines between points at her convenience.

Moreover, being near Kyon instead of simply waiting in her apartment did give her some small amount of leeway to resist the drives of the entity, as they were wary of interfering with him directly. His current temporal entanglement with future instances of himself made direct action against him very risky.

Generally, the actions undertaken by Asahina Mikuru's superiors were selfish, to ensure the future they wished for came about. However, the fact that their selfishness happened to include offering Kyon a substantial degree of protection from the entity's machinations was greatly appreciated. Lately, and especially because of the fact that she was able to 'borrow' Mikuru's primitive time-travel mechanisms, Yuki had come to more closely include the time-traveler in her pool of people who she needed to protect.

From a pragmatic standpoint, it was because she needed the time-traveler's help. The slider's, too. Without them, her error-correction would be significantly more difficult; most likely the data entity would have succeeded in removing her almost immediately.

But even discounting those things, when she watched the discussion between Kyon and the 'aunt Rika' who was connected to the human-based data-entity and she emphasised the importance of trusting friends, Yuki felt that she was starting to have a very good idea of what 'friends' were, and how valuable they could be.

The woman's story was interesting, but in her recall, not unique in the confines of the data entity's knowledge. It was a significantly more limited form of the reality altering that Haruhi possessed, linked to the human-based data-entity, 'Hanyuu', who had _also_ wanted to be her friend. While the Integrated Data Sentience Entity had found it novel, and even interfered with the woman's past in some iterations, it had ultimately concluded that the methodology would not lead to its desired ability to further the entity's evolution.

And then, as she had stopped being interesting to the entity, focus was shifted away.

Yuki had not previously been aware of the incident, but the residual data was easy to read from the other data entity. She felt an uncomfortable imbalance when considering the time-loop, and realized that just being _bored_ ... wasn't nearly that bad.

When Kyon hesitantly began to explain the roles of the others in the brigade to Rika, the woman broke into his explanations to say, "I believe you, Kyon, though this does sound strange to me. Before you go on, do you know of any reason you might be haunted?"

"Haunted?" he asked, mystified. "We..." He paused, looking thoughtful and retrieving his long-cooled cup of tea. After draining it, he said, "I'm not really positive we've ever dealt with ghosts. We found things that _I_ would have thought of as ghosts, but I was told that they were actually some type of alien being."

"Then ... would an alien be following you?" Rika asked, glancing at her bonded data-entity fearfully.

Hanyuu gave Yuki a very odd look. "Are you an alien?" she asked.

She nodded at the other data entity. From their perspective, she was undoubtedly alien.

"Y...you are?" Hanyuu managed, evidently surprised at the revelation.

Rika turned to look at Hanyuu's reaction, but was still unable to perceive Yuki. "It's possible," Kyon allowed, looking around the room, his eyes passing through her before something occurred to him and he sighed, ducking his head slightly. "Um, Nagato, if you're here, could you come out?"

Because he had asked, she did, shifting her waveform to align with the baseline physical reality, settling to the floor at his side, between him and Hanyuu. "Oh," Rika murmured, raising an eyebrow as she studied Yuki. "Well, aren't you a pretty one?"

She wasn't certain what to make of that, so turned her attention to Kyon. Surprisingly to her, he seemed more relaxed, and produced one of the extra cushions from across the meeting room's low tables, setting it nearby and gesturing for her to sit. She did so, turning her focus back to the other data entity and Rika.

Kyon made a very quiet cough, and said, "Auntie Rika, this is my friend, Nagato Yuki. I'm sorry about that; I didn't know she was following me around..." He smiled slightly and shook his head, turning an inquisitive gaze to Yuki. "But I'm guessing that Haruhi said something along the lines of you should keep an eye on me?"

Yuki nodded once in answer. He chuckled and shook his head again.

Turning back to Rika, he asked, "So, you could tell she was here?"

"I didn't know she was your friend," Rika allowed. "And I couldn't see her myself, but Hanyuu could."

"She currently exists within a wavelength that is restricted from casual access to baseline physical reality," Yuki contributed. "For the purposes of ensuring his safety, I also occupied that wavelength, as it seemed very unlikely I would encounter another data entity there."

Rika made a face. "You think Hanyuu's a ... 'data entity'?"

"She is," Yuki confirmed.

"I'm not! I'm not!" Hanyuu protested, shaking her head back and forth quickly. "I'm a god! I'm..." She trailed off hesitantly. "A...aren't I?" she asked Rika worriedly.

"Don't worry about that, Hanyuu," Rika assured the other data entity.

"Well," Kyon said after a thoughtful moment, "I think from Nagato's perspective, almost everything is data. So, whatever, um, Hanyuu is, she would see things that way."

"Hauuu..." Hanyuu moaned, sniffling.

He shook his head, asking, "Is she here right now?"

Yuki started a process to temporarily synchronize the other data entity's waveform to the baseline physical reality, but stopped herself, realizing this could be one of those social situations she did not always adeptly handle. She could find no proper references for behavior in similar situations, so turned to look at Kyon, who had caught her half-raised hand with his gaze, but didn't move to stop her. "Do you wish to perceive her?" she asked him.

"If that's okay with Auntie Rika," he said, shrugging.

Rika looked thoughtful. "It won't hurt her?"

Yuki considered that, and made some minor modifications to the pending process before she shook her head in negation.

"Hauu..." Hanyuu moaned again, nervously agitated.

"Alright, then," Rika allowed.

Yuki finished her manipulations and the other data entity was rendered into physical form, stumbling slightly and dropping to her knees to try and hide behind Rika, peeking over her shoulder at the other two.

* * *

Kyon stared in consternation at what his aunt had explained was the actual being behind the local legends of the terrifying demon god Oyashiro. He took in her features and size; generally, except for being more pale, and having lighter colored hair, (and a pair of dark blue horns, one of them chipped), she actually looked an awful lot like his aunt. Which made sense, he supposed, since Hanyuu was Rika's ancestor. Where Rika was wearing a casual sun dress, Hanyuu wore a white and red shrine maiden's outfit, more stylized and impressive than the one that Haruhi had found and stuffed Mikuru in on a small handful of occasions.

Trying to keep from laughing at how adorably _cute_ the physical incarnation of Oyashiro was, Kyon managed, "Um, Hanyuu-sama, your statue really doesn't do you justice."

Rika didn't try to keep from laughing at all, looking over her shoulder and elbowing Hanyuu. "Don't be such a coward," she chastised, her voice still light with laughter. "Now come on, grab a cushion and let's continue this discussion over lunch." While Hanyuu hesitantly slipped away to grab a cushion as she suggested, Rika opened the basket she had kept the thermos of tea in, and started laying out the midday meal.

"J...just Hanyuu is fine, it is so," she managed, blushing and unable to meet Kyon's eyes. "Um, um, um, I'm not used to people aside from Rika being able to see me, it is so."

She finally gathered the courage to look at Yuki, who met her dark eyes with an unblinking gaze. It was a pair of goddesses in their own right; he wished he could take a picture, but was sure somehow it would be a bad idea. He labored to commit the scene to memory instead. "H...how long will this last?" Hanyuu asked tremulously, tugging one sleeve of her outfit when it slipped.

"Sunset," Yuki answered simply.

Hanyuu was taken aback at that. "Y...you made me ... real ... for the whole day?" she asked in amazement.

"You have very impressive allies," Rika remarked, handing him a bento lunch. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting to cook for four... Will it be too much trouble to ask you to share with your friend?"

"Ah, I don't mind," Kyon replied, unthinking, before he realized that there was only one pair of chopsticks and cup between himself and Nagato. Well ... that wasn't too bad, anyway. He gestured for her to go before him, handing the teacup over. "Sorry," he told her.

"No problem," she said, as she always did. Strangely, he felt she meant it more this time than she had in others...

Trying not to think about things too hard, he glanced up as Rika asked, "Nagato-chan, might I ask what your intentions with my nephew are?"

The quiet girl at his side said nothing for a moment, just grabbing a morsel from the bento and eating it mechanically. After swallowing, she set the chopsticks on the edge of the bento and slid it towards him. "For the duration of his time in Hinamizawa I have been asked to ensure his safety; I will continue to do that, unless he should ask otherwise."

"I meant beyond that," Rika clarified, while Hanyuu hesitantly picked up a sweet roll with wide, anticipating eyes.

Kyon was torn between following the conversation and staring at Hanyuu's antics as she nibbled on the sweet bun as though it were mana from heaven. Even though he was having trouble looking away from the ecstatic expression of what he deemed to be one of the three cutest 'gods' he'd ever seen, he could still hear Yuki's response. "The future is ... uncertain."

"That doesn't answer my question," Rika pushed, gently. "I mean, what do you want with him?"

"That which is uncertain; a future," she answered. Hanyuu blinked at this answer, her expression shifting to worried and surprised scrutiny of the girl at his side. He turned to look, as well, but Yuki's face was very slightly lowered, her eyes looking away.

* * *

Rika felt a little bit bad that she didn't finish her discussion with Kyon and Yuki until the sun had set, and Hanyuu suddenly became weightless, drifting off the floor once more. She felt worse that all things considered, she couldn't offer much assistance to Kyon in the strange trials he was enduring. Maybe, she thought, as Yuki likewise faded into that same twilight realm where Rika and Kyon couldn't see her, she could try and arrange a trip down to Nishinomiya, and she could talk to this Haruhi girl.

Kyon didn't outright _state_ it, but she could tell that he cared for Yuki. There was no real hesitation on his part to share a teacup with her, even though that meant a second-hand kiss. Yuki had seemed eager for it, as far as Rika could read the girl. Then again, Yuki was difficult to read ... only her long years of experience gave her enough insight to guess.

Doubtless Rena would be able to read the girl more easily, but even she would probably find her a challenge. Even though Kyon had explained that Yuki was some sort of alien, she acted _enough_ like a regular girl for Rika to see her as one. Admittedly, even though she acknowledged that Hanyuu was a god of sorts, she still saw _her_ as regular woman, too. Maybe her outlook was biased, she realized with a small degree of embarrassment.

Finally, as they were walking back home from the shrine, she declared, "I don't know what I can do to help you, Kyon. But I will listen and be your ally in any way I can; you have only to ask."

"Thank you," he said, inclining his head slightly. He scratched behind one ear and said, a little awkwardly, "It's good that I have you and uncle Keiichi to look after me, but sometimes I wish that things worked out better between myself and Mom."

"She's just ... very protective," Rika managed.

"Yes, that's my dearest smother," Kyon sighed. "Er, that is, mother."

Hanyuu made a strangled giggling sound from Rika's side, covering her mouth and appearing grateful that Kyon couldn't see her for the moment. Rika was hard-pressed not to burst into laughter herself. "Well, setting her aside for the moment, let us focus on you and your sister enjoying what time you can, while you're up here. Shall we go to the water park tomorrow? Wouldn't that be fun?" It was a small thing, she knew, but she could try and give him some small refuge to avoid his problems and decompress.

"That sounds kind of fun," he agreed. "I don't think I've gone swimming since last year. You sure it'll be hot enough?"

"According to the weather reports it should be. So, that will be the plan," she decided. She opened the door to the house up to see Keiichi, her children, and Kyon's sister crowded around the table.

"Finally back?" Keiichi asked, grinning as he leaned to one side to see over Shutaro's head. "You missed Satoko-chan by a few hours. I got us some pizza, and Nonoko-chan chose a movie while we were out."

"What is it?" Rika asked, after switching to her house shoes.

"It'f the bwidge of bwirdf mofie," Kyon's sister tried to say around a mouthful of pizza.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Kyon chastised her absently, gently tapping her forehead with one finger as he and Rika found places at the table.

Even though Kyon sat next to his sister, opposite Matsuri, the girl only took it as a challenge. The second Rika took a seat and reached for a slice of pizza, Matsuri vanished beneath the table, popping up right at Kyon's side. "It's the animated movie, 'Bridge of Birds'," she said cheerfully. "It's really romantic, nih-pah~!"

With sage wisdom, Shutaro gave his older sister a level look and reminded her, "Icky."

"Oh!" Keiichi started, staring between the girl and her plate. "Looks like a free slice of pepperoni for me!"

"Waah!" Matsuri wailed, scrambling around the table to defend her plate as Keiichi lunged at it with overly dramatic slow-motion.

Kyon and Rika both chuckled at the girl as she snatched her plate from Keiichi's fingertips at the last moment. He gave a mournful, defeated sigh, then immediately straightened with a grin. "So!" he said brightly. "Let's start that movie, huh?"

* * *

Haruhi had been bored. Her family, pathetically enough, had no real plans for Golden Week other than lounging around and recuperating from the workload. Her mother and father worked full time, her father complaining about the fact that the previous week had evidently been wasted due to some complex corporate restructuring. He had gotten effectively demoted, even though his new position maintained his previous benefits and salary.

She didn't see what he had to complain about; his old company had been bought by a larger company, and then everyone had been restructured to new positions. Evidently, instead of being chief financial officer, as he was before the acquisition, he was now one of several aides at his new company. She hadn't bothered to learn the name, just rolling her eyes as he continued lamenting the loss of his 'dear Nishinomiya Heavy Industries'.

Before the acquisition, he had always complained sadly about how his company 'just wasn't going anywhere', no matter how he tried. It wasn't like he actually lost his job, despite his behavior. After taking her to see another baseball game at Koushien stadium, as little as she liked the memories that place evoked in her, he considered his familial duty concerning Golden Week dealt with and suggested she 'play with her friends' for the remainder of her vacation.

Complicating matters, however, her mother worked as a financial investigator for the government, and was in a foul mood as well. Since Haruhi's father evidently was transfered to the company she was investigating, several months of work had to be handed over to someone in a different office, because it suddenly became a 'conflict of interests'. She could sympathize with her mother to a small degree; working hard on something and then having the project snatched away for reasons beyond your control...

But considering all that, she wasn't really enjoying spending all her time at home, or tutoring her neighbor. Kanae had left with her parents to some place in Okinawa. Koizumi wasn't going to come back from visiting his own family until the Saturday before school resumed, Yuki had vanished into thin air, presumably getting to spend time with Kyon out in the country, where chaperones were few and far between...

That last part really bothered her, so when Tsuruya cheerfully called her and said she was back from Switzerland, but only for a day, Haruhi leapt at the opportunity. After meeting up with Tsuruya at the taller girl's home - so much less gloomy - things had taken a sudden upward swing. Tsuruya was only in town long enough to recover from her family business, and considering what rumors Haruhi had heard about Swiss banks, she was starting to suspect that Tsuruya had an entirely different meaning for 'family business' on that trip.

More importantly, Tsuruya was headed to Hinamizawa for some other facet of family business, as well, and Haruhi was entirely welcome to come. Cheered by that, she told her parents she was going camping with her friends, packed everything she needed, and then double-teamed Mikuru with Tsuruya's help, pulling her from some sewing project in her lonely little apartment to join them.

Of course, Kyon hadn't been exaggerating about Hinamizawa when he described it as being 'in the country'. It wasn't just out in the countryside and remote, it was a tiny village with no trains, a single bus line connecting it to the next larger city, and most irksomely, no hotels. Tsuruya had already known and planned for that, getting them a relatively nice room on the top floor of a five story hotel building in the nearest larger town of Okinomiya.

Incidentally, as far as Haruhi could tell, that was also the tallest building in the city, only matched by a small handful of others. Mikuru being herself, she naturally collapsed into a bed and dozed off after the trip. Tsuruya excused herself to make a few phone calls, but the sun was still out, if low, and the sky was reasonably clear.

Enough was enough, and Haruhi was going to go find Kyon! Tsuruya's driver was also her bodyguard, and Haruhi remembered that meant the man had to know _something_ about the village. After finding him, about to head into the town, as Tsuruya had dismissed him for the day, she badgered him for information on Hinamizawa. He was able to give her directions - follow the main road for six miles.

So she'd set out. What was a six mile walk, anyway? That was nothing, in the grand scheme of things!

But she'd failed to realize how quickly the sun set in the mountains, and worse, at some point, she'd lost all reception on her cell phone, and then ... the rainclouds that she hadn't realized were building stormed in. Trudging wearily through the cold rain in the dark, she realized her plan of asking a villager where to find Kyon had hit a major stumbling block. There wouldn't _be_ any villagers outside in such terrible weather.

Resolved to press on until she reached some sort of shelter, she continued trudging forward, amazed that she hadn't even seen a single car the entire time she'd been walking. Really, what were the odds? How insanely remote _was_ this village?!

Eventually, she rounded a curve of the road, nearly invisible in the dark, and saw a light ahead. Crashing through the trees and brush, nearly tripping into the mud twice, she finally made it to the door of a house, a humming generator under an overhang on one side providing power for the light that spilled through the windows. A plaque on one side of the door read, 'Fuurude'.

She squinted at it, sighing to herself that her plan had fallen to ruin. She'd have to wait one more day to find Kyon, after all... She even had pictures of him, should she find someone to ask, but her impatience... The generator undoubtedly meant that power was out; she hoped it didn't mean that the phone lines were down, too. She knocked, images of Kyon going through her head. Kyon in his school uniform, the picture of Kyon in what Tsuruya called 'delinquent mode', Kyon smirking at her...

And then the door opened, and she saw something she had no idea how to react to. She knew that he mentioned that he took care of his cousins when he visited his family, but the sight of him wearing jeans, a sturdy-looking solid blue long-sleeved shirt, and a very durable (but obviously also worn) apron with a bright red letter 'K' sewn onto it... His typical unimpressed look aside, as he raised one eyebrow and studied her, she thought he could step into any day-care or preschool in the country, and be taken for one of the caretakers there.

Her carefully rehearsed explanation for being lost in the unexpected storm didn't come to her lips; all she could do was try and form words without voicing them, staring in surprise. He sighed quietly and shook his head, the tiniest hints of a smile showing around his eyes. "I should have figured," he said, instead of anything resembling a proper greeting. "Come on, get in out of the rain."


	18. Chapter 17

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Fanservice Arc III

Chapter Seventeen: Family Matters II

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Higurashi spoilers abound. Beware!

* * *

_"Title: Relations"_

_"Sun, sea, sky, river  
"Energy links to matter  
"Clearly connected_

_"Established by nature, _**_not_**_:  
"Structures formed by consciousness_

_"'Family' networks  
"Need not follow clear order  
"Ghost, friend; relative"_

_"Snow, Verses: A Compilation" - Comitted to record:2011.5.5_

* * *

"U...um," Haruhi finally managed.

Kyon gently took her wrist and tugged her into the house, where she saw a gaggle of children were clustered around the door leading to the entryway. She recognized Kyon's sister among them, before he said, "Wait here a moment," and stepped between them, vanishing into the interior.

The oldest looking girl, who Haruhi could only imagine as looking a lot like a younger Asakura Ryouko, narrowed her eyes at Haruhi suspiciously. There were two sets of twins; a duo of light green-haired little girls, and a darker green-haired boy and girl pair. Between them, a brown-haired girl and a light-blonde haired girl studied her intensely. To one side, Kyon's sister stood next to a younger boy with dusty blue hair.

"We should investigate," the little brown-haired girl said, nodding decisively.

"Interrogate!" corrected the blonde.

"Yes," the eldest girl agreed, smiling suspiciously.

"But," Haruhi protested, frowning as she dripped on the entryway floor, "you know me."

The children all looked at one-another, except for Kyon's sister, who nodded. "Yep! This is Haru-nee-san!" she explained.

"The girl who can't know that Kyon-nii-sama got kissed by that Tsuruya girl?" the purple haired girl asked, eyeing her sharply.

"Yeah," Kyon's sister agreed, pouting. "You're not very good at keeping secrets."

Haruhi stared incredulously at the group of children. Tsuruya ... kissing Kyon? That... But this wasn't the time to think about it. She filed the thought away for later consideration, hearing the sound of footsteps behind the children.

"You think?" Kyon asked with his typical dour tone, looking at the purple-haired girl with mild reproach. He shook his head and turned his attention back to Haruhi, handing her a towel.

"Commander!" the twin green-haired girls said in synchronization, while Haruhi belated started to dry herself off. "What do we do with the intruder?"

"Is she dangerous?" the male green-haired twin asked.

"Very," Kyon agreed. Haruhi broke from toweling her hair off long enough to scowl at him through it.

"Then why did we let her inside? Commander, this is a breach of our perimeter!" his sister protested.

"No, I get it," the brown-haired girl who had initially suggested investigating said, nodding slowly.

The other children turned to look at her. "Well?" asked the boy with dusty blue hair.

"She's from high command, obviously," she answered, shrugging her hands helplessly. "Wouldn't that explain why she's dangerous, but the commander let her inside anyway, I wonder, I wonder?"

"I still think she's a spy," the purple-haired girl said, eyeing Haruhi suspiciously. "We should interrogate, like Aiko-chan suggested."

"Nope," Kyon said, shaking his head. "Yurie-chan has it right. This is Haruhi, and she's my commander. Okay! Yurie-chan solved the mystery, and we've still got a schedule to keep - Yurie-chan is the girl's bath captain, so get to it!"

With practiced precision, all the girls except for the purple-haired one saluted Kyon sharply, and marched in perfect lockstep behind Yurie as she led the way deeper into the house.

"That's you too, Matsuri-chan," Kyon added, giving the reluctant girl a reassuring smile. "Go on, now."

Pouting, Matsuri looked at Haruhi mistrustfully. "I don't want to leave Commander Kyon-nii-sama alone with this big-chested interloper!" she protested. "She might try and seduce you away, nih-pah~!"

The dusty blue-haired boy gave Matsuri a skeptical look, and with great decorum noted, "Icky."

Finished toweling her hair dry, Haruhi had to struggle to keep from barking a laugh at that complaint. She had never thought of herself as particularly well-endowed ... though she supposed she was above average enough to inspire jealousy in a girl who couldn't be much older than twelve. "Matsuri-cha~an!" Yurie called from within, presumably wherever the bath was. "Aren't you coming?"

Grumbling, Matsuri trudged away, shooting one warning glare at Haruhi over her shoulder, and remarking, "Commander Kyon-nii-sama is mine!"

Kyon sighed and gestured Haruhi within, where the remaining two boys studied her skeptically. The green-haired one mused, "How come we never heard about her before, Commander?"

"I didn't think she'd come up here," he answered. "Alright. You two are on your own for a bit, and I know Shutaro's going to behave himself, so let me just remind you, Naota, that the Houjou twins are willing to face court-martial for your murder if you try peeking."

Shutaro's attention went immediately from Kyon to Naota. "Icky," he reminded the older boy. "Eww." Turning back to Kyon, he asked, "Can we watch a movie, Commander?"

"Not until after shift change."

"When's shift change?"

"After we get to take our baths," Naota said, frowning. Turning to Haruhi he said, "Will you play a board game with us?"

"Uh... Well," she began, before Kyon shook his head.

"She's going to want to talk to me while I'm in the kitchen," he said. He turned and walked through the living room, gesturing her to follow again. The boys sighed and went to the living room table, where a large heap of game boxes already sat, most of them opened and their contents scattered about.

Bemused, Haruhi followed him. There was a very small table in one corner of the kitchen, with a pair of western-style chairs, so she took one, draping her towel across the back and quirking an eyebrow when he turned his attention to the stove. "You can cook?" she asked, which she also realized was nothing remotely close to a proper greeting.

"A little," he allowed. "I'm probably about as good as my mother, which isn't saying much. Nowhere near as good as any of my aunts, and prize-winning compared to my uncle."

She snorted. If she hadn't just walked all the way from Okinomiya, she probably would have offered to help. As it was... "So, what's with the 'commander' business?"

"Today's game," he answered, stirring a pot of something. "Military theme. When the storm first started, Auntie Rika called to say that if it got really bad, they probably weren't going to come down from Auntie Mion's place, since the road can get pretty rough in bad weather. So, now we're besieged, and you're the first person to come in through the blockade."

"That's ... really cute," she finally managed, smirking at him.

"Thanks," he said, dryly. "Anyway, and more to the point, what are you doing in Hinamizawa?"

Shoving aside her exhaustion for the moment, she climbed to her feet and rolled up her sleeves, studying the pot. "I came up to check on you, obviously," she retorted, clicking her tongue at him. "You're stirring too fast for that temperature."

He snorted, slowing slightly as he checked the clock, then started the automated rice-cooker on the counter next to the stove. "It's just the broth," he noted. "But if you want to help, you can get the vegetables from the refrigerator. Um... Some mushrooms, bamboo shoots, a package of nori, and ... some frozen peas from the freezer."

"I know how to make oyako donburi," she remarked, gathering the ingredients he had requested. "What about everything else?"

"I'll take care of the meat in a bit," he remarked, spooning a small sample of the broth into a shallow tasting cup and blowing on it for a few seconds before cautiously testing it. "If you really want, you can prepare the eggs. The girls have to finish their baths before I can really start, and then I need to space it out so that I finish when Naota and Shutaro are done. Did you walk all the way here from Okinomiya? Because the bus isn't going to be running again tonight, and we can expect this storm to last until the early morning tomorrow, at least."

"I did," she admitted. "Does the phone still work?"

"Went out with the power," he acknowledged. "You're probably not going to get cell phone reception, either, but texts eventually get through."

"Oh," she said, frowning. She gave him some room to season the broth while texting Tsuruya and Mikuru, so they would know where she had gone. As he suggested, the text did finally go through, after complaining that it failed twice. After that she pocketed her phone, debating discussing it, or putting it off...

To take her mind off things, after he finished seasoning the broth, she found a cutting board and a large knife. He shrugged and started rinsing the vegetables for her. "So," she said, keeping her voice level, cutting up the mushrooms, "you and Tsuruya-san kissed?"

He winced, visible even from the corner of her eye. "Yeah," he admitted. "It was that Saturday that we..." He trailed off, glancing towards the living room to make sure no miniature eavesdroppers were in range. "After we fought the Sumiyoshi-rengo. Tsuruya-kun and her father came by, I guess because ... um ... technically, since I'm part of their organization now, and he's the family head. So, he wanted to thank me for helping Tsuruya-kun overcome her trial."

"Him wanting to thank you," she remarked, sliding the mushrooms into a bowl, "leads to you two kissing?" She shot him a dubious look as she began peeling the bamboo shoots.

He sighed. "It's not quite like that," he said. "I mean... It was very polite, and she was wearing a formal kimono. I met her bodyguard and everything. So, to try and assuage my parents, Tsuruya-kun's father bought my dad's company, and then Tsuruya-kun gave me a kiss on the cheek."

Haruhi felt instantly better about that. A kiss on the _cheek_, well... Then she frowned, as the last of the vegetables were sliced. Making everyone happy was going to be very difficult if her plans were constantly undermined by her own jealousy.

"I guess that serves me right for not telling you," he added. Like a shot, Matsuri appeared from the bathroom, dressed in loose fitting pajamas, and with her hair still dripping. "And maybe, just a little bit, for trusting my sister with that."

"Hey!" Kyon's sister protested from behind Matsuri, pouting. "I didn't break my promise!"

"Matsuri-chan," Kyon protested, frowning as he stirred the broth. "You didn't dry your hair properly."

"Commander Kyon-nii-sama can help me, then," she said stubbornly, holding a towel up in one hand. "I didn't trust you alone with him, nih-pah~!"

"Let me cook," Haruhi suggested. Matsuri provided a shining example of jealousy being disruptive ... even if it was kind of cute, in a way, that the girl were so fixated on her cousin. Still, if things were more serious, that wouldn't be an endearing trait at all... And she doubted it was 'cute' in her, either. After all, didn't both she and Kyon dislike tsundere characters?

"Alright," he allowed, taking the towel from the girl and clicking his tongue after looking over Matsuri's shoulder. "All through the living room... Imouto, would you please get the towel that Haruhi used, and mop up the floor?"

"Yes, Commander!" his sister cheered, smiling again as she followed his orders.

He really was good with children, she realized. It must be something to do with his deep patience, and almost eternally cool temper. There was nothing wrong with her being burning hot relative to him, but that flame of jealousy ... that needed to be overcome. But how could she just make herself not be jealous?

Sighing, she turned her attention to the cutting board, blinking to see that the brown-haired girl - Yurie - had somehow gotten there already and was expertly slicing the chicken while humming. "Hi!" she chirped, smiling brightly at Haruhi. "So, you're the high commander, I wonder, I wonder?"

"That's right," she agreed. "I left my arm-band of rank at headquarters, but Kyon left his, too; he's my trusted vice-commander!"

"I'm Ryuguu Yurie," the girl added. "Nice to meet you, High Commander!"

"Suzumiya Haruhi," she introduced herself in turn. "So, is Kyon taking good care of you?"

"The commander is our favorite," she said confidently, beaming an even brighter smile at Haruhi. "So, you'd better treat him well, or we'll call Oyashiro-sama's curse down on you!"

Haruhi tried to ignore just how unsettling that remark was, and ladled some of the broth into a sauce-pan. "Who is Oyashiro?" she asked.

"Oyashiro-sama," Yurie corrected her, setting the knife down as the last of the chicken was sliced, then moving to wash her hands carefully. "One must always respect him ... those who don't become..." She trailed off, and smiled at Haruhi again.

"...demoned away," the twin green-haired girls completed ominously from the doorway to the kitchen.

Yes, Haruhi decided, Kyon's patience was verging on sainthood if he took care of children like this so comfortably. There it was again; his 'normal person' status being oddly refuted by his amazing ability to take seemingly _anything_ in stride.

* * *

After helping the overly clingy Matsuri with her hair, Kyon routed Naota and Shutaro into the bath, then returned to the kitchen. From past experiences involving the bentos Haruhi regularly brought him, and her cooking during the SOS Brigade's Christmas party, he knew she was very skilled, so none of the children should have anything to complain about. He had a suspicion that Rika's daughter was going to disagree on that one, though.

"Okay," he said, draping Matsuri's towel over her head like a hood. "Come on, team; let's give the high commander some space."

Haruhi looked over her shoulder and nodded, as the Houjou and Sonozaki twins bounced out of the kitchen and back into the living room. Yurie and Aiko remained, Yurie rummaging for dishes while the blonde girl grabbed place settings and napkins.

"Kyon," Haruhi called, stirring the saucepan's contents, "help me out; take those bowls from Yurie-chan."

Quickly, they formed an assembly line. Kyon filled bowls with rice, Haruhi served the donburi over the top, and then Yurie and Aiko ferried the filled bowls to the living room table. As Kyon naturally expected, Haruhi's judgment was perfect, every single bit of cooked food served up, leaving only a spare serving of rice or two. "So," he said, while they set the pot and saucepan in the sink, "I don't think you want to try walking back to Okinomiya in the rain. Is there anyone who can give you a ride, or do you need to stay here tonight?"

"Wah!" Matsuri protested from the doorway with a scowl. "I have my eye on you, big-chested seductress!"

"Don't speak of your high commander in such a way," Kyon warned her, raising one eyebrow.

She pouted fiercely, and Haruhi gave her an odd look, smiling strangely.

"Um," Haruhi said, turning to face him, but not meeting his eyes. "I didn't really think about that... I guess with so many other girls here, I'd be safe... Well, I'm sure Matsuri-chan here will protect me from you being a pervert."

"That's right!" Matsuri said, nodding fiercely. "Commander Kyon-nii-sama will only do such things with his one true love; me!"

"What do you think I am, some anime character with no self control?" he retorted. "Come on, am I really like that?"

"No," Matsuri admitted with a pout.

"Well, okay," Haruhi allowed. "Thanks, then, for letting me stay here. Your aunt and uncle won't be upset, will they?"

"I think I can explain things to my aunt," he replied, smirking. Naturally, given that he expected Hanyuu was watching him and the children anyway, she probably _already_ knew. Interestingly, he realized that if she wanted to, Rika could just relay a message to him via Hanyuu and Yuki. He tried not to think about that for the moment.

"Okay," he said, after drying his hands and tucking the hand-towel into an apron pocket. Shutaro and Naota emerged from the bathroom and streaked to the table. "Everyone, be sure to thank your high commander for cooking this dinner for us."

"Thank you!" the children chorused together, as he and Haruhi sat at the table, Matsuri forcing her way between them and shooting the older girl a wary, distrustful look.

"Movie?" Shutaro asked, pleadingly.

Kyon checked the clock and nodded. "Alright," he agreed. "We can watch a movie after dinner, but then I have to shut the generator off, and it's time for bed. What did you want to watch?"

After brief, heated debate, the children finally settled on Howl's Moving Castle, Kyon's little sister and Aiko pushing for it and just beating out Matsuri's proposed viewing of Ponyo.

Evidently Haruhi hadn't seen the movie, because she watched it just as avidly as the children. He crept out near the movie's climax, having seen it before, and changed the water in the gas-heated bath before the movie ended, also setting his spare pajamas and a towel out. He returned in time to catch the final scene before the movie ended and turned on a pair of battery-powered lanterns, setting one on the living room table, and the other in the bathroom.

"Okay," he ordered, shutting off the television, "time to brush teeth." The children obediently trooped off, and he warned them, "I'm shutting the generator down, so make sure all the lights are turned off, already."

Haruhi looked at him quizzically, but he gestured her to wait at the table; the rain hadn't lessened much at all. After removing his apron and borrowing his uncle's heavy coat from the front closet, he trudged through the downpour to the generator with a flashlight and shut it down, following the instructions that his uncle had drilled him with in previous years. By the time he had returned to the house and shook himself off, he was thoroughly soaked, though not as badly as Haruhi had been.

The children lined up for inspection, already in their pajamas, much to Haruhi's amusement. He escorted them to their respective rooms, only Matsuri stubbornly resisting. The Houjou twins and Makoto took over Shutaro's room, while his sister, Matsuri, Yurie, and Aiko used Matsuri's room; the boys would be sharing the guest bedroom with him. "You'll have to stay in the living room," he told Haruhi apologetically.

"If you sneak into Kyon-nii-sama's room tonight, it's the _death penalty_, nih-pah~!" Matsuri warned with an evil gleam in her eyes.

"Me sneak into his room?" Haruhi asked doubtfully. "I don't see that happening."

"Icky!" Shutaro yelled from the guest bedroom. "I won't allow it!"

"Anyway, she's more likely to give me the death penalty as it is," Kyon commented, smiling as he rolled his eyes. "Plus, Shutaro's going to keep guard over me to protect me from getting cooties."

"That's right!" Shutaro yelled. "Cousin Kyon is too cool to be drawn to the girl side!"

Matsuri pouted fiercely, before struggling to try and hide a yawn. Haruhi had to struggle to keep from smirking.

"Alright, come on, I'm putting you to bed," he said insistently, walking her to her own room and tucking her in. He waited a minute for her to grumblingly doze off, then returned to the living room. "There's a change of clothes and a towel in the bathroom," he told Haruhi. "But the water won't stay hot forever, so you'll probably want to hurry."

"Um," she managed, nodding. "Er... Come with me."

He blinked at her. "I'm pretty sure if I do, it's the death penalty."

She scowled. "Not to take a bath," she snapped, blushing faintly and looking away. "Just ... sit outside the door, so we can talk."

After raising an eyebrow at her, he shrugged. "Okay," he allowed. She went to the bathroom and left the door open a crack, though with the inner door, he wouldn't be able to see inside to the washing area anyway. He sat in the hallway and knuckled back a yawn, leaning against the wall near the doorway. He tried to ignore the sounds of Haruhi undressing and splashing as she washed herself, then settled into the water.

"So," her voice came from within, "is your family treating you better here than at home?"

"Without a doubt," he agreed, nodding. "Auntie Rika has been really supportive, and I actually kind of like taking care of my cousins." In a way, the responsibility of taking care of the children, with so little in the way of horrific consequences was a relief from the stress that he occasionally encountered in the SOS Brigade. Not that it was always that bad, but...

"That storm came on really fast," she said after a quiet moment, splashing softly. "Does that happen a lot?"

"In spring," he agreed. "It turned really fast, but they usually only last a day at most. If you'd come up two days ago, on Monday, you would have seen a truly sweltering day. It was pretty well-timed; we got to go to the water park."

He heard her laugh softly. "At least you're getting to have fun," she remarked. "My parents are all bent out of shape because of corporate restructuring. My dad's company got bought out by another company, and it turned out to be a problem for my mom, too. So all I got was to see another game at Koushien stadium, but..."

He frowned. Was it possible... "Did your father work for Nishinomiya Heavy Industries?" he asked cautiously.

"Yeah!" she said, with another surprised splash. "How did you know? Don't tell me you actually follow financial news!?"

"Is it that out of character for me to be informed?" he asked dryly.

"Well ... yeah, actually. I think so."

"Gee, thanks," he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sounds more like you weren't paying attention, to me. They were bought by the Tsuruya Corporation. Isn't that funny? My father worked for Nishinomiya Heavy, too."

Haruhi said nothing for a moment, then there was a louder splash and a curse. "Is this your fault, somehow?" she asked sharply. "I have a hard time seeing Tsuruya-san being behind it!"

"Ah... Yeah, the day that Tsuruya-kun kissed me, her father, Tsuruya-sama, tried to hire my dad. My dad wouldn't leave his company, so ... Tsuruya-sama bought his company and moved him over."

"And that wasn't worth mentioning!?"

"Which part bothered you more?" he retorted. "Tsuruya-kun kissing me on the cheek, or her father buying the company our dads both worked for? Anyway, I thought Tsuruya-kun would have mentioned that in her report to you."

She grumbled something incomprehensible, then climbed out of the bath, muttering. "Alright," she admitted. "Maybe my priorities were a bit strange on that count. I got ... distracted by something and never finished reading it. Still, he bought the company? Just like that?"

"Evidently," Kyon agreed. He heard the whispering of cloth sliding across skin for a quiet moment. "I think it was because they were trying to help me out with my parents, and that seemed the best 'reward' they could give, without explaining to my parents, 'by the way, your son joined our organized crime syndicate, and has mysteriously gotten _really good_ at breaking noses, a trait which we admire'." Though, he thought on reflection, their actual explanation was _not_ far off from that.

"On ... that Saturday?" Haruhi mused, her voice muffled as she pulled his pajama shirt on. She suddenly fell silent, and he could hear nothing but the slow drip of the faucet into the tub. "Oh, _damn_ it!"

"Watch your language," he chided. "There are children around. Anyway, what's this about?"

"I ... just realized that ... it was all _my_ fault. After you told me you got grounded, uh, I texted Tsuruya-san and told her ... to fix it ... and I guess..."

"...that's what she came up with to 'fix' things," he completed, nodding. It did make a certain amount of sense.

"Dang," she grumbled, sliding the door open and stepping out, pulling at the pants legs of his pajamas. He glanced at her, strangely very cute in his too-large clothes. She opened her mouth to comment, and he quickly interjected.

"My legs are longer than you thought?" he asked, smirking.

She looked at him curiously. "How did you know I was going to say that?"

"Ah, in that other world last December, your other self borrowed my track outfit to sneak into our school, and you - she said the same thing."

Frowning, she nodded. "I guess that makes a certain degree of sense," she remarked. "Anyway, you probably should hurry while the water's still warm."

"Right," he agreed, stepping into the bathroom as they switched places.

Strangely, he felt like he was being watched more than he had lately... Yuki was still watching, most likely, but he was _sure_ that she wouldn't actually peek on him in the bath. Hanyuu was undoubtedly above such things as a god. And he couldn't really imagine Haruhi doing it, after all the grief she gave him... Trying to ignore the feeling, he stripped and walked from the changing room to the washroom, pausing only long enough to hang Haruhi's discarded clothes on the drying rack so she could wear them again in the morning.

* * *

Haruhi swallowed, her face bright red as she leaned back against the wall and furtively glanced down the hallway. No sign of Matsuri's jealous stare or childish outrage; she'd gotten away with it cleanly. Well, that was fine. She'd given Kyon _plenty_ of opportunities to peek while she was undressing. She'd be shocked if he hadn't taken at least _one_ of them. Anyway, that made her more even with Tsuruya, in her mind. Especially that part where he'd bent over to pick up the clothes she'd forgotten, and-

"T...this is nice," she said, fanning her face with one hand when she heard him finish splashing himself with a wash bucket, and actually climb into the tub.

"What, talking like this?" he asked.

"Yeah! You think so too, right?"

"Yeah," he agreed, sounding surprisingly relaxed about it. "Actually, it really is."

"I...I'm glad that I found you, then," she said, smiling. "Man, Golden Week was so _boring_ until Tsuruya mentioned she had something to do up here!"

"She did?" he asked. "Huh ... I suppose that means I should expect a text message from her soon, then."

On that note... Haruhi checked her own phone, not surprised to see that she'd missed the notification, but gotten a text from Tsuruya. A voice-mail, too, but with the unbelievably crappy reception, she wouldn't be able to check it until she was in Okinomiya anyway. The text was a simple: "Okies~! :3 Take care; you worried us when you ran off like that! Tell Kyon-kun that Mikuru-chan and I say hello~! :D"

She wondered if Tsuruya used a more serious tone when she messaged Kyon about his 'work'. "H...hey, Kyon..."

"Yeah?"

"Do... Do you think that Tsuruya-san would let me, um, join you guys?" she asked, trying to keep her uncertainty from her voice. "I mean... I don't... I don't like being left out, and you're doing really big, important-seeming things with her family."

Kyon splashed in the bathtub, and she imagined him scratching the back of his neck. "I don't know," he finally said. "I mean, she'd probably let you join if you asked. Yeah; I don't think she'd say 'no'. If it weren't for the fact that she'd feel like she was stepping on your toes, she'd probably want to bring Nagato in, too, if for nothing else than to thank her for the help, that day... And to be honest, without Nagato, that could have ended up really badly for us."

"But?"

"But ... she couldn't bring you into her family as her superior. So, you'd be her subordinate in those matters."

"Would I be your subordinate?" she wondered.

"Um ... as I understand the hierarchy, it depends. Basically, she's decided that I'm her chief advisor. If you were made my subordinate, that would make you an accountant, or a lower-ranked advisor. She could also make you an enforcer of equal rank to me, or another saiko komon in charge of other subordinates. Is that something you really want?"

She bit her lip. It would keep her in the loop, so to speak... And it wasn't like Tsuruya was untrustworthy, or would make a bad superior, but... "Would I be her subordinate completely?" she asked. "I mean ... I don't think I could just hand the brigade over to her, as much as I like her." She already felt like she was losing ground to the other girls as it was; she couldn't become like Yuki, and time travelers seemed to have excruciatingly strict codes of behavior.

"I'm not really sure. Tsuruya-kun's pretty reasonable, I think, so I doubt she'd try and just replace you like that. Maybe you should talk to her about it?"

Maybe that made her situation a bit pathetic, she thought. Kanae and Mikuru, along with Yuki, let Kyon have access to his instant mastery, allowing him to become a fierce martial artist in a matter of days. Tsuruya and Koizumi had connections and wealth, pulling strings to get Kyon out of most of the trouble he'd gotten in, and money besides... Or was her reluctance to let go of that just being petty? All she really brought to the table was an unreliable power that had to be regulated, caused Yuki trouble...

She hadn't even realized that she was sinking into a depression until she felt Kyon tap her shoulder, leaning down to look at her with concern. "Are you alright?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"I...it's nothing," she managed, forcing a smile.

He gave her a stern, skeptical look.

"W...well, I," she began before grimacing and shaking her head. "Ah, don't worry about it. I probably won't ask her, after all." Which made her something of a coward, she thought, as he shrugged.

"Alright, for now," he allowed. "Anyway, since you came all the way here, did you want to talk about anything else, or go to bed?"

"We should get some sleep," she decided. "As tempting as it is to ask you about this 'Oyashiro-sama' character on a dark, stormy night..." She shrugged back, barely suppressing the urge to shiver nervously.

"Okay," he agreed. "Let's see if I can't scare up some bedding for you."

* * *

The Sonozaki house was well suited to handle power outages from storms, since they could be counted on to happen two or three times a year, especially in winter and spring. When the storm had started, Keiichi had made noises along the lines of heading back down the mountain, but Rika was confident that Kyon could handle things. The other women had naturally agreed; this wouldn't be the first time that Kyon had taken care of the children during a power outage.

After listening to the women agree that it should be fine, Keiichi joked that it probably wouldn't be the last time, either. Rika knew from Hanyuu's periodic updates that things were fine, and also knew about Haruhi appearing. Well, she trusted her nephew enough to expect he wouldn't do anything inappropriate... And, anyway, he knew that both Hanyuu and his friend Yuki were watching him, so she doubted he would try anything, even if he _did_ succumb to temptation.

So she told the other women, after the Sonozaki estate switched to generator power, that Kyon and the children were probably fine, and as they always did, they respected her 'intuition'. Which seemed fine, to her. Still, since they were isolated from the children, and aside from an emergency radio, cut off from the outside world, the late-night games had become increasingly silly as Mion introduced sake and 'penalty drinks'. Shion and Satoshi, predicting how the games were going to turn out, excused themselves to their own guest room, exchanging knowing snickers before shutting the door.

From there, Keiichi immediately took the lead, always holding his liquor the best, until Rena countered her bankruptcy by gambling articles of clothing. Satoko and Mion readily joined, and Rika conceded and did the same to avoid penalty drinks, wanting Hanyuu to be relatively unscathed to watch over the children. Naturally, Keiichi's concentration, gaming skill, and wardrobe plummeted to negligible levels accordingly.

Morning found Hanyuu staring down at her from overhead with shadowed eyes, bags beneath them. "Bleah," she announced. Somewhat testily, she added, "My head hurts, it is so."

Rika rolled her eyes, pulling her arm free from beneath Satoko as the blonde woman snored, buzz-saw like, into her ear. How had she slept through that, anyway? She sat up, squinting, but outside of Satoko and Hanyuu, the room was empty. Guessing what she would find, she tiptoed to Mion's room, where the door was already open a crack.

Keiichi was sound asleep, Rena and Mion clutched onto either side of him. "I guess a 'three-way' tie really means more, sometimes," Rika managed, amused despite the mild hangover that Hanyuu was fussing about. She headed to the kitchen, intending to make breakfast for everyone, but Shion was already there, cooking happily with a too-wide smile on her face.

Rika wordlessly went to the coffee machine and started it up. "Good morning~!" Shion chirped, intentionally loudly. "How are _you_ doing this glorious, resplendent day?"

"Fine," she returned. "I'm not as hungover as you seem to hope."

Shion stuck her tongue out at Rika.

"Now, what's with that smile? Miiii~! Should Azusa and Yoko be expecting a new little brother or sister, soon?"

"If not, it isn't for lack of trying," Shion returned, waggling her eyebrows. "He's still recovering!"

Rika smirked, helping Shion with the kitchen chores until the coffee machine chirped. Keiichi and Satoshi stumbled into the room as if summoned by the chime, both wearing robes and with roughly identically bedraggled hair in their respective shades. "Coffee," they moaned in synch, zombie-like.

Rolling her eyes, Rika watched the pair good-naturedly jostle one-another to compete for access to the machine, until they had both managed to slurp down their drink before they regarded one-another warily.

"Good morning, dearest," Shion cheered. "Rested well?"

"I'm good," Satoshi said, grinning. "You?"

"Fine, of course~!"

When the men thought she wasn't looking, Rika caught the way that Keiichi and Satoshi both made fists of their right hands, and bumped them together, sharing knowing nods and nearly matching grins. Men? More like boys, she thought, rolling her eyes again.

"And how are you this morning, Kei-chan?" she asked her husband.

"Better," he said, raising the empty coffee mug in salute. "Looks like the rain's stopped. Is the power back on?"

"Not yet," Shion answered. "We're still on the generator for the moment, but they don't usually take long."

"Right," Keiichi agreed, eyeing the cooking breakfast. "Well, we should probably make haste back home; Kyon's being paid by the hour."

"It's highway robbery, is what it is," Satoshi remarked, grimacing. "Eight hundred yen an hour? Per twin? That nephew of yours has become totally mercenary."

"Oh, yeah," Keiichi agreed, carefully not meeting Satoshi's eyes. "That's how much it costs. Of course, good luck getting Imouto to pay for Kyon watching his little sister."

"How is that bi- um, charming sister of yours, anyway?" Shion asked, while Rena and Satoko bumbled into the room and sat at the table wearily.

Keiichi snorted, rolling his eyes. "You know Imouto; she doesn't change much."

"I'm telling you, I know what her problem is, and going to a hotel once or twice a week would make her much happier," Shion opined, waggling her eyebrows again. "It's not like Kyon can't handle watching over Nonoko-chan."

Frowning, Keiichi admitted, "You may be right, but just _you_ try telling her that."

"Ugh, no thanks!" Shion said, shaking her head. "Okay, you've made your point."

Keiichi shrugged helplessly. "She'll grow up some day. Hopefully."

Satoshi nodded his agreement before walking to his sister's side and checking her condition.

"My head's killing me," Mion groaned, staggering into the room and slumping to sit at the table heavily. "Kei-chan, Rika-chan ... if I don't make it ... I'm leaving the household to Makoto-chan."

"Good morning nee-chan!" Shion boomed, slamming the skillet of eggs loudly onto the table. "How are you doing today?"

"Please, where are my henchmen when I need them?" Mion whimpered, clutching her head. Satoko and Rena likewise flinched away, but with less exaggerated reactions. "What did I _do_ last night?"

Rena blushed wordlessly, lowering her face, while Satoko began alternately snickering and wincing.

"Coffee for the ladies," Satoshi and Keiichi said in tandem.

* * *

Rika pondered what had gone undiscussed, namely that uncomfortable issue of the reason why Kyon's mother was so hard on him. Still, that could be handled in a discussion with her; Kyon would probably be happier not knowing, all things considered.

After parking, Keiichi hummed quietly to himself, opening the door and calling out, "Hello, kiddies!"

Rika stepped in, not at all surprised to see Kyon's friend Haruhi sitting at the table with the children, looking half guilty and half surprised. Kyon raised a hand in greeting, setting down his cards. "You missed breakfast," he said, apologetically. "Did you guys have fun last night?"

"Naturally," Keiichi agreed, switching to his house shoes, and blinking at Haruhi. "Oh, ah ... a friend of Kyon's, perhaps?"

"Yeah," Kyon said, chuckling ruefully. "Um, Uncle Keiichi, Aunt Rika, this is my friend and classmate, Suzumiya Haruhi. Haruhi, this is my aunt and uncle, Fuurude Keiichi and Fuurude Rika."

"Nice to meet you, Suzumiya," Keiichi said affably. "You must have just come in this morning; the road from Okinomiya is clear, then?"

"Um," Haruhi managed, her face reddening as she laughed nervously. "A...actually, I got in last night."

"The big-chested interloper stayed _here_ last night," Matsuri said smugly. "Kyon-nii-sama was ensorcelled, though; it wasn't his fault!"

"Oh, is that so?" Rika replied thoughtfully. Already knowing the answer, she asked Shutaro, "Was everyone well behaved, Shu-chan?"

"No ickiness to report, Mom," Shutaro said, nodding in conviction.

Matsuri scowled, shooting her younger brother a dark look.

"Well, that's fine, then," Keiichi said, undisturbed. "You'd have to look after your friend after last night's weather, wouldn't you?"

"I'd imagine so," Rika agreed, before Kyon could answer. "Well, unfortunately, Kei-chan's going to need to head back to the Sonozaki estate to take care of some work. Kyon, do you think you and Suzumiya-chan could do me a favor?"

"Probably," he said, looking at the girl warily.

Placing her hands together pleadingly, Rika asked, "It's a bit of an imposition, but could you walk the Houjou twins home?"

"Oh, yeah, that shouldn't be a problem," he agreed, narrowing his eyes and looking at the light-green-haired girls. Haruhi nodded her agreement. "Provided that I don't fall into a pit trap on the way there."

Haruhi blinked and looked at Kyon doubtfully. Azusa and Yoko both managed to look almost angelically innocent.

Rika giggled, ducking her head. "Don't dare let your uncle Satoshi forget to pay you," she added. "You've earned that, you know."

"No problem," he assured her. Turning to the children, he called out, "Okay! Team Houjou, assemble!"

Azusa and Yoko jumped to their feet and twirled around in almost matching pirouettes. "Time to go home~!" they sang in chorus.

While the twins grabbed their bags, Keiichi grinned and asked, "Did everyone have a good time here last night?"

"Yes!" the children cheered together, throwing back perfectly matching grins, except for the Houjou twins and Kyon's sister. Rika saw the way that Haruhi started, catching it, but said nothing.

Rika watched the quartet leave thoughtfully, Kyon only pausing long enough to remove his caretaker's apron and hang it in the hall closet. Haruhi glanced nervously back at her and Keiichi for some reason, probably afraid that she would tell Kyon's mother, and also suspicious of the familial resemblance among the children.

In the secret language that husbands and wives (and in Keiichi and Rika's case, certain other women) shared, Rika shot Keiichi a warning glance, one that said, "Your sister cannot know about this."

He gave her back a look that said, "Tell me about it."

Clapping his hands together, he gave the kids another grin and said, "Okay, I've got to get dressed for work and find my business papers. You kids all behave, alright?"

"Okay!" they cheered back.

Rika mused over Haruhi's evident perception... She was reasonably sure that Kyon himself didn't know, given that he'd grown up with their situation, so it didn't seem abnormal to him. It might be problematic if Haruhi saw it and figured things out... Then again, she thought, suddenly brightening, it could also be a very good opportunity for the girl. She might learn a thing or two. Once Keiichi was out of earshot, she said, "Kyon and his friend are going to walk you all home, so you have some time to play games before they get back, alright?"

* * *

After walking the twin girls to their own house, Haruhi thought back to what she had seen. Azusa and Yoko took after their parents, undoubtedly. Their hair was even a smooth blend of her green hair, and his blond hair. Not that such a thing was in any way unreasonable. Kyon collected his payment from his 'uncle' Satoshi, and they started walking back to the Fuurude household.

"Kyon, how exactly are you related to that aunt and uncle?" she wondered.

"I'm not," he admitted, shrugging. "The family's just really close friends. Even though there's a lot of 'aunts' in this town, I'm not related to any of them - except Aunt Rika, by marriage to Uncle Keiichi."

"Close friends," she mused, pondering in silence the rest of the way back. He gave her one curious look, but didn't say anything, seeming to prefer the quiet. After they got home, Rika unsurprisingly foisted another 'cousin' off onto the pair, Aiko, and they walked her home, too.

The dark blonde-haired girl hummed and skipped, singing the theme song from some anime she watched, hand-in-hand with Kyon and Haruhi, demanding that the pair swing her through the air every so often. That was kind of fun, Haruhi admitted, but mostly she was interested in meeting the girl's mother.

'Aunt' Satoko was an attractive blonde woman, and even though Keiichi wasn't around for a direct comparison, Haruhi was reasonably sure that Aiko looked an awful lot like both of them. Satoko insisted they both come into her house, which suited Haruhi just fine. She wasn't an expert on the subject, but while Satoko gave them cookies and glasses of lemonade, she was absolutely positive that there was no sign of a husband anywhere. No conspicuous man of the appropriate age on the family shrine, and every picture was either of Aiko, Satoko, the pair of them...

There were group pictures, pictures of friends lining an otherwise empty shelf between rows of books; pictures of _Keiichi_, Shion with an identical woman (what, _more_ twins!?), Rika, an unfamiliar woman with brown hair who reminded Haruhi of a less curvy yet older Mikuru with shorter hair, and Satoshi, who she realized was Satoko's brother once she got a proper introduction. They shared the same last name, and quite obviously weren't married.

They made some small talk, and Satoko asked Haruhi about her relationship with Kyon. He studiously pretended he was deaf, playing with Aiko while Haruhi tried not to refute that anything of the sort was happening like a stereotypical tsundere. She managed to admit that they were close in a mumbling, quiet voice, and Satoko winked at her, giving a thumbs-up while Kyon wasn't paying attention.

After _that_, just to be sure, she asked on the walk back, "Is your aunt Satoko a single mother?"

"Yep," Kyon answered, absently. "Happens a lot in villages like this."

She tried not to stare at him incredulously. Was he obtuse, or just oblivious?

Rika's next assignment saw them walking Yurie to her mother, and Haruhi was reasonably sure she'd had the pattern figured out. Sure enough, the same comparisons between Keiichi and Rena applied to Yurie. Rena, too, demanded that Haruhi and Kyon come in for a cup of green tea and some freshly made ohagi. The woman squealed delightedly at seeing Haruhi, telling her in no uncertain terms that if she were any cuter, she would 'take her home' before unsubtly asking if she was 'interested' in Kyon.

She felt very uncomfortable at that and managed to smile, wondering briefly how Mikuru felt when she-

Kyon's miraculous deafness returned, while Yurie made him look at a recently written manuscript from her mother.

Forcing her attention to more investigative matters, her casual inspection of Rena's living room turned up similar clues to those found in Satoko's house. Namely, no husband, but pictures of Keiichi and the other 'aunts'.

Walking back, having trouble believing what she was seeing, she asked, "I'm guessing Rena's another one of those village single mothers?"

"Yep," Kyon answered, nodding, looking at her sidelong. "What, you think it's suspicious?"

"You don't?" she returned dryly.

"Bah, this from the girl who's annoyed that crabs evolved shells to avoid being eaten," he chided her with a roll of his eyes. "It's perfectly logical; it's a trying situation, so naturally they would band together."

She considered some of the childhood pictures she had seen on display; quite obviously, they hadn't just become close _after_ becoming unwed mothers. She was having a lot of trouble applying 'single' to them in her mind, now. "Oh, yeah," she said, borrowing his own deadpan. "That does make perfect sense."

He gave her a quizzical look before shrugging, changing the subject. "I've been learning swordsmanship, since you demanded it," he said, smirking. "It seemed a better idea than breaking into the sealed storehouse in the shrine."

With utter disgust, she realized that as fascinating as the prospect of this 'sealed' building in the shrine should have been, she was far too distracted by the evident bigamy that Kyon was utterly failing to notice.

Arriving at the Fuurude home once more, and completely unsurprising to either of them, they were asked to escort the Sonozaki twins home. As far as Haruhi could tell, the twins could easily have ridden back with Keiichi, since he had headed there anyway. Was Kyon's aunt sending her an unsubtle message? _That_ was disconcerting.

That walk was the longest. By the time they arrived, Mion insisted that they stay for lunch, and Keiichi allowed the twin boy and girl to tackle him to the floor and rough-house while Mion served them sandwiches and cool tea. She didn't see any pictures on display in the rooms of the large house that she and Kyon walked through, but that ended up not actually mattering. With Keiichi actually in the room for easy comparison, Haruhi had to struggle to keep from screaming at how dense Kyon was to not _notice_.

But instead of standing and berating his uncle for being such a bigamist, Kyon casually discussed Keiichi's plan to take him fishing on Friday, the next day. The man explained that the fishing trip was Rika's idea, saying that some 'male bonding' time wouldn't hurt with a chuckle, and adding that Shutaro, Naota, and (evidently a tomboy) Makoto would be joining them. After that came the unpleasant warning that Kyon's parents would be arriving sometime in the evening after the fishing trip, which caused Kyon to nod solemly, and Haruhi to make a mental note to be nowhere nearby when it happened.

Once lunch was finished, Keiichi apologized, saying he needed to prepare for a business meeting of some sort, and turned to his paperwork. Haruhi wasn't certain why they had bothered taking the Sonozaki twins there, given that they then needed to be escorted _back_ to the Fuurude home... Keiichi didn't remark on it, and she doubted that Mion never got to see her children - though, she _too_ teased Haruhi about her relationship with Kyon... For being unrelated, they really _did_ act like they were his aunts, every one of them.

So, they walked back, Naota and Makoto chasing one-another ahead a short distance. "I shouldn't even ask," Haruhi commented. "But, really ... her too?"

"Yeah," Kyon answered, giving her a funny look. "It's not like it's problematic for them, you know. Aunt Rena writes mystery novels, just like Grandmother and Grandfather Maebara did. Aunt Satoko makes logic puzzles for a bunch of gaming magazines, and Aunt Mion..." He frowned. "Actually," he admitted, "I'm not sure what she does. I think it's real estate; she owns several of the mountains around here. But, I guess they're happy out here because it lets them avoid big city prejudices."

"Right," she said, not actually agreeing. They had all obviously _lived_ here, not _moved_ to avoid persecution or hide their shame. He shrugged at her, pulling his phone from his pocket when it chirped. "Huh, Tsuruya-kun just texted me," he commented. "Ah, no, crappy reception. Looks like she texted me an hour ago." He pondered briefly, studying the phone, then shrugged. "No rest for the wicked. I'll need to come up with an excuse for Aunt Rika, but it looks like Tsuruya-kun wants my help for some meeting or another tonight."

Haruhi shook her head, trying to dismiss her lingering confusion and annoyance. "Anyway," she said, "given that all the unwed mothers have interesting careers, what does your aunt Rika do?"

"She's the official caretaker of the Fuurude shrine," he explained. "Actually, Uncle Keiichi ended up having to take her family name when they married, though that's a longstanding tradition for the village. The Fuurude family has always tended the shrine, and Aunt Rika mentioned to me once that the firstborn heirs for the last eight generations have all been girls. Hey, before you get the idea of breaking into that sealed storeroom ... you'd better talk to her about the legends of Oyashiro-sama."

"Oh, great," she answered. "That's _exactly_ what I wanted to talk with her about!"

"I can read you like a book," he said, smirking, though his eyes were on the twins ahead of them.

"Yeah," she said, giving him a hooded stare, still not actually agreeing with him. "I must be pretty obvious to you."

He briefly looked very satisfied with himself before frowning. "Oh, crap, I didn't bring a suit with me. Hmm, I do have my Tsuruya family pin..." He shook his head and quickly started texting back. "Man, I hate to impose, but Tsuruya-kun usually has a lot of foresight about these things. I hope she brought me a spare..."

* * *

Rika could tell by the way that Haruhi was eyeing her once she and Kyon had returned from the Sonozaki estate with Makoto and Naota that she had figured something out. Now, gods willing, she could arrange somehow to talk privately with the girl and explain how things could be. "Hey, Auntie Rika," Kyon greeted her, standing in the doorway and looking a bit sheepish. "Um ... another friend from town - she actually came up with Haruhi - wanted to meet with me tonight to take care of ... something. Would it be a huge problem if I were to visit with her a bit?"

Hanyuu looked very thoughtful. "Fortune smiles upon us today," she remarked, giving a sage nod.

"Oh, that's no problem at all," Rika assured him. Turning to Haruhi, she asked, "Would you like to stay with us until Kyon and your other friend are finished, Suzumiya-chan?"

"Ah, yeah, that might be fun, but I can't just leave Mikuru-chan at the hotel all alone," Haruhi demurred.

"Asahina-san's here?" Kyon asked, surprised.

"Yeah, me, Tsuruya-san, and Mikuru-chan all came up together," Haruhi agreed.

"Oh, but ... wouldn't your friend Asahina want to see Kyon too?" Rika asked, tapping her bottom lip thoughtfully.

"W...well, yeah," Haruhi allowed, hiding a grimace. Then she shook her head. "Yeah," she said more firmly. "You're right. Um ... I guess I'll ask Tsuruya-san to drop her off before she and Kyon head out." Oh, that self-depreciating look... Rika remembered it from how clumsily things were managed when Mion and Keiichi began to grow close, and she'd nearly ruined everything before... Well, hopefully with some guidance and wisdom, she could spare her nephew and this girl much of that same hurt.

Plus, she'd get to meet a time traveler. That sounded interesting, at the very least.

"Let's do that!" Rika said cheerfully. "Won't that be such fun?"

"Y...yeah," Haruhi agreed.

"Dang reception," Kyon muttered, shaking his phone with an annoyed grimace. "Are the phone lines back up?"

"Naturally!" Rika answered. "That's how I called Kei-chan to suggest your little fishing trip tomorrow! And of course you can use it, Kyon."

"Thanks," he said, relieved as he headed over to the phone to call Tsuruya's hotel.

Haruhi still looked vaguely haunted, but Rika was confident that things would work out. Once Kyon was off the phone and Haruhi was distracted with the children, she pulled him aside and asked in a quiet tone, "Kyon, if I wanted to discuss something very important with Suzumiya-chan, how would you suggest I open the subject with her?"

"She's fascinated with the supernatural and unusual," he answered without hesitation. "If you can extend your protection and show her the interior of that spooky storehouse, she'd follow you to the ends of the earth to get to it."

Unusual ... but that would work, and have the added benefit of being some place that they absolutely would _not_ be followed. "Good," she decided. "Well, be sure to have fun with your friend tonight!"

His smile faded, and he nodded. "Hopefully," he agreed.

* * *

Luck was with Kyon, for once. Somehow, he had an odd feeling that things were going to work out. Haruhi seemed distracted by the promise of seeing the occult, and Oyashiro's legend had managed to subdue her manic cheer to mortal, reasonable levels without totally crushing her curiosity. Tsuruya in fact _did_ have an extra suit for him. He was going to get a chance to see Mikuru again, too - always a plus.

Matsuri was behaving better, constraining her cousin-infatuation to mumbled asides in Rika's presence. His sister was quietly thoughtful, hopefully reflecting on the virtue of keeping secrets. If Kanae were there to pop in and say 'hello', he thought the day might be perfect. In fact, it might be going so well that he would even tolerate Koizumi.

He wondered at that, pondering what the slider and the esper were up to on their own vacations. Koizumi would undoubtedly have some cheerfully bland explanation that he did very mundane things. Kanae would probably say similar things, but be much more excited over it.

Those thoughts in mind, when the sun set and Tsuruya's limousine pulled up, spilling out Tsuruya and Mikuru, his aunt cheerfully greeted both of the new arrivals and invited them inside. Kyon excused himself to change after Mikuru handed him the bundled suit; Tsuruya was already wearing a very fine formal kimono, similar to the one she had worn when he first met her father.

Now, all he needed to do was finish whatever meeting Tsuruya wanted him to attend without letting his extended family know that he was working in organized crime, and the day would be _perfect_. He'd explained a lot to his aunt Rika, and he trusted her, but he'd left it at him working for Tsuruya's 'organization', and didn't go into details; thankfully, she hadn't asked for clarification.

He felt briefly very proud when Mikuru, Haruhi, his sister, his aunt, and his cousins all lined up to wave as Tsuruya's driver headed out. In the dark, instead of trying to pay attention to the road, he listened to Tsuruya's explanation of his role at the meeting, glad that no violence was to be expected. Kyon would be her chief advisor, and sit at her side. The driver was Kasai, who would also be the bodyguard; Kyon was pleased to see that though the man still moved a bit stiffly, he appeared to have recovered substantially from the last time they had met. He couldn't imagine Tsuruya demanding an injured man go into a situation where she saw the possibility of a fight.

They got out of the car after reaching their destination, but he barely spared a glance for the surroundings in the dark, taking Tsuruya's arm as she led the way in, giving him a few last minute tips and instructions. Kasai followed silently, until an unfamiliar servant in classical attire answered her knock at the door and led them into a large, familiar house, and down a corridor to a large hall.

There, everything suddenly flipped to extremely bizarre, as Kyon found himself sitting next to Tsuruya across the table from his aunt Mion, and his uncle Keiichi, both of whom evidently thought the situation was hilarious. Tsuruya didn't get the joke, and for the first time in his life, Kyon thought her laugh sounded somewhat forced. For himself, he didn't think it was particularly funny.

"Oh, man," he groaned, which he realized was a breach of protocol, speaking before his boss did, "could this get any more awkward?"

Behind him, Kasai coughed pointedly, eyeing his counterpart across the room. "Father," he said, inclining his head to an almost identical, but much older man. "I thought you had retired."

The other bodyguard made the same cough and inclined his head the same distance. "Son," he returned, giving a huge grin. "I'm like an old piece of china; cracked and weathered, but still brought out for special occasions."

Then Keiichi and Mion broke into howling laughter, rolling on the floor, and Kyon had to struggle to resist the urge to beat his forehead against the meeting table before them.

"W...what's going on, here?" Tsuruya asked, looking completely bewildered, but still laughing nervously.


	19. Chapter 18

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Fanservice Arc IV

Chapter Eighteen: Relationship Building II

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

Warning: This chapter treats Daybreak (the OAV, not the game) as canon. Also, there maaaaay be a Nekogorashi reference. Or two. So, yeah...

* * *

_"Chapter One: Listen"_

_"...but just in case you ____do__ need a reminder: You're reading this book because you're interested in the advice that other people can give! Written suggestions are great, but the most applicable wisdom you're probably going to get is going to be from the people around you; the ones who've done and seen it before! So, when they speak, ____listen__."_

_"Methods of Victory" - T.H._

* * *

After seeing Kyon off with his friend, even though she wasn't certain what they were up to, Rika turned her attention to the two other young girls who were his friends. Mikuru was the time traveler, if she remembered his story correctly, though she wouldn't have ever guessed that at a glance. She had a fashionable green dress on, and didn't seem to have anything more futuristic than a sleek, classy wristwatch.

Matsuri had already been wary of Haruhi, but took an instant dislike of Mikuru, grumbling in jealousy at the older girl's natural assets. That was getting out of hand, Rika realized, frowning at her daughter. "You know, Matsuri-chan," she said to the girl, "it's hardly fair for you to really think that Kyon should belong to you, when you're lucky to see him three times a year."

In response, the girl pouted at her mother. Rika's heart wasn't stone, but that look had never worked on her - though it almost always worked on Keiichi. It was a small miracle that Kyon himself seemed immune, but she chalked that up to the boy's sister unintentionally overusing such things.

"Oh, my," Mikuru said, her eyes widening at Matsuri. "You like your cousin?"

"Matsu-chan likes Kyon lots!" Kyon's sister contributed helpfully, giggling.

"Kyon-nii-sama is mine, nih-pah~!" the girl muttered stubbornly. "You big-chested sirens aren't taking him away from me!"

Mikuru blushed very faintly and giggled. "That's so cute," she gushed, patting Matsuri on on the head. "Aww, Matsuri-chan, you're adorable!"

"H...hey!" Matsuri whined. "Miiii~! I'm not a little kid!"

Shutaro squinted at the girls, considering things lengthily before finally judging, very solemnly, "Icky."

Naota rolled his eyes and mumbled something beneath his breath about Kyon being too lucky for his own good.

Without even glancing at him, Makoto smacked the back of his head firmly, noting, "Pervert."

"Ow!" Naota grumbled, glaring at his sister. "What was that for!?"

"I heard what you said!"

"I'm a healthy young man," Naota retorted.

Mikuru's blush faded as she looked at Naota and Makoto, giggling. "Aww, that's cute, too!"

The twins pouted fiercely. "I'm not a little kid either!" Naota whined.

"I'm more mature than he is!" Makoto whined along with him.

"That's enough of that," Rika warned. "Your aunt Satoko is going to be by in a bit with Aiko-chan, so no misbehaving. If you ask very nicely, she might bake cookies."

"Auntie Satoko's cookies aren't as good as Auntie Rena's," Shutaro said knowledgeably.

"Cookies are cookies," Kyon's sister countered. "Want to play cards?"

Shutaro obligingly found the deck of cards that they were playing with that morning, and the children gathered around the table. "Ah, children," Rika sighed, smiling.

"Hello!" Satoko called from the doorway, looking at Shutaro shrewdly. "So, my baking isn't very good, is it?"

The little boy wordlessly crawled beneath the table after giving his aunt a fearful glance.

"Humph," the blonde woman snorted. Her daughter cocked her head to one side and looked at Mikuru curiously, but then shrugged and skipped to the table. "Oh, no one said that, I see... Well, no cookies for those who aren't here!"

"Bah," Shutaro grumbled, remaining hidden.

"Ah ... what recipe do you use?" Mikuru wondered, turning to regard the blonde.

"Family secret, though evidently not a good one," Satoko said. She shook her head, giving Mikuru an appraising look. "Hmm, you must be another of Kyon's friends?"

After introductions were finished, Mikuru offered to bake the cookies, and Satoko agreed. Turning to Haruhi, Rika asked, "Suzumiya-chan, would you mind accompanying me to the shrine for a bit? There's ... something I had wanted to talk to you about."

Looking wary, Haruhi nodded. "Sure," she agreed. "I guess."

Rika led the way down the path, noting that Haruhi remembered the ceremonial observance as well, bowing to the torii. At this hour, the shrine was deserted, and neither of them spoke until Rika removed the heavy key to the saiguden from her pocket. "I...is this the sealed storehouse?" Haruhi asked curiously.

"It is," Rika acknowledged, unlocking the door and gesturing Haruhi in. At this hour, they needed the battery powered lantern to see, and Rika hung it on a hook by the door. At night, without the moon to provide softer illumination, the sharp edges of the ritual implements cast ominous jagged shadows everywhere, and the statue of Oyashiro at the dark end of the room seemed to glare down at them, the upper reaches of its face shrouded in darkness.

"You're not planning on ritually sacrificing me or anything, are you?" Haruhi asked, half-joking. "Kyon told me a little bit about the legends of Oyashiro-sama."

Rika beamed her a bright smile. "Now, now, not in this day and age," she assured the girl. "But, you're quite fond of Kyon, aren't you?"

Haruhi made a soft choking noise and retreated a half-step, looking trapped between Rika and the statue of Oyashiro. "I ... don't mean to be so obvious about it," she managed, looking very uncomfortable.

"I know. I can tell these things, and not just with a woman's intuition," she replied, closing the door. Hanyuu nodded at Rika, then drifted through the walls to scout the area and make sure no one eavesdropped. "I apologize for the setting, but as I've learned with Kyon, it does help underscore the importance of things."

"W...what do you mean?" Haruhi asked, looking even more uncomfortable.

There was a bench in the room on one side, and Rika removed a rag from her pocket, dusting it off and taking a seat, patting the space near her. Haruhi looked at it warily and crossed her arms over her chest, not moving. "I've learned quite a bit about these sorts of things," she told the younger girl.

"I doubt it's as much as you think," Haruhi muttered skeptically. "Kyon's an idiot not to see it, but are you oblivious to the fact that your husband is, well..."

"Naturally, no," Rika said, shaking her head. "We all agreed to work things out in such a way. Well, we didn't exactly explain things to Keiichi right away, which may not have been the best idea, but nevermind that. The point is that it is a cooperative effort on all our parts, ultimately."

Haruhi blinked several times, before her expression shifted to confusion. "...what?"

Rika giggled. "It's not _easy_," she warned, "but quite obviously it can be _done_. And I can tell that it's both something you want, and something that terrifies you."

"B...but," Haruhi sputtered in amazement. "What!?"

Taking a deep breath, Rika gestured to the bench at her side again. "This is something of a long story," she warned. "But don't you think you might want to listen?"

"I... I want everyone to be happy," Haruhi said, frowning. "But that... That's... I mean, _seriously_!"

"You've seen all of my closest friends," Rika countered. "With an outsider's perspective, it probably seems quite obvious to you. But tell me - for even one heartbeat, when you saw our children and went to our homes, did any one of us look _unhappy_?"

Haruhi worked her jaw silently for a moment before straightening herself up and sitting at Rika's side stiffly. "I'm listening," she allowed.

* * *

Eventually, after what Kyon guessed had to be at least ten minutes, Mion and Keiichi stopped laughing long enough to sit back up, though they had to hang on to each other to keep from falling back down, and Mion, at least, still shook with mirth at the situation.

"S...so," Tsuruya giggled uneasily, "is it something in my hair?"

"Your hair is fine, dear," Mion said, snickering. "And it's my favorite color, too- But, my nephew Kyon ... buwahaha!"

Clearing his throat, Kyon gestured across the table. "Tsuruya-kun, this is my aunt Mion, and my uncle Keiichi," he explained. "Um... Auntie, Uncle, this is my oyabun, Tsuruya Haruka-san."

"Ah!" Tsuruya said, finally getting it, and instantly reigniting the laughter of previously, clutching onto Kyon for support. "Oh! Hahaha, Kyon-kun, haha, your aunt, your uncle, buwahaha!"

After a few minutes of her laughing so hard tears streamed from her eyes, Kyon had to admit, it was _kind_ of funny. That'd show him for dismissing his own father's casual remark about Keiichi working for a yakuza family, at the very least. "Ah, okay," she managed, giggling again. "Aha, so, Kyon's aunt and uncle makes a very cute couple!"

Keiichi and Mion instantly let go of one-another as though stung, Mion's amusement vanishing as she coughed politely and looked away. Keiichi likewise looked away and scratched the back of his head.

"Er, actually, he's married to my aunt Rika," Kyon offered, glancing at Tsuruya.

"W...well, we should focus on business, shouldn't we?" Mion said quickly, giving a forced, nervous laugh.

"R...right!" Keiichi agreed, nodding vigorously as he began to leaf through a small stack of papers too quickly to possibly read them.

"Formality aside," Mion added. "So, ah, Tsuruya-san, you wanted to propose an alliance between our families?"

"Yep!" Tsuruya agreed, giggling. "I didn't knows you were related to Kyon-kun, though!"

"Well ... I'll admit, I was going to say 'no'," Mion chuckled. "Joining with the Yamaguchi-gumi is quite a step. But since you've already got my cute nephew working for you, it's impossible for me to refuse!"

"Oh, wow! Choosing Kyon-kun as my saiko-komon was a mega great idea!"

"Hey," Mion gasped, her eyes widening. "As long as we're in the world of unlikely coincidences ... are you the same heiress who had to distinguish herself in that fight against the Sumiyoshi-rengo?"

"You know about that?" Tsuruya and Kyon asked together in surprise.

"But," Keiichi realized, sitting up straight, "that would mean that _you_ were the one that beat up twenty of their men?"

"It wasn't really quite like that," Kyon said with a wince.

"Yeah," Tsuruya agreed with Kyon, "he's never fought more than twelve single-handedly. Nagato-chi and I were with him against the big crowd!"

"One more question, then," Keiichi said warily, "and you must promise me _never_ to discuss this with your aunt Rena unless either of us or Rika-chan are with you."

"Er, okay," Kyon said uncomfortably. "I promise. What's that?"

"Did you beat up a a boy named Ryuguu Ryo?"

"Um ... yes," he admitted. "Why? Is he-" He paled with realization. "Oh, crap, I didn't beat up one of Auntie Rena's relatives, did I!?"

Mion snorted, trying to stifle her laughter. "Ah ... not really," she answered. "Just ... someone I've heard of."

"Broke his nose good," Tsuruya added. "Wasn't that Kyon-kun's first interrogation, too?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "Um, while we're on the subject of promises, and it may be a bit late for this one ... but ... please, don't let Mom find out about this? I think she'd kill me."

"You think I want her to know!?" Keiichi asked incredulously. "I mean, she already grumbles because she _thinks_ I'm affiliated with- Yeah, right, you'd only be _half_ as dead as I would be if she found this out!" Mimicking a conversation between himself and Kyon's mother, Keiichi continued, "'Oh, how was Kyon while you watched over him, Onii-san?' 'Fine, Imouto; we did the usual stuff. Went to the water park, did some fishing, brokered a deal between our respective crime syndicates. You know, nothing out of the ordinary.'"

"She'd kill you," Mion said flatly. "Oyashiro-sama's curse be damned."

"Don't I know it," Keiichi returned, shuddering.

"Even worse, we'd never be allowed to spend time with Kyon again!"

"Yeah, that's- HEY!"

Well, Kyon thought, finally finding something to laugh about, at least there was that. While he strongly doubted anyone planned for the meeting to work out that way, he ultimately had nothing to complain about. So, why couldn't he shake that feeling of impending doom?

* * *

"First of all," the woman explained, her eyes distant, evidently not seeing the creepy ritual implements of torture on the wall opposite the bench, "you must understand that it doesn't work just by devising a logical system of 'sharing' or 'lending' Keiichi around. The way that it works, for us, anyway, is that we all care for one another. I mean that. Don't take it the wrong way, but the bond between myself, Satoko-chan, Mion-chan, and Rena-chan... If we didn't love one another, it never would have worked out the way that it did. It is _not_ that we all care about Kei-chan, and simply tolerate one-another."

"But," Haruhi protested, despite how eagerly she wanted to believe that Rika had a valid solution, "only _you_ married Keiichi."

"That has a lot to do with how badly I handled things at the start," she allowed. "At the time ... long ago ... Mion was the most obviously in love with Keiichi. I myself didn't realize how badly I was in love with him, until Rena swallowed that stupid magatama."

Haruhi had no idea what a mystical object like a magatama, the traditional teardrop shaped icon of a spirit, had to do with anything.

"Ah, it was ... not quite cursed," Rika explained, seeing Haruhi's confusion. "It fell from the heavens. There were two pieces; one black, and one white. If two people were to hold them, they would fall in love. Rena swallowed one, and until Keiichi was holding the other, and Rena confessed how much she cared for him..." She grimaced. "It was an ugly revelation, to me; I was _angry_ at one of my best friends. Despite the fact that I should have been much more experienced in these things, I overcame my own denial."

She shifted in her seat slightly and continued, "I didn't _do_ anything, though ... what could I? Keiichi was nearly sixteen years old, and I was just eleven. A year later I had begun to grow, but Mion achieved peace with herself and started to earnestly pursue him. And ... I almost ruined things for her." The woman looked genuinely ashamed, and Haruhi tried to imagine what it could have been like. "For all of us."

"Wouldn't that mean," she asked hesitantly, "that ... you weren't even as old as Matsuri-chan...?"

"I know everyone says such things, but trust me," Rika said, shaking her head, "I was significantly wiser than my physical age. If you ask Kyon very nicely, he can explain that it is true, in the same way that _you_ have ... such interesting friends."

Haruhi flinched. Obviously, Kyon had to have told her for the woman to know those things. She hoped his trust in her was well placed, but also realized that Rika hadn't explained her situation with her husband and 'friends' to Kyon. Part of her wanted to protest that it wasn't fair, but she quelled it, realizing she was being treated to secrets he hadn't been. "I'll believe you," she decided.

"I'll spare you the details," Rika added. "Suffice to say that through carefully placed words and judiciously ignoring sound advice, I ... convinced Keiichi to spend more time with me. It was ... extremely selfish. And I cost almost all of us happiness. It was only on the verge of utter ruin, with the help of my friends, that I realized what a mistake I was making.

"And it's the grandest fortune that things hadn't gotten to the point where the damage could never be undone. As much as I loved Keiichi, and as ... careless as I was with it, the bond that I shared with the others was still there. I didn't _have_ to be selfish. I was motivated to try and steal him for myself because I was afraid of being alone.

"It ... actually ... was Rena's idea, and Satoko's... They were clearer-headed about the entire thing, and that's part of why I love them as much as I do. I wish I could say that I had been clever and thoughtful, and undone the damage myself, but it was all set in motion by the two of them. Because the truth was ... if I _did_ take Keiichi for my own, and only my own, I would be even _more_ alone. I would have him, at the cost of my friends."

She gave Haruhi a stern look. The girl guiltily recalled the words she had forced from Kyon, the day he'd traveled back in time to reassure her that he _did_ care about her.

"At one time, I thought it would be worth it," Rika added, her eyes shining. "Keiichi and I, together, would be enough, without anyone else. But ... that would throw away _everything_ that my friends and I had shared; everything we had endured!" She laughed, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "And then I was stupid about it _again_, and tried to give up on him for Mion, who I had practically crushed for my own benefit...

"So, yes, Keiichi is _married_ to me. But that's only because I _was_ selfish, and to the other villagers, that's how things had _seemed_ before reason. Reason, of course, in the form of the truest friends I will ever have. I still feel guilty about what I've done, but I can't let _that_ influence me too much, either. Instead, we have to rely on our bond of love and trust."

"Even though... Well, couldn't you have just acted as though you and Keiichi were drifting apart and avoided that?" Haruhi wondered aloud. "I mean ... if this started when you were just twelve ... you couldn't have married before sixteen, even back then, right? Surely it didn't drag on for four years!"

"No, it didn't," Rika admitted. "But by the time we were old enough, Satoko and Rena had already established a very solid, logical plan that fit with appearances in the minds of others. I don't doubt that some in the village suspect, but we hardly care about that, anymore. If we had it to do over again, I would probably want Keiichi married to Mion." She shrugged, giving a faint smile. "But, perhaps that is guilt speaking.

"At any rate, I can see that in many ways, Kyon is in a similar position to Keiichi at that time. And _you_ are in a position not too different from my own. The answer is simple to see, even if it may not be easy to follow."

"H...how can you be happy with that?" Haruhi wondered aloud. "I mean ... your husband ... with other women..."

"With my closest friends," Rika corrected. "That's the difficulty. You must put aside your self-doubt and overcome your worry that if you did not have him alone, he would not choose you. It's not simple. I imagine if it were _easy_, then it would happen more often. So ... rely on your friends. Allow them to rely on you. That may mean growing to the point where you can encourage him to spend time with someone else, and learn to take joy in their happiness.

"That's how it is for me. I know that Keiichi loves me, as he loves the others. But I can tell him with confidence, 'Rena-chan is bothered by something. Go to her, and make her smile', and a part of myself mourns that he leaves me, and fears that he won't come back. But the _greater_ part of me rejoices in the fact that two of the people I love are very happy. And then he comes back to me, or I rejoice that he's making Satoko-chan, or Mion-chan happy. And fortunately, there are enough of us so that if he is not with me, I can share my happiness with the others.

"So, I'm not _alone_ even when he's not with me. Anyway, I can already _tell_ you were thinking of finding some way to share him," she concluded, turning her gaze to Haruhi and quirking one eyebrow higher.

"Y...yeah," Haruhi allowed, feeling somehow very small before the woman. "I was... I wanted... I was thinking that maybe ... as long as I was the most important to him..." She trailed off, unable to go further. She had thought about it, and _wanted_ it, but her ability to commit to that... "You say self-doubt?" she managed, instead. Those words were hitting uncomfortably close to home, but avoiding them wouldn't help; she'd always faced her problems head-on before, so why stop now?

Rika nodded. "I felt, personally, that of all the girls in Keiichi's life, I was the one with the least to offer him," she explained. Then she laughed, shaking her head. "Of course, that was remarkably silly of me. It's about caring for each other, not simply what a person can offer in terms of ... the wealth of her family, her skill in the kitchen, or the size of her chest."

Haruhi felt her face redden. "Lately," she mumbled, "I haven't really been myself..." She hated to admit it, but the woman was right. She didn't usually _have_ that much confidence, but until recently, she'd at least been able to _act_ like she did. "I've been really ... troubled by this whole thing."

"Like I said, if it were easy, I expect it would happen more often," Rika reiterated, putting one arm about her shoulders. "So, tell Auntie Rika what's troubling you?"

It took her a minute to put her concerns into words. "I ... really like Kyon," she managed, her face still warm. "And he said that he likes me. But it's really hard to be confident when he just seems to understand what's going on around us so much better, and to have ... better ties with the other girls than with me. How do I overcome that?"

Rika tapped her lower lip with one fingertip, staring into the shadowed corners of the room. "That happened to me, too," she said quietly. "That's why I became jealous ... which was not for the best. So, my advice for you on that count is to not become jealous. Hmm, that sounds too simple, I suppose. Well, it's something of a guess, but in your instance, are you uncertain because of the situation ahead of you?"

"I think I'd be nervous even if it was just him and myself," she admitted. "I mean ... I'm afraid of things going wrong, or ... really annoying him, or..." She trailed off with a shrug. "So, what should I do?"

"You should focus on strengthening your bonds with him and your other friends," Rika said, giving her a smile. "Really, in my mind, the best relationship would start with a friendship anyway. Firstly, aren't you worried that he has stronger bonds with the others than you? So make those links stronger! Secondly, while it may sound defeatist at first blush, if it doesn't work out that you have a romantic future, wouldn't you be happier with very good friends, than nothing at all?"

Haruhi thought about that for a long time, taking solace in Rika's advice. The idea of Kyon with Yuki ... or Mikuru ... or even both of them, or... Still, the thought of Kyon not being 'with' her, while she only had him as a friend? She felt that angry flame of jealousy ignite again. But the idea of Kyon with ... anyone ... and never speaking to her again? Not even being her friend?

"It would be hard to be friends with him, if he didn't ... care for me that way," she said slowly. "But I think you're right. I couldn't stand the thought of ... not even having that."

Rika pulled Haruhi closer in a hug. "Good," she declared. "I know that you, Kyon, and the others have a difficult path ahead of you. It may not be much, but you are always welcome here if you need it, and Suzumiya-chan ... you all have my support, as long as you continue to remember that common bond you share."

"Kyon has no idea how amazing his family actually is," Haruhi managed in response. "But, still ... it's unbelievable to me that he just doesn't _see_ what you and Keiichi have with, um, the other aunts."

Rika shrugged, releasing her and gazing into the shadows again. "I imagine it will come to light, some day," she said. "However, we've been together since before he was born; for him, we're simply very close friends, and there's no reason to look further. I don't personally mind much if he does find out, but ... it would make things needlessly ... complex if his mother were to discover it. And as adorable as she is, really, Nonoko-chan is _terrible_ about keeping secrets."

"That's what else I don't get," Haruhi complained. "How can Keiichi be so cool, and Kyon's mother be such a ... um ... stick-in-the-mud?" Though, the inability of Kyon's sister to keep a secret _had_ been noted.

"That's a whole different story," Rika said, shaking her head. "Not one for tonight."

"Okay, I guess." Though, when she stopped to think about it... "How is it she doesn't know, either? I guess she and Keiichi must not be that close?"

Rika grimaced, shaking her head. "Another time, Suzumiya-chan," she said, standing and smoothing her dress. "Perhaps if you visit us for Watanagashi with Kyon. Now, we've been away long enough; we should head back. It's not really fair of us to make Satoko-chan and Asahina-chan take care of the children by themselves."

Strange that it wasn't a problem to leave that duty to Kyon, Haruhi thought, as they left the storehouse. While Rika was locking the door again, Haruhi commented, "Kyon didn't tell me what that building was all about, just that it was connected with Oyashiro-sama, somehow."

"Hmm? Oh, well..."

* * *

After a few rounds of cards with her aunt Satoko, during which Shutaro still steadfastly refused to emerge from beneath the table, Mikuru finished making the cookies and announced that they'd been set out to cool. Nonoko could hardly wait; they smelled delicious, and while Kyon was able to cook as well as their mother, he didn't even try to bake.

As Shutaro had mentioned, Rena was the best baker among the aunts, but Rika wasn't too shabby, and Satoko's cookies were absolutely edible. Mostly. She did tend to get some spices mixed up as a result of color-blindness, a quirk which she shared with her brother and her daughter, but that was only occasionally disastrous.

At around the same time Mikuru returned to the living room, her face slightly flushed from the heat of the oven, Rika and Haruhi returned from the shrine. Haruhi looked a little bit stunned, and Rika was just finishing, "...and that's the purpose of the things in that shed."

Were they in the forbidden shed on the shrine grounds? She had a hard time imagining her aunt allowing other people into it for trivial things, and had always wondered what was inside. Matsuri had gotten to see, once, but hadn't told Nonoko about what she'd seen.

"Did everything go well?" Mikuru asked, sitting at the table.

"Just fine," Rika said cheerfully. "Kyon told me that Suzumiya-chan here is interested in the local culture, so I was showing her some of the finer ... points."

Satoko raised an eyebrow and studied Rika intently. "You mean ... Kyon," she began, her voice full of meaning, though she didn't explain further. "Just like..."

"I can't believe no one else figures it out!" Haruhi grumbled.

There it was again! She was being left out! Other girls got to go see what was in the mysterious shed, and now Haruhi and the aunts were in on _another_ secret! It wasn't like... Well, okay, she _had_ let some thing slip that she shouldn't have, but she'd only ever promised not to tell _Haruhi_. It was Matsuri's fault that...

Except, when she made herself think about things, she couldn't _really_ blame her cousin. Matsuri wouldn't have known if she'd been better about keeping the promise. Worse, it was a pinky-swear, the most sacred of all vows! And then she'd carelessly blabbed it to Matsuri...

"Figures what ou- Waaaah!" Mikuru scrambled away from the table with a shriek, one hand holding the hem of her dress down as she stared at it in wide-eyed horror.

Makoto looked at the tabletop in consternation. A second later, Naota sat up perfectly straight. "It's got me!" he yelled, flailing his arms while he squirmed as though being pulled underneath the table.

"Is he still under the table?" Haruhi asked, surprised.

"It's not turned on," Nonoko assured the older girl. "Oh, but maybe that would fix things?"

Mikuru covered her mouth with her other hand, edging away from the table. "U...umm..."

"That's enough of that," Satoko warned, lifting the wooden edge of the tabletop and revealing Shutaro and Naota's hiding place. "Come on, get out of there so we can turn it on."

Both boys sulked as they climbed out of the metal supporting frame for the tabletop and skirt.

"A...ah," Mikuru managed, frowning at the boys. "Um. I'm a bit warm, so I think I'll step outside for a bit. The timer in the kitchen should ring when the cookies are cooled enough."

"Good," Haruhi decided, "there's something we should talk about."

While the aunts were distracted with chastising the boys, Matsuri and Makoto watching them dourly, Nonoko decided to sneak out after the bigger girls. Her own brand of little-sister espionage seemed to be the only way she got information, some days! Well, she admitted to herself as she slipped out the back door and crept to crouch beneath the generator awning, that wasn't _completely_ true. Kyon had told her about his fight against the dark general and his forces...

Mikuru was fanning her face and shooting worried glances at the front door when she stuck her head around the generator to peek. "He didn't do anything perverted, did he?" Haruhi asked. "I thought Shutaro spent the entire time I was here complaining that girls are 'icky'."

"He just grabbed my toe," Mikuru said, shaking her head. "It startled me. Um, but what did we need to talk about?"

Haruhi sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, looking up at the sky. "Well, I wanted to discuss this with you in private a bit before we talked to Tsuruya-san. And we need to check with Yuki-chan too, of course... But it's about Kyon."

Haruhi wasn't looking, but Nonoko caught the shift of expression from surprised, to almost ecstatic, before settling on aprehensive... What did Mikuru have to be worried about with Kyon? Or ... did her brother have more than just Tsuruya and Haruhi after him? Well, she'd always thought he was cool, so it did make sense... "Is something wrong? Is he in trouble?"

"No, no... It's, um... Mikuru-chan, do you remember how I told you that you should try harder for Kyon because of what you said?"

"Yes," Mikuru answered unhappily. "I'm ... sorry, I haven't really been trying very hard... I...it's very difficult..."

"Well, I wasn't very supportive of you, really," Haruhi admitted. "Even though I said you should try. So, that's going to change!"

If anything, Mikuru looked more apprehensive. "W...wha... Oh, I understand." She sighed deeply and bowed her head. "W...well, it's better to have lost the opportunity than never had it, or something like that, right?"

Haruhi whirled on Mikuru suddenly, shooting a heated look at the older girl, who flinched back timidly. Despite the intensity of that gaze, Haruhi was grinning hugely. "Neither of us are trying to make you see what you can have only to fail!" she declared, though with a cautious glance at the door to the house. "That's what has to change! Mikuru, Kyon's not always as perceptive as he sometimes seems. Really, he has a blind spot bigger than the island of Hokkaido!"

"What!? No, no! I... I think he's quite good at figuring things out!" Mikuru protested. "Um, he understands things that we don't even use words for! Like the principle of classified- Oh, shoot! But, he knows how to avoid classified- Ah..." The older girl looked to be on the verge of tears. "I can't say it! I'm sorry, Suzumiya-san, but, please believe me when I say that he's actually quite good at noticing things!"

"Never said he wasn't," Haruhi said, shrugging. "But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a blind spot. Specifically, Kyon kind of doesn't get romantic issues."

"O...oh," Mikuru breathed her eyes widening. "Well... That actually does seem to be somewhat true..."

"More than somewhat," Haruhi said. "Anyway! As unfortunate as it is at a glance, this may actually work in our favor!"

"What? How?"

"Aha! Well, first of all, does Kyon know that you 'can't' have relationships in this time?" Haruhi asked.

Mikuru recovered some of her previous bearing and gave an uncertain nod. "I mentioned it to him, once..."

"Oh, well, he's dense, so he'll probably forget," Haruhi said with a shrug. "Just flash him that cute smile and giggle - he'll be all over you."

"But... But I thought we were stopping?" Mikuru asked, confused.

"Oh, no," Haruhi said, shaking her head quickly. "Not at all! We're just not going to go into it believing you can't make it work!"

"B...but, but," Mikuru protested uncertainly. "That's-"

"We will _find_ a way," Haruhi said insistently. "Because... Well, I should have figured this sooner, but we're friends, right?"

"O...of course?"

"What answer is that!? You shouldn't sound so doubtful! We are friends! I-" Haruhi stopped abruptly, cocking her head to one side. "Mikuru-chan ... could it be that ... you don't actually like me very much?"

"I didn't say that," Mikuru protested, waving her hands before her anxiously. "N...no, no, that's... I don't..." Steeling herself, with a show of determination that Nonoko personally thought was at _least_ on par with Trope-tan's current ultimate attack, Mikuru forced out the words, "I don't always like ... what you make me do." Very hurriedly, she added, "But I don't dislike you!"

Haruhi's expression soured. "Alright," she grudgingly allowed. "That's fair. But you didn't say you like me, either! So, Kyon said that we were friends, and ... just maybe we're not as good of friends as we should be - and will need to be. First things first, that means trying for Kyon for _real_, not just pretending to try because you think it can't happen."

Mikuru hesitantly answered, "I... I don't know if I can do that..."

"You can," Haruhi insisted, grabbing Mikuru's hands. "It may be hard, but like I said; Kyon's dense. So there's plenty of time, and no need to rush. The one thing I _won't_ do is let you give up! Unless you can look me in the eye and tell me you don't like Kyon at all! Can you do that?"

A whole gamut of expressions crossed Mikuru's face before she admitted, "No... I can't do that..."

"Good," Haruhi decided.

* * *

After completing the ceremony to join the Sonozaki household to the Yamaguchi-gumi, Tsuruya and Kyon bowed to the elder pair and retreated. For his part, even though it had gone smoothly and involved people he knew he was close to ... it was still very strange. During the ride back to the house where Haruhi and Mikuru were waiting, he gave her a brief summary of his vacation when she asked how he'd been. He thought that Haruhi had probably had enough exposure to the children to fill in any details he hadn't remembered.

Naturally, his summary had to be brief, since the ride wasn't very long. Still, he finished with enough time for her to put one shoulder around him companionably, and remark, "Glad you seems to be having fun," before squeezing him in a half-hug.

Which wasn't really a bad feeling at all... Though, he had the idea he was going to get into trouble with Haruhi for it, somehow.

The car stopped, and Kyon opened the door before Kasai could move to take care of it himself. Standing out before the front door, he spotted Mikuru and Haruhi, evidently finishing up a conversation. Haruhi looked smugly self-assured - not quite as cutely uncertain as she'd been recently, but more like her normally confident self. Mikuru looked flummoxed, like she wasn't sure what to make of the situation.

"How'd the meeting go?" Haruhi asked, raising a hand and waving at them.

"Mega great, thanks to Kyon-kun!" Tsuruya said, grinning. "How about here?"

Haruhi pushed Mikuru, making the older girl wobble, and gave her a hard stare. "Um!" Mikuru managed, as though the sound was forced out of her. Another firm nudge dislodged, "I made cookies!"

Kyon nodded, frowning as he realized something was interrupting his line of sight to one of the generator's usually blinking lights. "That's great," he said. "There's something important we should discuss, though."

"What's that?" Haruhi and Tsuruya asked in tandem, before exchanging a glance and smirking at one-another.

Mikuru looked bewildered. "There is?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, dropping his voice to barely above a whisper. "Someone's hiding by the generator."

For some reason, both Haruhi and Mikuru began to blush as their eyes widened. "Oh, wow!" Tsuruya said loudly, grabbing Mikuru's arm before she could look towards the generator in alarm. "That is importants! If that secret got out..."

Haruhi, lightning-quick as she always seemed to be, caught on without glancing towards the generator, and nodded. "Who do you think it is?" she whispered, with exaggerated body language suggesting a long explanation. He had to give the girl credit; when she put her mind to it, she was really good at almost anything she cared to do.

"Nagato hasn't done anything, so I doubt it's anyone dangerous; I'm putting money on either my little sister or a cousin," Kyon mumbled, covering his mouth with one hand as he gave Haruhi a thoughtful nod.

Looking determined, Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest and grumbled, "Oh, yeah? Okay. I'll make a dash towards the generator and scare them out, you circle around back. Ready?"

"No," he answered. "Look, we can-"

"Too bad!" she yelled, grinning at him.

Grumbling about the probability of getting his nice borrowed suit dirty, Kyon managed to break into a full run at the same time as Haruhi, streaking around the far side of the house. He wasn't certain who it was in the dark, but he crossed the back porch just as a tiny figure dashed madly around the corner, mere centimeters from Haruhi's grasp.

He skidded to a halt, sinking to one knee and throwing his arms wide, catching the figure as it slammed into his chest, and Haruhi wheeled her arms, only barely able to keep herself from colliding into the pair of them. "Perfect!" she crowed, as Mikuru and Tsuruya followed around the corner more sedately.

"Wah~!" a familiar voice protested.

Sighing, he released her when she squirmed free from his grasp, but fell back to one of his favored grabs before she could get away. Seizing the back of her one-piece jumper, he held his flailing sister aloft with one hand. The rear porch light flicked on, and Satoko slid the door open, stepping outside and looking around. "What's all the fuss..." she began, before raising an eyebrow at the scene. "Tsk, shame, Kyon, playing around in that nice suit?"

Almost instantly, a cavalcade of cousins joined in peering around the edge of the door frame. "Ah!" Matsuri protested, giving a sharp look to Tsuruya. "Another one!"

Rika joined Satoko on the rear porch. "Hmm, Nonoko-chan ... were you eavesdropping?" the blue-haired woman asked.

Kyon's sister stopped flailing and tried her best to look cute when he turned her around so she could see their audience. "Maybe?" she giggled.

"Oh, man," Haruhi sighed, shaking her head. "You know, you're cute, and you're Kyon's sister, but there are limits!"

He nodded his agreement, muttering, "Tell me about it."

"Sorry?" Kyon's sister giggled nervously again.

Haruhi's face was a little red as she shot Kyon's sister a look he'd previously thought she used exclusively on _him_. "I don't know what you heard," she added, "but if you let Kyon hear it..." She leaned so close to the girl their noses were almost touching, grinning hugely. "_Penalty_!" she shouted suddenly, eliciting a surprised squeak from the girl. "So, you'll behave, right?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Nonoko whimpered, raising one arm and saluting. "I really will be good! I won't say anything!"

Kyon looked at Haruhi askance. "You know she can't keep secrets," he remarked, setting her on the porch, where she scurried to join their cousins. "Anyway, sorry about this."

"Hehe, Imouto-kun is pretty mischievous," Tsuruya agreed with a chuckle, looking at Haruhi and Mikuru thoughtfully. "But, hmm, I wonder what she overheard?"

"I know," Matsuri said irritably. All eyes went to Rika's daughter, and Kyon couldn't help but agree with Tsuruya. What had the girls been talking about that Haruhi and Mikuru both wanted to keep a secret? Still, he didn't think either his sister or Matsuri would keep it for long, in any case. The little girl stalked out onto the porch past her mother and balled her hands into fists, placing them on her hips and glowering at the older girls. "You were talking right by the front windows."

"Aha, well, about that," Haruhi laughed nervously. "Look..."

"Oh, you be quiet. So! Chesty," Matsuri grumbled, pointing at Haruhi. "Chesty-_er_," her finger went to point at Mikuru, who squeaked in alarm. "And, um, Leggy, over there," she pointed at Tsuruya, who chuckled at the nickname. "You had all better take good care of Kyon-nii-san!" Her finger dropped to her side, and with the porch light behind and above her, when the girl bowed her head her face was cast into shadow. "Or Oyashiro-sama will _curse_ you!"

"Matsuri-chan," Rika said in disapproval, crossing her arms and looking down at her daughter. "Don't say such things! Really... For shame, children these days!"

Mikuru loosed an exaggerated sigh of relief as Matsuri straighted up, looking abashed beneath her mother's gaze.

"But she's right," the woman added with a bright grin and an airy giggle. "Oyashiro-sama really will, if you hurt Kyon~!" Mikuru squeaked in alarm and Kyon became very distracted when she latched onto his arm.

Satoko raised her eyebrows and turned to look at Rika. Then she blinked, seeming to remember something; Kyon was having trouble focusing, what with his arm being pleasantly squished with warm, soft- "Uh," he said, shaking his head, "somebody said something about cookies?"

"Cookies," Shutaro echoed, giving a flat-eyed stare to Kyon and Mikuru.

"Y...you were kidding about Oyashiro-sama's curse, right?" Haruhi said, laughing nervously, her eyes fixed on Rika.

"Of course I was," Rika giggled. "Really, I'd do it myself; no reason to trouble Oyashiro-sama!"

"Rika!" Satoko protested, shooting the woman a dark look. "Don't say it like you'd be doing it alone!"

"Waaah~!" Mikuru wailed, clinging to him even more tightly. He really should complain, he thought, and Haruhi undoubtedly was going to become really upset if she saw it. "I'll be good!"

"A...Asahina-san," he managed, "you know that they're just teasing..."

"O...oh, um, of course," she sighed, relaxing slightly, but still hanging onto his arm.

Haruhi shifted her shoulders and turned around uncomfortably, freezing when she saw the older girl hanging onto him. "Mikuru-chan!" she protested.

This was going to be the end of his peace, he realized. This was the moment where it all came crashing down...

"Not in front of the kids!"

"Yeah," Shutaro grumbled from the porch, while Mikuru let go of Kyon as though he were on fire and leapt away, covering her mouth in embarrassment as her face turned bright red. The youngest boy drew himself up to his full height and pointed at Kyon with grave ceremony, solemnly pronouncing, "Icky."

* * *

"What did I tell you?" Haruhi asked, once they had finished visiting, and Tsuruya's car was heading back to Okinomiya.

"That Mikuru-chan's cookies were good?" Tsuruya suggested, still giggling. "Oh, man, Kyon-kun's cousins, what a riot!" She immediately burst into laughter again. "Haha, it's too much! We have to visits them with Kyon-kun again some day!"

"Er, no, Mikuru-chan," Haruhi clarified.

Though she looked much more relaxed, the time traveler was still mystified. "Um, quite a bit?" she posed. "Which part? And, um, should... I mean, Tsuruya-chan's here, too..."

The heiress arched an eyebrow higher, still giggling. "Is this about the situations with Kyon-kun's uncle and aunts?" she asked shrewdly.

"See!?" Haruhi protested. "He's just oblivious to things like that! Oh, sure, he can spot his sister hiding the shadows in the dead of night, when she snuck up on _me_. But that!? He can't figure it out!"

Tsuruya began laughing even harder, clutching her stomach and throwing her head back. "He doesn't know!?" she gasped, between laughs. "I thought... Haha, I thought he was being _polite_!"

"I know, right?!"

Mikuru looked even more bewildered. "What is it?" she asked, trying not to pout. "What is this thing that Kyon-kun doesn't know? I want to know, too!"

Tsuruya shrieked helplessly, then clapped her hands over her mouth, reducing the sound to gasping chortles, tears streaming from her eyes.

"What, you didn't- Oh, that's right," Haruhi realized aloud. "You didn't get to meet Kyon's uncle Keiichi. Um ... you know what, it's cuter that you haven't figured it out. But, Tsuruya-san, you already figured it out? How?"

"That's no fair!" Mikuru protested. Tsuruya laughed at a lot of things, but this would have to be _really_ hilarious for how she was acting. Why was she being left out?

"Kyon-kun," the heiress gasped out, "didn't know thats when we were going to the meetings..." She paused for another bout of intense snickering. "He didn't know we were meetings ... Keiichi-san and Sonozaki Mion-san!"

"So, you saw it!" Haruhi snickered.

"What?" Mikuru squeaked out, realizing unhappily that she was whining. "What is it?"

Haruhi started to laugh with Tsuruya, adding, "Anyway! I talked with Kyon's aunt about things, and - get this - they're _all in on it_!"

"No way!" Tsuruya exclaimed, before covering her mouth with one elegant sleeve of her kimono. "That's... This is too much!"

"Yeah," Haruhi giggled. "And she said that, well, we should do the same thing with Kyon!"

"Hahaha- Haru-nyan, are you serious?!"

"Well ... it really does seem to work, so ... yeah. Don't you think that would be for the best? That it would make everyone happy?"

Mikuru wanted to ask what they were talking about again but without Tsuruya's laughter, the sudden silence was deafening. The heiress gave Haruhi a calculated, considering stare, not looking the slightest bit amused. Not angry, or irate, just completely serious, which in the time traveler's experience was very rare for her friend.

"You're sure about that?" she asked, arching one eyebrow higher and staring at Haruhi, unblinking. "I mean, really, really, mega sure?"

"Yes," Haruhi replied firmly, unfazed by Tsuruya's sudden behavior shift.

"I'll give you one last chance to say you're not serious," Tsuruya warned, narrowing her eyes and waggling one finger at the brigade chief. "Because I owe Kyon-kun quite a bit, after all the trouble I caused him; I won't tolerate it if you change your mind!"

"I am _deadly_ serious," Haruhi said hotly. "You think I'm going to sit by and see how it can be done by Kyon's family and not take that as a challenge to do it _better_?!"

Tsuruya took a very deep breath and stared contemplatively at the ceiling of the car. "Well, it really did seem to work for Sonozaki-san," she mused absently. "And those Sonozaki twins were pretty adorable..." A smile blossomed on her face, and she turned, grabbing one of Haruhi's hands in hers.

"Okay!" Tsuruya cheered, smile widening. "I'm holding you to it, Haru-nyan~!"

"But," Mikuru protested, feeling really, really left out, "what is it!?"

"You'll see," Haruhi assured her, grinning. "But, until then, I've got something for you! A little parting gift from 'Auntie' Rika."

"That's not fair!" Mikuru protested, pouting. "What do you think-"

She broke off with an inadvertent squeal of delight as Haruhi fished a picture out from her pocket and flashed it at her. Mikuru snatched the photo from Haruhi's fingers so quickly that the younger girl flinched backwards, surprised. "So, I guess 'delinquent-mode' isn't your thing, but this works for you?"

Swallowing, Mikuru steeled her resolve, dredging up willpower from reserves she didn't know she had to give Haruhi a very level look. Ironically, she felt the hardest part of it was looking away from the picture of Kyon with all his cousins either clinging to him or surrounding him. But, in the picture, he looked so incredibly _domestic_. He was wearing an _apron_! It was adorable _beyond reason_! "I am keeping this picture," she swore solemnly.

After all, it was only fair, right? Haruhi and Tsuruya exchanged a glance before bursting into a renewed bout of laughter, clinging to each other for support.

* * *

Keiichi had ended up staying late at the Sonozaki house after Tsuruya and Kyon finished their work. Well, really, once Tsuruya had finished explaining her family's offer, and Kyon stayed out of the way, feeling almost like he was there only for decorative purposes. Keiichi, in comparison, seemed to have a good handle on what his duties were, and how he could actually help his 'boss' with his role. Kyon realized that he was ultimately better off not thinking about it, and focused on the river instead.

A short distance upstream, Shutaro and his older cousins sat in a line, staring intently at their fishing floats. He checked his line and cast, thinking he'd be satisfied if he caught even a fish so small it had to be thrown back. "This is nice," he remarked to the older man.

Keiichi nodded his agreement, flicking his line out and then reclining on the grassy slope leading down the riverbank. "When I was younger, this river wasn't really considered clean," he remarked. "A legacy of the quarry not far from here, I suppose..."

"Quarry?" Kyon mused. He didn't remember exploring any such site...

"It was shut down a long time ago. They only finished the cleanup efforts a few years back. Even though there are fish here, again, very few of them are from the original stock." Keiichi looked at him sidelong. "Don't go looking for it," he warned. "There was gas leak, a long time ago... It's not a good place, and Rika would skin me alive if she thought it was my fault you went there."

"That's fine," Kyon replied, slowly reeling his line in and recasting it. "I can leave well enough alone."

"Sometimes that's a good thing," the man remarked, checking to see that Shutaro was out of earshot. "So, Kyon ... you sure seem to be on good terms with some pretty girls for being single, eh?"

Kyon felt his face heat up slightly and shrugged. "Don't get the wrong idea," he grumbled. "I like girls just fine. That is _not_ the problem."

"Eh? No, no, that's..." Keiichi shook his head and snickered. "I didn't mean that," he said dryly. "But, is there one girl in particular that interests you? I'm not trying to embarrass you or anything, but you're a healthy young man, I expect."

"Well," he mumbled cautiously, "there's... I mean, I get on well with some of the girls, and sometimes I get along _really_ well with Haruhi... I mean, if I were to start dating any of them..."

"So, you like more than one girl?"

"That's a strong way to put it," Kyon mumbled, shifting his shoulders. "I can't say I dislike any of them. But it's not like I'm romantically pursuing multiple girls. I mean ... that would be wrong. I'm just ... trying to be good friends with them." Though, he was skirting around the issue, he supposed.

"An excellent approach," the older man approved. "Good for you; you're still young, yet. At your age, relationships are important, but also more fragile. Do what you can to strengthen all your friendships, and have faith that things will work out for the best."

Kyon considered that, looking at his uncle out of the corner of his eyes. "Did that work for you?" he asked.

Keiichi grinned, his eyes fixed on his fishing line. "Absolutely," he affirmed. "Trust me on this one; make friends with those girls, first. If it was meant to be, maybe something greater will blossom out of the friendship. And if not, well, you'll have friends you can count on to the end."

"That really doesn't sound bad," Kyon agreed. Admittedly, he was pretty sure some things - certain photographs of Mikuru and Tsuruya, for example - crossed the 'friend' line. As well as making out with Nagato, and assuring Haruhi he cared about her. "Er... What if an impression might exist that there's more than just 'friendship' going on?"

"All things in equal measure," Keiichi said, somewhat absently as a fish tugged at the man's line. "Watch for the quiet ones; don't forget about them, no matter what." His line suddenly snapped, leaving him staring in irritation and short a lure.

That made a lot of sense, too... "Thanks, Uncle," he said after a moment, when Keiichi growled at the fish that snapped his line. "That's probably the best advice I've gotten in a long time."

"More fun than talking about work," Keiichi said, dryly. "I do my best, but half the time I'm just an elbow-decoration for Mion-chan." He elbowed Kyon in the ribs, grinning as he rummaged through the tackle box for a replacement lure. "You seem to be more on the ball with that stuff, eh?"

He was pondering how to clarify that when there was a tug on his own fishing line. "Ah!" he protested, when his fishing pole began to flex with the fish's resistance. Maybe he shouldn't press further, he realized. 'Friendship' was something he felt he reasonably able to handle. Maybe even something he was _good_ at, if he applied himself.

"I can believe in nakama," Kyon growled, using that word that meant something between 'friend' and 'team', fighting the fish.

Keiichi laughed, "That's the spirit!" and dropped his own fishing rod to help Kyon.

* * *

Even though they hadn't caught anything worth keeping, Rika judged that her husband and nephew had a good time fishing. And ultimately, that was the important thing. After that relaxing Friday, his parents arrived, fast as always thanks to the driving skill of Keiichi's brother-in-law.

The car skidded to a halt in the driveway, Yuuto climbing out of the driver's seat and looking very relaxed, Kyon's mother with wobbling knees and shooting her husband a dirty look. Her anger didn't last, and Rika suspected strongly that Shion's theory on the woman's ... uptight attitude might have held some water.

As sad as it was, though, Kyon's mother and father were only by for a single overnight before heading back to Nishinomiya. So, far too soon for her own tastes, she and Kyon's other 'aunts' were clustered around the driveway, pestering him and his sister with parting gifts and farewell hugs. "You'll be coming back up for Watanagashi?" Keiichi asked Kyon's mother.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "That's... Not this year. Not for Kyon."

Rika pursed her lips at that, frowning. It wasn't that frequently that his birthday and the actual date of Watanagashi coincided... Still, that was a whole different issue.

"I wouldn't mind," Kyon said casually. For all that he'd learned from his aunts over the years, there was one person Kyon either couldn't read well, or just didn't try to. Namely, his own mother. He missed the irritation that crossed her face. "I like the festival."

"If you'd like to come up, you'll absolutely be welcome," Rika assured him.

"Sure thing," Keiichi agreed. "If you'd rather avoid it, Imouto, you know we don't mind having Kyon and Nonoko-chan visit."

"Aw," Rena pouted. "Kyon's growing up so fast~! He'll be seventeen soon, right?"

"We count his age from the beginning of the school year," Kyon's mother said, somewhat stiffly. The other women exchanged knowing glances.

Kyon blinked, turning to look at her curiously. She didn't meet his eyes, and when he turned a questioning gaze on Keiichi, the man winced and gave a minute shake of his head.

"That's when Kyon gets his birthday presents, too," Kyon's sister agreed helpfully.

"Right," Satoko interjected quickly, "we just forgot! Well, since Watanagashi is so trying, there's no need to trouble yourself!"

"Oh, look at the time," Kyon's father said, giving his watch an exaggerated stare. "Ah, well, it was nice visiting, everyone, but I've got to get the family back to Nishinomiya; you know, give the kids a day to get used to being home before sending them back to school!"

"I almost forgot!" Mion protested, reaching into her pocket and handing Kyon an envelope. "Here's your payment for watching over the twins for me, Kyon! And a little bonus for watching over Shion-chan's kids, too."

"O...oh, thanks, Auntie Mion."

Shortly, the family was driving away, Kyon's mother already chiding him that he was going to be responsible and deposit his earnings in a savings account. Once they were out of sight, Kyon and his sister waving to the cousins through the rear window, Rika turned to Keiichi and gave him a flat stare.

"I know, I know," Keiichi grumbled, receiving the same look from the other women present. "At some point, we're _really_ going to need to talk to Imouto about that."

"Oh, you think?" Mion asked, somewhat caustically. "There's about a zero percent chance of Kyon being allowed to come up when his birthday falls on Watanagashi..."

"But Rika-chan and Kei-chan are right," Rena agreed with a sigh. "It's probably no good to ignore it forever, either."

"Well, we'll come up with something," Satoko decided, smirking. "Don't we always?"


	20. Chapter 19

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Gearing Up Arc I

Chapter Nineteen: Homecoming

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Fragment: Clan Annals (unverified)"_

_"Entry for 5.11.2011:  
The laughter stopped, today; I ponder revenge. Would he be okay with that?  
- Tsu-Oyabun # 108"_

_"[Undecipherable]" - Recovered From Primary T.E.S.A. Archive_

* * *

After returning home late Saturday evening, Kyon helped his parents unload the car, dragged his own bags to his room, and promptly collapsed into bed, only waking briefly when summoned to Yuki's apartment. When the actual morning rolled around on that, his first day of not being grounded, he took his uncle's advice to heart and jumped on his bicycle.

He knew he probably should have called her first ... but he wasn't relying on her to just 'know', as he expected she could. Undoubtedly, she wouldn't actually be surprised ... but he expected that wasn't as important as actually showing some initiative.

After locking his bike up and dialing her room on the intercom, he heard her quiet answer, breathing across the connection softly, but saying nothing. "Um, Nagato, it's me," he said, feeling suddenly a bit nervous. Surely he hadn't managed to somehow catch her unaware? "I thought I'd stop by and visit, if you wouldn't mind."

She said nothing, but the security door to the building automatically opened, and he stepped in. After taking the elevator to her apartment, he was unsurprised to see the door swing open just as he reached it. He entered in silence, nodding at her as he kicked off his shoes and then joined her at the table.

After studying him for a minute, she poured each of them a cup of tea. "How are you doing?" he asked, trying to be conversational. "I'm thankful you went out of your way for me, but I'm sorry to rely on you so heavily again."

"I am fine," she replied, as she always did.

He gave her a bemused smile and sipped at his tea cautiously. She watched, but did not touch her own. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I mean ... I guess I just wondered why you didn't show up, since you were watching me, except when you showed me Hanyuu-san."

She lowered her gaze to her teacup. "I was uncertain as to the appropriateness of my physical presence," she finally said. "While I possessed the ability to manifest myself without difficulty, I would then leave Hanyuu ... alone. She does not wish to take a corporeal form when unnecessary, and my own materialization was not required."

He blinked at that several times, running one of his hands through his hair. "Are you saying," he asked cautiously, "that you ... stayed intangible to keep Hanyuu company? Because you thought turning solid when she couldn't as easily would make her lonely?"

After considering it gravely for a minute, Yuki gave a solemn nod. "Yes," she agreed.

For a long while, he couldn't find anything to say. Not for the first time, he appreciated the fact that with Yuki, there wasn't often a need for many words. "That's very compassionate of you," he finally managed, giving her the most encouraging smile he could muster. What could two girls who existed like ghosts do?

When he stopped to think about it, though, Hanyuu probably _was_ very lonely. He knew she could talk to Rika, but Rika - at least around him - was very cautious about interacting with Hanyuu. And no wonder at that; an 'invisible friend' would be beyond odd for a woman his aunt's age. A friend like Yuki was probably nothing short of a miracle for the 'god' of Hinamizawa.

"I'm touched that you were so thoughtful for her," he added, shaking his head. He put his hands on the edge of the table, staring into her nearly unfathomable eyes as she watched him curiously. "What did you two do together?"

It was undoubtedly something very difficult to explain to a mere mortal like himself. Something that beings who called themselves 'gods'... Well, he may not understand, but Yuki had gone out of her way for the other being. It was the least he could do to listen to whatever it was she had done.

She rarely seemed to struggle for words, just words that worked for him. Yet, at that question, she seemed as much at a loss as the very first time she had spoken to him at length, trying to explain what she was, a year ago. Her lips shaped words, slowly, but she did not utter them. Eventually, and for some reason her face was slightly pink when she explained it, she said, "We ... enjoyed ... the view."

He felt something very odd from her at the moment. Not that she was concealing something from him, because she would tell him outright if there was something that she did not want him to know. But he felt certain that she had vastly simplified things for his understanding.

Her eyes flicked to her teacup briefly. "At this stage of familiarity," she asked, her eyes turning to his, "is it appropriate to repeat a previous request?"

"Is there something I forgot to do?" he asked, frowning. He suspected he still owed her a trip to the library, and the day was early enough that if she wanted that, it wouldn't be a problem. Then again, he could never pay back the times she had saved his life adequately, the way he saw things.

She shook her head. "During the previous week, only minimal time was spent in corporeal form," she explained. "It would be beneficial, but not required, to establish physical stimulus to recalibrate senses to the correct wavelength."

"Physical ... stimulus," he said slowly, squinting at her.

"As we have undertaken previously," she added, blinking once, her eyes warm, even though her expression hadn't changed at all. That tiny hint of a blush was still there, though...

"You ... want me to kiss you again? That would ... make you feel better?"

He thought he caught a hint of shyness from her, but she gave her typical minuscule nod in response.

"Well," he said, scratching his chin with one finger while his eyes looked away from her, his face heating up. "That's ... not something I'm much good at saying 'no' to ... but let's make sure we don't get carried away."

"Understood," she agreed, as he recognized her satisfied not-quite-a-smile expression, and she moved towards him.

* * *

Even though they had been reporting to the club room for lunches, Haruhi canceled the tradition the first day of school after Golden Week. Not that Kyon minded, terribly; his mother's mood had generally improved to the point where he had real food in his bento, so he wasn't starving. Of course, he didn't mind that Haruhi just 'happened' to leave him an extra bento, either.

After class he knocked on the door, waiting for Mikuru's traditional call to enter. "J...just a minute!" Kanae's voice came from within. He raised an eyebrow curiously, as she immediately followed with a giggle. "Hee, Suzumiya-san, that tickles!"

Right, he thought to himself. Kanae had been given the dubious title of 'Mascot Trainee', and evidently Haruhi meant to see it through.

Further giggles and not-quite-struggling noises came from within, and Kyon tried his best not to think about it, leaning against the wall next to the door. Not the door itself, since that had not worked well for him - or had worked _too_ well, depending on how he thought about it - when he'd accidentally gotten a very unique angle on Mikuru's shapely legs last December.

He realized with a grimace that he was badly failing not thinking about the sounds on the other side of the door.

Was Mikuru in that room, he wondered?

Salvation came in the form of Koizumi, ambling around the corner of the stairwell with a bright smile. "Hello!" he said cheerfully. "I trust you had a pleasant vacation, Kyon-kun?"

"It was good," he allowed. "How about you?"

Koizumi seemed mildly surprised Kyon returned the courtesy of asking. "It was quite relaxing, outside of a few incidents," he agreed. "It was nice to see my family again."

"Oh, yeah?" Had closed space reappeared? He didn't think Haruhi seemed bothered enough to create any ... at least, during the time they had spent together. "Work came up during the week?"

"Hmm, no ... but there is something I would like to discuss with you at some point. Mori-san will be there, and it would be ... helpful, I imagine, if Tsuruya-san were there, as well. Do you suppose that could be arranged?"

"Oh, right," he realized. The two week 'trial period' for his 'handling' of Haruhi in the eyes of the Organization had ended, and they were supposed to negotiate some form of merger with Tsuruya's family. "Yeah, we can ask Tsuruya-kun. Might not be today if she's busy, but soon, I'm sure."

"That would be wonderful," Koizumi said, still cheerful. "Hmm, usually, we have Suzumiya-san watched for her own safety, as you should recall."

"Yeah..."

"And yourself as well; you are an important person in the scheme of things, after all."

"Sure," he agreed, nodding, not particularly liking where the discussion was heading.

"We do have an admitted blind spot in your rural village," the esper continued. "And we briefly lost track of Suzumiya when she went somewhere... Well, with Tsuruya-san, so there was no reason to wonder for her safety, but as you may imagine, this was disconcerting to us, to say the least."

"Seriously?" Kyon asked, dropping his voice and giving Koizumi a skeptical stare. "They bothered you on your vacation just to tell you that they didn't know where Haruhi was?"

"They wanted detailed information as to her emotional state, so they could be sure she was safe."

Outside of an unreasonably long walk in unspeakable weather, he couldn't think of any situation where she was in _danger_ in Hinamizawa ... and the rest of the time, she should have been with Tsuruya. "Is there a point to this?" he asked, somewhat irritably.

"Let me just say that based on our blind spot, I would be _vastly_ reassured if you had met with Suzumiya-san over the vacation. And if you haven't, then I'm ... greatly concerned."

"Then set your mind at ease," Kyon said dourly. "Tsuruya-kun came to visit some business associates, who happened to live in the area." Haruhi was right, though ... 'creepy stalker' indeed. He could absolutely agree with her on that count.

"Oh, oh good," Koizumi said, seeming to become, if anything, even more cheerful, though genuinely relaxed. "In that case, sorry to trouble you!"

Kyon looked away down the hall, waiting for confirmation that it was safe to enter the club room. "Ta-dah!" Haruhi cheered from behind the door. "Hmm, hmm, that really does work! Mikuru-chan's done quite a good job, don't you think?"

"Totally agree, nyoro~!" Tsuruya opined, before bursting into laughter.

"Yay!" Kanae called. "Sempai, you can come in!"

"Glad to hear it," he muttered to the esper, opening the door and stepping through, only to freeze. There was no sign of Mikuru, but Tsuruya was sitting in one of the seats, still laughing. Yuki was in her usual seat, but broke from her book long enough to make eye contact. Haruhi stood a few feet away, studying his reaction with a self-satisfied smirk. Of course, near where Mikuru usually made tea in her lovely maid costume, was Kanae.

It took Kyon a minute to place the outfit - it was blue, composed of a pair of shorts with semi-flared legs, making it _look_ like a skirt, a top with long sleeves and a kerchief-like bit of pink cloth sewn over the left shoulder. It also included a blue, somewhat naval-looking cap. "It's a stewardess's uniform," Haruhi explained.

"I think the correct term is 'flight attendant', Haruhi," he managed.

"My, that looks quite good on you," Koizumi added. "Very nice, Kanae-san."

"What? Stewardess, flight attendant - doesn't matter!" Haruhi snapped, still smiling. "It's _moe_!"

"What do you think, Sempai?" Kanae asked, twirling around.

"Haruhi was right," Kyon answered, wondering what would happen next. "I have to say that I agree with her suggestion that uniforms suit you." Kanae was nothing short of adorable in the outfit.

Kanae clapped her hands together in delight as Mikuru walked into the room. "Hello, everyone~!" the older girl said cheerfully. "I'll get changed and make some ... tea..." He glanced over to see what had caused Mikuru's expression to suddenly go blank. Kanae followed her gaze as well, and shortly everyone was staring at the gleaming brand-new looking coffee machine sitting right behind the tea set.

"Oh, would you like some coffee?" Kanae asked, smiling happily at the other girl. "I can't make tea, but I know how to make coffee!"

"Ah," Mikuru said, shaking her head and managing a cautious smile. "No coffee for me, thanks... Oh, but how does it fit?"

"Perfect! Asahina-san, you're an amazing tailor! I wouldn't mind wearing this every day for the club!"

Well, Kyon had adjusted to Mikuru frequently wearing the maid outfit. Kanae dressing up as a stewardess... Yeah, he was pretty sure he could cope with that. He'd miss his maid Mikuru, though...

"You don't have to every day," Haruhi said confidently, dropping one hand to Kanae's shoulder and giving it a friendly pat. "I told Kyon once that I'd wear costumes, too, but I never really got around to it. Well! Now we can trade mascot duty around, and as long as someone does it, it doesn't matter who."

That seemed reasonable to Kyon ... or at least, _fairer_, at any rate... "Is there a shift rotation, or will you draw lots?" Kyon joked, smirking. Not that he needed a refresher of what Mikuru looked like to compare with Kanae, or anything like that.

"If there aren't volunteers, I'll assign the duty," Haruhi explained. "And what did you mean 'you'? It's 'we'; you aren't exempt!"

"Um, as nice as that costume is, I don't think it'll fit either myself or Koizumi," Kyon remarked, frowning. "And I'd probably kill half the brigade if I'm in charge of making tea."

"I'll let Mikuru-chan decide what your costumes will be," Haruhi said, smirking. "You may get a pass on making tea, but not dressing up."

He blinked at Haruhi, then turned to gauge Mikuru's reaction. For whatever reason, she seemed strangely ... disappointed with Haruhi's decree, right up until the last part, where she suddenly brightened, her eyes distant, her mouth hanging the slightest bit open.

"Asahina-san?" he asked her. "That's alright with you?"

"That's _fine_!" Mikuru said suddenly, grinning, not meeting his eyes, her cheeks pinkening. For some reason, she drew the back of her sleeve across her mouth, as though she'd been drooling a little. "Um, I need to make ... some things..."

"That's a mega cute outfit!" Tsuruya agreed with a giggle, hugging Kanae tightly and twirling around with the smaller girl. "But it's from an anime Mikuru-chan and I saw!"

"Really?" Haruhi asked, surprised, looking at it more closely.

"Yes," Mikuru admitted, her blush deepening. "Sorry! It was from ... what was it called ... 'Planetes'? It was the outfit the flight attendants had for zero gravity, but I thought they were very cute!"

"Neat!" Kanae enthused, grabbing the sides of her pleated shorts and spreading them like a skirt once Tsuruya set her down. "I have a space stewardess costume!"

Yuki looked up from her book and studied the outfit briefly before giving a tiny nod and turning her attention back to the book. Kyon checked the title, 'The Golden Compass'.

"Even better," Haruhi agreed, grinning.

"Ah, Kanae-chan, you look better than I expected in that outfit!" Mikuru assured her understudy. "Now, let me show you how to make tea; I don't know if I'm terribly good, but I can teach you what I know!"

"Anyway," Haruhi said, moving to sit behind the computer, as Mikuru set down her bag and began whispering instructions to Kanae, "further costume ideas can be submitted to myself or Mikuru. Say, where did that coffee machine come from, anyway?"

"I brought it," Koizumi said, ducking his head. "Mori-san said she owed it to us."

"Oh? Huh, I guess that explains it, then."

All in all ... that seemed reasonable to Kyon, so he shrugged, glancing at Koizumi when the esper brought out another of his board games. He nodded, not even recognizing the box until the esper set it down. Stratego? Well, at least it wasn't Othello or chess again. Actually, he admitted to himself, it was nice to be back in the club.

* * *

Still thinking of what she'd discussed with Tsuruya, and to a lesser extent Mikuru, Haruhi let Kyon enjoy his first day back in the club by playing games with Koizumi. Of course, she had the responsibility of making sure his grades were still good, so that meant that she could really only afford to let him slack off one day - then it was studying, if not full time, until she was satisfied he'd do well.

Once club was finished, she shooed Kyon and Koizumi out the door so Kanae could change. Actually, they were going to leave on their own, but by following Kyon out she could make sure he didn't leave without her. Koizumi looked mildly surprised to see her in the hall with Kyon, then shrugged his shoulders. "I must be a third wheel," he observed, grinning. "I'll leave you two, then."

"What's that about?" she asked Kyon warily, as the esper strolled down the hall.

He rolled his eyes and didn't move. "Creepy stalker stuff," he answered, shrugging. "I've got to plan a meeting about that later with Tsuruya-kun."

"I almost miss the lazy, 'I'm not doing anything' Kyon," she teased.

He raised an eyebrow at that. "If anything," he remarked, "I miss being _able_ to be that lazier self. But I had an unpleasant wakeup to that this winter."

"You don't need to turn everything serious," she grumbled, annoyed that he couldn't be more positive. "Come on! Where's your sense of fun?"

"Hmm," he mused, looking thoughtful. "Want to see a movie ... let's see ... how about Wednesday night?"

"Y...you're..." He was checking his phone, so she had enough time to get control over her facial features, and keep him from realizing she was staring at him in something approaching shock. "Are you asking me out on a date?" she asked.

He blinked, seeming to only just realize how his request could have been interpreted. "Not ... exactly," he said cautiously, pocketing his phone and nervously scratching the back of his neck. "Um, you remember Miyoko-chan, right?"

"Miyokichi?" she asked. Naturally, she _had_ in fact committed his single foray into 'dating' to memory, since she'd lucked out and he drew that assignment. It was the best way to find out about him while ... pretending not to be tsundere. Damn, she really had to stop doing that. "The one who likes scary movies?"

"Yeah," he agreed, offering an apologetic smile. "She wants to go by 'Miyoko' now, instead of that nickname. Anyway, she'd asked me to take her to see a movie, and, you know, it's hard to say no... I thought, if I was going to be taking her out to see the movie anyway, maybe you'd want to come along?"

In a way, while she wished he _had_ asked her out on a date, Rika's reminders let her reflect that this was actually a good thing. Friends would see a movie together, too, it didn't _have_ to be romantic ... and, if she remembered the girl's taste in movies, it probably wouldn't be. She doubted it would make _her_ grab Kyon's arm, even if a younger girl would.

Then too, she realized, by inviting her along, she wouldn't have the chance to get jealous about him seeing a movie with another girl... Not that she should, if it weren't a date anyway...

"Horror movies aren't really my thing," she complained, frowning. Then her eyes widened at the realization of potential. "We _have_ to go," she gasped, unable to keep from grinning. "We'll bring Mikuru-chan with us - oh, that's going to be _priceless_!" She could just imagine Mikuru's reaction to violence on the big screen; the older girl was going to cower and wail so cutely!

Of course, she couldn't just torture Mikuru; she'd let the older girl sit next to Kyon. He should enjoy such a scene too, after all.

Kyon gave her a flat, doubtful look. But she saw that almost hidden, hopeful gleam in his eyes. "Haruhi," he started to protest, "while that may be fun for you-"

"What," she challenged him, "you don't like the idea of Mikuru-chan sitting next to you in a dark theater, hanging onto your arm when the villain jumps out? Asking you to hold her hand, maybe walk her home after, since she's so scared?"

"That actually would be- No! I mean, that's not-"

"It's settled," she decided, as the door opened. Kanae had changed back into her uniform, and Mikuru was just hanging her costume on the rack.

"What's this?" Kanae asked, looking between the two and smiling. "Planning new club activities?"

"That reminds me," Haruhi mused, frowning. "Kanae-chan hasn't had a chance to participate in any real club activities. We need to fix that."

"Did you have something in mind?" Mikuru asked, while Tsuruya nudged Kanae and reminded the girl she had forgotten her schoolbag.

"I didn't," Kyon said, shaking his head. "I'm happy with playing board games."

"Mikuru-chan," Haruhi said, grinning at the upperclassman, "Kyon's going to take us to see a movie on Wednesday night!"

"O...oh," Mikuru allowed, surprised, before she gave a cautious smile. "That sounds like fun!"

"A movie, eh?" Tsuruya mused, closing the door, since Yuki had left earlier. The group moved together towards the shoe lockers. "Who gets to go?"

"Ah, well, just the three of us and one of Kyon's sister's friends," Haruhi said. "It's not really a club activity, just something as friends. Kyon mentioned he was going to be doing some work for you this week, anyway, so Mikuru-chan and I are going to borrow him a bit, too."

"Aw, I want to go see a movie," Kanae pouted. Then she brightened. "Sempai, will you take me out to see one later, too?"

"I don't think you want to see the movie we're going to watch," he said, sighing. "So, I don't know. Haruhi, what do you think?"

"What, you have to check with me for permission to take someone else to see a movie?" Haruhi asked him, rolling her eyes, but remembering to keep her smile friendly. "Unless it's going to interfere with brigade business, it's not my problem."

"Er, okay," he said, frowning. "In that case, Kanae-chan, I guess it's possible."

"Ooh, ooh," Tsuruya chimed in, waving one hand excitedly. "The Trope-tan movie premieres is this months! Kyon-kun, let's go to see that! We can bring Imouto-kun - I'll takes care of the tickets!"

"Trope-tan's getting a movie!?" Kanae asked incredulously, gaping at Tsuruya. "How did I not know about that!? We have to see it!"

Tsuruya and Kanae together beamed powerful smiles at Kyon. "Ple~ase?" From the tallest and shortest girls in the brigade, he was struck from all angles.

Haruhi really couldn't fault him for folding like a cheap suit under that onslaught. "Sure," he said, grinning weakly. "Um, when is it?"

"The twenty seventh," Tsuruya said, going to her shoe locker and changing. "I'll takes care of the details!"

"That sounds good," he agreed, shrugging. He still looked distracted, even after changing his shoes.

"Figuring out what movie to take Yuki-chan to?" she teased him.

"Well, it only seemed fair," he mumbled, looking away. "But I'm not sure if she's interested in any movies, really."

"If movies aren't her thing, figure something else out," she advised. The work of strengthening the bonds of friendship didn't seem to be too difficult to deal with, at least so far. She decided to remain cautiously optimistic, instead of becoming overconfident that it would always be so simple. Still, things seemed to be starting off just fine. "Hey, want to walk home together?"

"To the station at least," he agreed, smirking. Naturally, unless she wanted to follow him home and study... As tempting as that was, she needed to go to her own home and make dinner, or else she'd have to suffer with Kyon's mother's cooking. And possible attitude. Haruhi wasn't anything approaching a coward, but something about Kyon's mother just _bothered_ her after their last meeting. "Actually, we could head to the theater and pick up the tickets together, if you'd like."

Hard not to perk up at that ... she'd still make it home in time for dinner after that detour. "Good thinking," she approved.

"Anyway," Tsuruya remarked, once they were walking across the campus, towards the main gate, "what's this about doing works for me, Kyon-kun?"

"I'm supposed to arrange a meeting between us and Mori-san," he explained. "Koizumi wanted it to be tonight, but I told him I couldn't guarantee that."

"Yeah, I do have other duties," Tsuruya mused. She cocked her head to one side, considering, then nodded. "Wednesday night, or Thursday night," she decided. "You're seeing your movie on Wednesday?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "So, is Thursday alright, then? I get the impression that Koizumi's organization is fine with any time, right now."

"Yep! Thursday it is, then! We can uses my house; it's plenty secure! Say around ... six o'clock? We'll have dinner!"

"That sounds good," Kyon decided. "I can put that out of my mind, for now; I'm sure it can wait until then."

* * *

'Uncle' Watanabe had been true to his word. After Jun was released from the hospital, he was free to do what he wished. He had suspected, somehow, that he would be followed by police officers or detectives, waiting for him to do something detestable so they could fall on him. Perhaps, they would already have known about the deal that the yakuza enforcer had set up for them.

But the days had gone by, and still nothing happened. Sure, his family life had become unpleasant in the extreme, his father grumbling about him being a failure, his mother always giving him angrily disapproving looks. His career was probably damaged, too; his parents had agreed to 'voluntarily' remove him from the school, but he would keep no credit from the first part of the term.

That meant that even though he was short only a month of classes, he couldn't transfer anywhere this term. That problem aside, even though 'officially' nothing had been done, he strongly suspected that any school in the area he applied to would find personal reasons not to allow him to enroll. That meant, ultimately, that he had completely lost out on his chances of a second year of high school.

He would have to go to a school either hours away by train, or so remote he had to board somewhere, if he was to have any chance...

...except, really, he didn't care anymore. Unless there was a school he didn't know about, one where he could find his tenshi, none of them _really_ mattered. His other options, if he didn't care about school, were either the most simple of entry-level jobs - manual labor, effectively - or working in crime. And after Watanabe and Ryuguu's offer, crime was sounding better by the day.

When the first Monday of Golden Week came around, Watanabe had returned, meeting Jun outside of view from his parents. Watanabe drove a nondescript green van, and Ryuguu was sitting in the back, looking depressed when Jun climbed in. Jun didn't really care, but tried to make small talk anyway; Ryuguu was despondent over the fact that some distant estranged aunt didn't want anything to do with him.

Well, that wasn't Jun's problem, particularly. But the realization that he had nowhere else to go _did_ galvanize the other boy into taking Watanabe's training more seriously, once he'd gotten them out to a secluded point in the woods where they could practice unobserved. Jun's first shot left his hand numb, and not been nearly as loud as he'd thought it should be.

Watanabe rolled his eyes when Jun complained; it was nothing like a movie, and it was not at all like using a camera. Ryuguu calmly told Jun to 'suck it up', since his dominant hand was broken, and the other boy was having a much harder time of it. Even though he couldn't grip with his right hand, Ryuguu could still use it to steady his aim when he fired left-handed.

The rest of the 'vacation' passed in the same manner, Watanabe advising from the sidelines and having long, growled discussions with his cell-phone that involved a lot of swearing. From Jun's perspective, it wasn't really much of a vacation, since there was no school to return to.

By the end of the week, Watanabe pronounced them 'done', and they sat in the back of the van, sharing sips from a very small bottle of sake. Then Jun and Ryuguu were told to keep their firearms hidden until they were called into action. In the meantime, he and Ryuguu had both been given jobs working for a movie theater that Watanabe's 'friends' owned.

It was here that Jun felt his tenshi's beatific smile shine upon him once more. He was emptying one of the trash cans in the front of the theater when he heard it. "...of you, Kyon."

He looked up sharply at that nickname, jolted. He was not about to forget it; not any time soon. Staying crouched behind the can, he peeked around the edge to see Kyon speaking over his shoulder to the girl who Jun had tried to shame in revenge.

"You've been in a good mood lately," Kyon judged, his focus taken by the girl.

Jun chewed his lip for a moment, then ducked behind the trash can again. The gun was hidden at home ... if he'd had it with him...

"What?" Haruhi grumbled at him. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, just an observation. Anyway, do you want to hold onto the tickets for me?"

"Yeah, I'll keep them, but spare me 'just an observation'. You don't think there's something _wrong_ with it, so is there something _right_ with it?"

"Well..." The rest of the conversation was lost to distance, and he cautiously peeked around the trash can. Both of them were gone, so he very quickly made his way into the ticketing booth, where an older employee sat, flipping through a worn magazine.

"Do you remember what movie the guy and girl who were just here bought tickets for?" he asked. The older man looked back at Jun skeptically, then glanced at the empty space in front of the theater. No one else was in line.

"'Saw'," the man answered. "Friends of yours?"

"Yeah," Jun said, nodding. "I'm looking to meet up with them at some point. Maybe make it a surprise. Do you know what showing they were going for?"

"Seven twenty showing, Wednesday," the man offered, glancing at the schedule. Then he gave the boy an ugly smile. "That's not a family movie, so I hope you're ready to see a lot of blood."

"Oh, I am," Jun assured him, suddenly happy to do the menial job of cleaning out the trash cans. 'Uncle' Watanabe would be so pleased... Surely such a wonderful coincidence was a gift from his tenshi?

* * *

Mikuru hadn't yet devised the ideal situation to present Kyon the coat she had made for him. It was done, and she _thought_ it would fit him... Haruhi's changes had been more work to implement, but thanks to Yuki's 'training' she was adept at everything she needed to adjust the clothing. It had been a little bit colder in Hinamizawa, but back in Nishinomiya, the winter uniforms were starting to become uncomfortably warm; was she going to need to wait until fall to present it to him?

That thought in mind, she was slow getting to the club room, so Kanae volunteered for mascot duty before she arrived, meaning she didn't have to put on her maid uniform. That was _kind_ of nice, if late in coming... Now dressing up for the club was an option, not a rule. Even though she didn't have to anymore, she found herself missing the chance to dress up for Kyon. Then again, she might occasionally get to see Kyon in costumes, as well.

That was something she wouldn't complain about.

So while Kanae was doing up the last few buttons, before she put the cap on, Mikuru turned to her notebook and contemplated designs. There had to be some good occasion to give him the coat ... it would be a waste if she needed to keep it for months until it was actually colder. She straightened up, realizing something.

With a great show of focus and concentration, Kanae was occupied with following her instructions on making tea, staring at the kettle very intently. Kyon had come in after Kanae finished changing, ignoring Koizumi for the moment as Haruhi berated him for wasting valuable club time needing to study. Mikuru might have worried, if it weren't for the gentle teasing tone of Haruhi's voice, or the way she leaned very close to nudge him with an elbow. Or the way he gave a good-natured roll of his eyes and grumbled about slave-drivers with a soft smile.

Still, since everything seemed to be going so smoothly, she asked, "Kyon-kun, when is your birthday? That seems like something I should have known by now."

Haruhi started slightly at the question, then gave him a curious glance. "She's got a point," she allowed. "You know, in a week the SOS Brigade will be one year old - that's something that should have come up already!"

"Oh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, you seemed to think something was more important last time I brought it up," he chided Haruhi. She glared at him while he turned to Mikuru and explained, "It's June 19th, Asahina-san."

"Wait a minute," Tsuruya and Haruhi said together, giving him an odd look.

After they exchanged a glance, Haruhi asked, "You're going to be eighteen next month?"

"Eh, no," he clarified, frowning. "I'm sixteen right now; my parents count my age from the beginning of the school year, so of course, I do, too."

"Curious!" Tsuruya remarked.

"Done!" Kanae cheered, finished preparing tea. She set the cups on the tray and hummed as she walked slowly around the room, passing the hot drinks out.

"Well," Haruhi said after a moment of thought, "that's a bit odd."

"Is it really?" Koizumi asked, raising an eyebrow. "It does make sense from the standpoint of keeping it from interfering with studies. It's only a three-month change, anyway. I would presume, then, that your family celebrates your birthday at the beginning of the school year, as well?"

"That's when I get birthday presents," he agreed.

"So, you are a Gemini!" Koizumi added. "But your parents would rather treat you like an Aries?"

"I don't really follow that stuff anymore, so you've lost me," Kyon noted, turning his attention back to his homework, pausing only long enough to thank Kanae when she set a teacup near his papers.

"Hmm, he does have a lot of Gemini qualities," Haruhi pondered. "Here. Likes talking, novelty and the unusual, variety in life, multiple projects all going on at once, and reading."

Yuki looked up from her book thoughtfully. "Interesting," she contributed.

"That really doesn't sound like me," Kyon protested, frowning.

"Dislikes," Haruhi continued, "feeling tied down, learning from a school, being in a rut, mental inaction, and being alone."

"That's about half right," he allowed, rolling his eyes. "But as far as my family is concerned, my birthday has already passed for this year." He shrugged. "Which doesn't bother me too badly."

"So," Mikuru temporized, frowning, "I already missed it, then?"

"Er," Kyon said slowly, seeming to realize something, "uh, not really, just as far as my family goes."

"That's actually a good thing," Haruhi remarked. "Now it won't interfere with club activities!"

"Our brigade chief; always finding the cloud's silver lining," Kyon replied dryly.

Haruhi agreed, "Someone's got to!"

Now it seemed likely Haruhi already had plans for Kyon's birthday. Maybe she could give it to him on the sly...? But Haruhi had been interested in the coat, too; she'd undoubtedly get upset if she didn't get to see Kyon wear it soon after he got it. She sighed quietly, turning to her design book. Why did it all have to be so complicated?

Oh well, Mikuru thought. At least she was going to go see a movie with Kyon ... and Haruhi. That was better than nothing.

* * *

Miyoko was excited about getting to see one of the most talked-about movies on her horror mailing list. It had gotten rave reviews, and she was so looking forward to it, she'd had to set her account to vacation to avoid spoilers. Even if the mails were labeled, she was afraid she couldn't help but peek.

So when her friend's big-brother, that ever dependable Kyon, agreed to go see the movie with her, she had intended to pay for the tickets to thank him. Unexpectedly, he'd already taken care of that, and even brought two other girls with him to see the movie. That was okay, though; if it were two girls, they were probably friends. If it was just one other girl, than she'd feel very awkward for interfering with what might have been a date if she hadn't been there.

Though she'd never met either of the girls before, they were both strikingly beautiful. The one with longer hair kept telling Miyoko she was very pretty, and would grow into a real beauty herself. The other one gave her a very strange look for a long minute before telling Kyon, "You know, suddenly I can see why you chose what you did when you wrote about that incident."

Kyon himself said nothing on the subject, instead offering, "Should I get something from the concession stand while you get seats? Haruhi's holding the tickets."

"Oh, get us a soda," Haruhi ordered. "Actually, make that two - and I want some popcorn! A really big one we can all share!"

"L...let me," Miyoko insisted, her face reddening. "Kyon already paid for the tickets, so it's only fair."

"Sure, sure," Haruhi agreed. "Mikuru-chan and I will get seats."

"I'll help Miyoko-chan carry everything," Kyon decided, nodding at the older girls as Haruhi handed him a pair of tickets, then walked into the theater.

The concession stand line was long, but they'd arrived early enough that they shouldn't miss any of the movie. "Um, I wanted to thank you again, Kyon, for taking me to out," Miyoko said, giggling. "Um, I suppose this part goes without saying, but it would probably be best if my parents didn't know that we went to see this..."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Your parents don't know that you have an interest in this type of movie?" he asked.

"Ah, no, they know," she said, feeling a little embarrassed. For all she was given credit for looking older than her age, she was still only twelve... "I got 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge' for Santa Day this year! But, um, they always tell me that I can't go out, especially at night, with boys that are older than me... Haha, but I know I can trust you!"

Kyon chuckled at that, smirking. "If I had it to do over again, I'd want you as a sister instead of Imouto," he assured her. "A polite, considerate, well-behaved girl? Who wouldn't want you as a sister!"

"Ah! Don't say such things about your own sister!" Miyoko protested, unable to keep from giggling herself. "Nono-chan's... She means well; she's just excitable! Don't tell her I said this, but at her age, I think she's starting to get a little uncertain because of her size. All of our other friends are growing up, but she still looks like she's two grades lower."

"She's going to look like an elementary student when she's in high school, at this rate," Kyon agreed, sighing. "She never eats her vegetables."

"Is that really it?" Miyoko asked with another giggle. "Really?"

"It can't help," Kyon said, shrugging. "I don't usually think about it, though; really, Imouto is probably going to get a big growth spurt soon." He paused, suddenly looking a bit melancholic. "You know, it's strange ... I'm so used to her being the way she has for the last few years, I might actually miss her being small?"

"That's not strange at all!" she countered. "That's perfectly normal! In fact ... to be honest ... I always wished I had a sibling, too. I'm envious of Kyon and Nono-chan."

"But, you have cousins too, don't you?"

"Well..." She thought about it a minute. "I'm the oldest of the cousins, except for an older cousin who was, um, my first love." Her face reddened, and she grinned anyway. "Ah, but he ran off with some girl years ago. Nowadays when my family does cousin-gatherings, I have to watch over the younger cousins. What a chore! And one of my uncles even gave me that nickname I don't like anymore!"

Kyon gave her a very odd look, just as the line finally moved forward. "Eventually, that will probably pay off," he said, shaking his head. Turning to the attendant he added, "Um, your largest popcorn and two large colas, please."

"And chocolate mints," Miyoko added, reaching for her change-purse before Kyon could take out his wallet.

"Sorry we're so slow tonight," the attendant behind the counter replied, giving them their orders as Miyoko handed over the money. "Two of our guys just vanished; we're usually much better about it. Please enjoy your date!"

"Ah, heh," Miyoko managed, trying not to blush. "Thanks."

Kyon gave a good-natured smirk, carrying the drink tray while she hugged the ludicrously over-sized popcorn tub to herself.

"Hey, Kyon?" she asked, while he handed the tickets over and they were admitted to the dim theater.

"What is it?" he replied, glancing back at her.

"It's not that I would mind, because I wouldn't," she said quickly, not quite meeting his eyes, "but I know you've got to like someone your own age... Is one of those two big sisters in there your girlfriend?"

He looked very nervous and said, "Um, maybe some day, but right now we're all just friends."

That was good, she thought. She'd probably never be able to ask him for help like this if he was dating someone; any girlfriend of Kyon's would probably get jealous...

She was distracted from her musings by spotting a trio of large, unruly looking men, evidently bothering Kyon's friends. Mikuru looked terrified, trying to cower in her seat, while Haruhi looked about ready to start swinging punches. "Look," one of the thuggish men said, grinning, "if you say you're not here on a date, what's wrong with us trying to pick up on your friend? You can say no, but she hasn't said a thing!"

"I said back off, or you're going to regret it!" Haruhi snapped. There were no attendants in sight, which seemed unusual, until Miyoko remembered the comment from the employee behind the concession stand.

"P...please don't fight!" Mikuru blurted out. "W...we just want to watch the movie!" She immediately hid her face behind her hands.

"So, your _friend_ seems to not want trouble," the thug continued, just before Kyon loudly cleared his throat behind the man.

The thug looked very irritated, catching the way Haruhi smiled smugly at spotting Kyon. "So," the man began, turning slowly, his companions grinning menacingly behind him, "you must be the 'other friends' that-" He cut off with a sudden choking noise, seeing something about Kyon.

"Ah!" he blurted out, eyes wide. The other two men with him looked equally horrified. "Aniki! Sorry, sorry! I didn't know that these were yours! I apologize! I apologize! I am so, so very sorry! Please, enjoy your evening!"

"He's had a bit to drink," one of the other two added hastily, "we'll get him out of your way immediately, Aniki!"

All three men bowed together, backing their way out of the theater. Miyoko blinked, trying to think of what had happened. Why had those brutish, scary looking men called Kyon 'big brother'?

"Remember what 'ninkyo dantai' means," Kyon warned the men as they retreated. "I don't think this is behavior the family head would be pleased to hear about!"

Suddenly, Miyoko understood. Kyon had just mentioned cousins! Obviously, he was related to those men, and knew how to tell them to behave. He must have made such a strong impression that they called him 'Aniki' for 'big brother', even though he was their junior. He shook his head after handing Haruhi one of the drinks, then adjusted a pin on the collar of his shirt.

"Sorry about that," he said, grimacing.

"Smooth," Haruhi remarked, glancing at the retreating figures. "I kind of wanted to see some of your legendary smack down skills. But, I guess if you've already earned their respect, you can hardly do it again."

Kyon looked away, scratching the back of his head. "Um... Anyway, where are we sitting?"

Haruhi and Mikuru were sitting two seats apart. "Oh, Miyoko, you take this seat, and Mikuru and I will sit on either side of Kyon!"

"But," Miyoko protested, "I wanted to sit next to Kyon-nii!" If those men could call Kyon like a big brother, so could she. And what if she got really scared or excited at some point, and wanted to hold onto his hand? It had happened last time, after all, and Kyon had said he wasn't dating either of them... Plus, she had asked him to the movie first!

Haruhi scowled, and Mikuru giggled, recovered once the men had bowed their way out of the theater. "That's fine," Mikuru said, patting the seat next to her. "Miyoko-chan, sit here, next to Mikuru-nee! Kyon-kun can sit between you and Suzumiya-san!"

"That won't do," Haruhi disagreed, grumbling as she sipped at her soda. "Alright, fine! Miyoko-chan, sit here, and Kyon, you're between Mikuru-chan and Miyoko-chan; I'll sit on the other side of Mikuru-chan."

They shuffled around and sat as instructed, Miyoko handing Kyon the tub of popcorn so she could properly smooth her skirt down once she was seated.

"For a movie that's running several weeks, there sure aren't a lot of people here," Kyon mused, glancing around. "I'm sure if there were more people, those guys would never have bothered you."

Mikuru leaned forward to peer around the popcorn bucket and asked, "Miyoko-chan, what kind of movie is it that you wanted to see? Suzumiya-san wouldn't tell me!"

Miyoko thought it was very strange that she would come to see such a movie without knowing. Ready to explain her favorite genre in detail, she began, "Oh, it's-"

"A surprise," Haruhi interrupted her, grinning. "Anyway, Mikuru-chan, Kyon saved you once tonight already; if you're in danger, I'm sure he can again!"

"Sorry, Asahina-san," Kyon said, shrugging helplessly. "You know how she is..."

The first previews came on, flicking brightly as the house lights dimmed. "Oh, it's starting!" Miyoko exclaimed excitedly. "I hear that it's already got several sequels in America; I can hardly wait for them to come over, too!"

"Don't forget to turn your phones off," Mikuru remembered aloud.

* * *

After finishing his homework, alone in the studio apartment that he'd been given by the Organization, Koizumi leaned back in his chair and stared blankly at the wall before him, his eyes unfocused. Sometimes ... especially lately ... he wasn't sure what to make of Kyon. In the past, despite Kyon's obvious closeness to Haruhi, Koizumi had been able to rely on his own status as the brigade's second-in-command. But ever since the reveal to Haruhi, to save Yuki's life...

Ever since then, Haruhi had firmly set him to one side, giving the largely meaningless role to Kyon, and then making it significantly more important. Not that he could judge the changes were _bad_, per se, but...

He certainly did feel marginal as a member of the group, at best, and the fact that Kyon didn't seem to see any need to turn to him for help... That was not improving his personal standing in the Organization, and that made things more difficult for Mori, as well. For all that their trust had been rewarded, so far, Koizumi couldn't help but feel like he was slowly drifting away from the rest of the brigade.

As if to underscore that thought, his phone suddenly rang. He noticed Kyon's number in the caller ID, and smiled, having no trouble putting it into his voice when he answered, "Koizumi, here; how may I help you, Kyon-kun?"

"Koizumi," Kyon said, sounding as if he was somewhere very far away, in extremely high winds, "you have one hour and twenty minutes to prepare."

"I'm not sure I understand?" Koizumi asked cautiously. "Is the meeting between yourself, Mori-san, and Tsuruya-san to happen at that time, instead of tomorrow?"

An amused chuckle came across the line. "I'll leave that to you," Kyon answered. "In the meantime, I must tell you three things. I know you'll record this well. Are you ready?"

"Yes, of course," he replied, grabbing a spare sheet of paper and a pencil. He was still sitting at his desk, after all. What was this about, anyway? Wasn't Kyon supposed to be seeing a movie with Haruhi and Mikuru?

"Firstly, Mori-san needs to be told that it was a predetermined event."

Koizumi wrote down what he said, guessing it had to do with time travel, but not sure what it meant. "Okay."

"Secondly, follow your own judgment; have an ambulance and doctors ready, but don't forget that Haruhi is your leader."

"That sounds quite worrisome," he objected, still scribbling down the instructions. "Can you give me any more details?"

"Thirdly," Kyon continued, as though Koizumi hadn't said anything, "tell me these words when you see me in person next: 'You can easily overlook "the quiet ones" when you make an assumption about the situation'." He paused for a moment, then added, "Then you'll want to give me that piece of paper."

"I see..." Well, it was better than being left completely in the dark, he supposed. Now he know he wasn't dealing with just _Kyon_, but an iteration of him from the _future_. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"'It's always darkest before the sunrise'," Kyon quoted. "Good luck, Koizumi." Then the phone disconnected.

He frowned at it thoughtfully. What did that mean, then? Still, best get to work... Though, that second part really did bother him.

* * *

Miyoko hadn't had so much fun in a _long_ time! Seeing a movie with a small group of people was much better than going to see it with just one friend. It was much gorier than she'd expected, so she ended up spending a lot of time holding Kyon's hand nervously, but he seemed distracted for the most-part. Probably because within the first ten minutes, Mikuru had physically leapt completely out of her seat and landed in Kyon's lap in one fluid, almost _practiced_ looking motion, pressing her face into his chest to try and block out the sound and noise.

Haruhi had probably held out the longest, but eventually took over Mikuru's abandoned seat and grabbed onto Kyon's other arm. Well, Miyoko didn't think it was _that_ bad... Kyon certainly seemed not to mind, anyway, other than to grimace occasionally, shake his head at some parts, or murmur something soothing to Mikuru.

After the credits rolled, they left the theater, Mikuru shivering and stumbling as her knees shook, clinging to Kyon for support. Haruhi looked a bit pale herself, holding Kyon's other hand while Miyoko walked a bit to one side, thinking about what they had seen.

"P...people don't... People don't _really_ do that, right?" Mikuru managed, voice quavering.

"Of course not!" Haruhi snapped. "Well, actually, maybe in America they do. But not here! That kind of thing is fake!"

"Right!" Miyoko agreed. "That's why I like the genre so much! By seeing all the bad, you can take everything that happens in your life! It'll never even come close to what you see in movies!"

"I have to admit," Kyon said, shaking his head, "I don't think I've ever seen a movie with that much blood in it. I doubt I'll be resting easily tonight."

"Maybe Hong Kong blood opera is more your style?" Miyoko mused thoughtfully. "You told me once you liked Hard Boiled when we were talking about movies, once!"

"Well, yeah, but that's about the far end of my violence tolerance," Kyon chuckled, ducking his head slightly. "Though, you're right; it's something we should keep in perspective."

"Still, it's good preparation," Miyoko added. "I mean, some day, I think I'll want to be a nurse, or maybe a doctor! But if you can't stand the sight of blood, it's no good, right? These movies are practice for me!"

"I realize how this may sound, coming from me," Haruhi remarked, holding Kyon's other hand - the one Mikuru wasn't clinging to, "but you are a very strange girl, Miyoko-chan."

"Ah..." She pouted, feeling her face heat up. "S...sorry..."

"No, no," Haruhi protested releasing Kyon's hand and patting Miyoko's head. "That's good! It's a sign of strength and individuality! I approve! If you were older, I might even let you join the SOS Brigade! Though, I have to admit, I don't think I would have seen this kind of movie on my own."

"I absolutely wouldn't have," Mikuru whimpered. "That was... That was..." She swallowed and looked away, not meeting anyone's eyes. "W...well, it was okay, because Kyon-kun was there ... but I don't like that kind of thing at all!"

"Sorry," Kyon sighed. "I should have talked Haruhi out of it..."

"Bah," Haruhi grumbled, sniffing imperiously. "I _still_ say that Mikuru-chan's cute reactions were worth it. And, Mikuru-chan, are you complaining? I seem to remember someone getting to spend a lot of time in Kyon's lap!"

Mikuru's face reddened and she still didn't meet anyone's eyes, though she leaned even closer to Kyon, hugging his arm to her chest. "That part was fine," she mumbled.

"That wouldn't have happened if you'd gone to see a sappy romance movie with him, right?"

"That's true..."

"There you go, then! Miyoko-chan might not know this, but part of the horror genre is so that girls turn to boys for courage when it gets scary! It's a sign of refinement on your part that you reacted like you did."

"I just don't want to see that much blood," Mikuru complained.

"Sorry again, Asahina-san," Kyon apologized. "I won't take you to see such a movie again."

"W...well ... maybe ... once in a while ... it would be okay," Mikuru managed, her face red.

"Aha," Miyoko giggled. "I think that Mikuru-nee likes Kyon-nii, hmm?"

"W...well!" Mikuru protested, releasing Kyon's arm and waving her hands frantically. "This, um, you see-"

"See?" Haruhi said knowingly, smirking. "Totally moe!"

"Don't worry about it," Kyon said, shaking his head and glancing at the girls sidelong, an amused smirk coming to his lips. "Really, the important thing is-"

And at that moment, a pair of figures leapt from a nearby alley, one of them shouting, "Die!" as a loud, strangely tinny 'bang' sounded, and Kyon's eyes widened, a sudden spatter of warm, dark crimson splashing across the girls. Miyoko stared in horror and started to scream, but before she could even begin, several more loud shots rang out in succession.

The two figures wheeled and began running away, while Kyon's expression shifted to confusion, then anger, finally settling on incredulous as he sank to his knees. Miyoko's scream found its way out of her throat, while Mikuru panicked, grabbing him tightly and sobbing, "Don't die, Kyon-kun! Don't die!"

Haruhi's eyes narrowed, and her face paled, strangely empty of worry. The trio of thugs that had harassed them in the theater suddenly reappeared, one kneeling at Kyon's side, the others charging after the retreating attackers, screaming, "For Aniki!"

A somewhat beaten green minivan down the street suddenly whirred to life. Of the two retreating figures, one lagged slightly to look back over his shoulder and was tackled by the thugs, crashing to the pavement heavily with a loud groan.

The other attacker didn't turn to look back until he was climbing into the van. He shot back a gloating, triumphant look, adjusting his glasses before the door closed. "Oh, no you don't," Haruhi grated out, her voice angrier than her expression betrayed. One of her eyes closed and she reached towards the van, as though she could grab it, dozens of meters distant, with one hand.

The van surged into motion, one of the two thugs reaching it a moment too late as it leapt down the street - and suddenly halted. The tire spun frantically, sending up streams of smoke and squealing loudly against the street, but in point of fact, as Miyoko watched, the van was slowly sliding _backwards_, as though, somehow, Haruhi was _dragging_ it back. The thug who was about to reach it hesitated, then cautiously stepped away as the van skidded first to one side, and then the other, as the driver frantically tried to steer left or right.

The sound of the wheels screeching fruitlessly across the ground didn't cease, even as the van's windows cracked, and the sides of the vehicle began to buckle ominously inward.

"M...Mikuru-nee," Miyoko began shakily, turning to the older girl... But Mikuru was unconscious, curled on the ground at Kyon's side. Where she hoped Kyon was alright, still clinging to awareness, he was quiet, as though asleep ... surrounded by a grim crimson aura on the pavement.

Miyoko wondered if watching horror movies had prepared her for the 'worst possibilities' at all, as sirens began to sound.


	21. Chapter 20

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Gearing Up Arc II

Chapter Twenty: Hell Hath No Fury

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Four: Delegation"_

_"...so that means, if you're leading, you have to ____lead__. That sometimes means delegating things you can do yourself, so you can lead others. Don't get this mixed up with 'not getting your hands dirty'; you should be capable, but know when to let people better suited to handling the situation do so."_

_"Methods of Victory" - T.H._

* * *

She was vaguely aware of not being in her right mind, but after everything she'd been through, she found herself not particularly caring at the moment. Probably, that was what 'not being in the right mind' meant. She didn't really stop to think about that, though.

Her power was _limited_, but she was by no means _powerless_. She continued compressing the van with her ability, the tires screeching loudly against the pavement, until the driver suddenly stopped accelerating and threw the vehicle in reverse. Instead of slowly dragging it towards her, it _launched_ backwards, too fast for her-

Somehow, a few meters short of hitting her, the van suddenly _stopped_, as she released her power, and the rear dented, as though folded around some invisible curved wall between her and it. A cloud of smoke erupted from the ground near back of the van, obscuring it from her view, but smoke was a thing, too, not a person. So she could manipulate that, and within a few short moments forced it flat to the ground, like a liquid.

"You don't get away that easily," she growled. When the smoke was clear, though, the crumpled back of the vehicle had been opened, a large smooth hole with a glowing red rim, as though something incredibly hot had sliced through the metal. Haruhi took a moment to catch her breath, another gesture tearing the gun from the shaking grip of the van's passenger, and began to compress it again-

"Suzumiya-san, I think I speak for Kyon when I say ... that's enough," someone behind her said.

"Who-" She broke eye contact with the pair trapped in the van and glared over her shoulder at Koizumi.

The usually polite, always subservient esper shook his head sharply. "I feel that Kyon-kun needs your help right now," he warned. "More than this."

Haruhi's powers suddenly failed her, the veneer of calm shattering. "K...Kyon's okay?" she asked, hearing her voice crack.

Koizumi gave a pained smile. "I can assure you, he will recover," the esper promised solemnly.

She took another breath, feeling strangely unsteady. She stumbled towards Kyon's form on the ground. The yakuza who had called him 'Aniki' first was kneeling at his side, looking strangely confused. Kyon's shirt had been torn open, and evidently Kyon was wearing another shirt beneath it. A solid black skin-tight affair; strangely reflective, showing no clear sign of where the bullets had hit, or where he was bleeding.

"Step away from him," the somewhat familiar voice of Mori called, kneeling on Kyon's other side, and hurriedly checking his vitals. A pair of medics in uniform behind her lifted his form onto a gurney before she or Mori could try and inspect him more closely, and a heartbeat later another pair collected Mikuru.

"Nee-chan," the yakuza warned, "this is our Aniki; if you don't know what you're doing..."

"We don't have time for that," Mori snapped, frowning. The medics were shouting instructions to care for Kyon, yelling things about vital signs... So that meant ... that Kyon must be alive.

When the yakuza thug looked about ready to throw a punch at Mori, the woman fixed him with a sharp stare. "If you want to call me 'nee-chan', then you should realize that Kyon-san is important to us, too," she growled. "We should be working together. In fact, we would be meeting to discuss it _tomorrow_, if this hadn't happened."

Haruhi shook her head; this wasn't her problem. She wanted to go with Kyon, to make sure he was alright. She turned to dash towards the ambulance before he was loaded into it. "Suzumiya-san," Koizumi called from behind her.

She turned to give the boy an irritable stare. "I'm going to go with Kyon," she told him.

"I respect that," Koizumi said, ducking his head. "However, I can assure you again, Kyon-kun will recover. More importantly, there are several difficulties with our current situation. With Kyon-kun ... indisposed at the moment, well. We have no vice commander; will our commander also desert us, in our time of difficulty?"

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him.

* * *

Koizumi felt like he was participating in a three-ring circus, at the moment. For all his 'warning', he'd not arrived in the timely manner he had hoped. Haruhi was on the verge of mental collapse, and he couldn't _imagine_ what would happen if she hadn't been stopped before she crushed the two in the minivan.

In the meantime, the street was public, shops and restaurants lining it. There had been a number of witnesses, and many of them had seen Haruhi use her power. Granted, there hadn't been any obvious lines of force, but her gestures and the van's actions... Those things coincided. People would have noticed, at least some of them.

Worse, aside from the innocents, there were at least a dozen men wearing very similar pins, what Koizumi guessed to be Tsuruya's yakuza. Kyon used a different word from them, but Koizumi didn't feel involved enough to do the same. Once Haruhi had stopped pulling on the van, the Tsuruya men swarmed it, dragging all three of the attackers to one side of the street and holding them in place.

This didn't sit particularly well with the six members of the Organization on the scene. Mori herself was in charge of the civilian ambulance crew, but the pair of police-uniformed Tamaru brothers were still actually members of the police. The remaining pair of plainclothes observers weren't armed or of sufficient skill to take on the superior numbers of organized criminals.

At Koizumi's reminder, a message from Kyon, in reality, Haruhi stilled, staring at the ambulances as they started to move away, her eyes shining. Before she said anything, a pair of black cars screeched into the area, Arakawa narrowly avoiding a collision with Tsuruya's limousine.

The green-haired heiress and the second-in-command of the Organization exited their cars together, surveying the scene.

And as if that weren't enough, Koizumi could _feel_ the raw worry running through Haruhi at the moment. She was an emotional mess ... what was Kyon thinking, sending such a message back in time through the esper like that? Why was so much still unclear to him?

But then, as Tsuruya dashed to Haruhi's side and began demanding an explanation, and Arakawa moved to stand next to Mori, Koizumi felt an odd surge of confidence just crushing aside all of Haruhi's doubt, fear, and worry. In one smooth move, she reached into her handbag and whipped out an armband. "I need a whistle, or a megaphone," Haruhi snapped, glancing between Tsuruya and Koizumi while she pinned the armband in place on her sleeve.

Tsuruya looked at a loss in her kimono, but fumbled through her waistband before giving an apologetic shake of her head. "I can whistle really loud?" she suggested.

"Do it," Haruhi ordered.

Placing two fingers in her mouth, the Tsuruya heiress unleashed an incredibly long, loud, and piercing whistle. Koizumi couldn't help but clap his hands over his ears and wince at the noise.

When she stopped, everyone had turned to stare at her, and the pair near her. "_Cut_! I said _cut_!" Haruhi yelled, waving the arm with the 'Ultra Director' armband over her head in an exaggerated motion. "Good work, everyone! Great take! That's a wrap!" She beamed a bright smile all around, nodding as she clapped her hands together. "Okay! Police crew, take the suspect actors to the next set - yakuza extras, you're going to get a break before we shoot the interview scenes! NPA actors, you're with us!"

Koizumi blinked slowly as the observers to the scene suddenly broke into spontaneous applause, looking at one another and claiming to have known it was a movie shoot all along.

When one of the boys who had attacked Kyon put up a struggle, Haruhi yelled, "I said _cut_! Stop screwing around or you might get _injured_ before your next scene!" Suddenly cowed, all three let themselves get patted down and shoved into the back of the police car.

Mori and Arakawa strode together to Haruhi's side. "Well done," she remarked quietly. "Kyon-san is being taken to a hospital that our Organization controls. What should we do with those three?"

"I have an idea," Tsuruya said darkly, not smiling at all. "I know that man, that leader of them... Kyon beat him up real good - he's Sumiyoshi-rengo. His name is Watanabe." She turned to look at Haruhi. "Haruhi-san, this is _my_ fault. I did a poor job, and I took too long to make time for an important meeting between myself and Mori-san to arrange things properly."

The formally attired girl bowed at the waist, not rising. "Please allow me to handle them, to make up for my mistake!"

"I agree that the fault is probably yours," Mori grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you hadn't dragged Kyon-san into your mess-"

"Shut up," Haruhi snapped, watching quiet tears roll down Tsuruya's shadowed face. "Not now, Mori-san. And no, Tsuruya-san; I won't let you do that. It's become _all_ of our problem, and we'll deal with it together. First things first, this is _no_ place for such a discussion. I'm guessing it'll be a problem for you if we have this discussion at Tsuruya-san's place... Mori-san, you say your Organization controls a hospital? Do they have conference rooms there? Near Kyon?"

"Yes," Mori allowed, nodding.

"Then we'll go there," Haruhi decided. "One last important thing- Where's Miyoko-chan?"

"Who?"

"There was a little girl, she went to see the movie with us," Haruhi explained, frowning. "We were only even _here_ because of her! Don't tell me she got lost! At this hour? With all of this going on!?"

Koizumi didn't remember seeing a little girl... His phone buzzed with an incoming text, and he checked it, only mildly surprised to see it was from Kyon: "Miyoko-chan is safe."

"She's fine," he assured Haruhi. "One of our most trusted men is taking care of her."

She studied his expression for a moment, before declaring, "You look very confident when you say that, so, okay. Let's go!"

* * *

Nerves still somewhat rattled, even if she was certain she could handle things, Haruhi accepted a cup of coffee from Koizumi as they took their seats around an impressive wooden table in one of the upper floors of the hospital. The same hospital that she had camped out in when Kyon had been in a coma during the winter, actually, which made sense when she realized the Organization controlled it.

She sat at the head of the table, Tsuruya to her right, and Koizumi to her left. Past Tsuruya was a rather imposing yakuza who Haruhi recognized as the heiress's bodyguard and sometimes driver, Kasai. Mori sat just past Koizumi.

Arakawa was there, too, but standing near the door as an attendant, and a little past Kasai was Mikuru, who hadn't been injured, just fainted from shock. "Okay," Haruhi said softly, closing her eyes and wrapping her hands around the cup, letting the heat from the coffee soothe her nerves. She doubted she'd drink any, as anxious as she was.

"Let's take stock of things," she continued, peering into the beverage. "I really don't like heading into situations when I don't know the circumstances. First of all, even if we did fool some people into thinking we were shooting a scene from a movie or something, that's still an awful lot of commotion for a city street."

"I agree," Mori said, frowning. "The Tamaru brothers are actual police officers. Right now we've got the three assailants, but once they're actually taken in, they leave Organization custody - something a bit out of our hands." She gave an inquisitive, meaningful look at Tsuruya.

The green-haired girl shook her head and made a curious gesture of negation with one hand, turning to look at Kasai. The larger man coughed politely, saying, "I'm afraid that we don't have the sway to influence the police department to that degree. Because this is not only an attack, but a gun control violation, _and_ it involves members of a boryokudan - that is to say, the Sumiyoshi-rengo - the National Police Agency will be involved. It's not going to be smoothed over easily."

Mori nodded at that, crossing her arms over her chest. "This is a bit beyond our control," she said, shrugging.

"We could arrange for them to be disposed of," Tsuruya said quietly. "We don't need to involve your police plants in that, but it will become ... difficult to manage, and the NPA will still investigate, which could cause a lot of trouble for our family."

"I don't think Kyon would be happy if we killed anyone," Haruhi mumbled. Koizumi nodded his agreement, while Mikuru made a nervous, sick noise, shaking slightly in her seat. Okay, enough was enough; Mikuru wasn't up for this. "Mikuru-chan, why don't you and Arakawa-san go pick up Yuki-chan? She'll probably want to know what's going on as well, right?"

"Y...yes," Mikuru agreed, rising from her seat. "I can do that, absolutely." Arakawa nodded, and the pair left together, briefly revealing another plainclothes Organization member, and another of Tsuruya's henchmen, standing guard and conversing quietly in the hall.

Still... Even if Kyon would be unhappy with anyone being killed... Haruhi felt a nauseated lump in the pit of her stomach. She was about to try and crush the pair because she thought that Kyon... That he... If it weren't for Koizumi's intercession, she felt she would have done something very regrettable.

"In that case," Koizumi remarked, picking up on her agitation, "I believe we can agree that it's best - for the moment, at least - to let the police handle this."

"My father really likes Kyon-kun," Tsuruya said quietly, her face bowed. "He's ... going to be really, really mad that this happened. It's possible..." She looked up and gave a sad smile, shrugging apologetically.

"That..." Haruhi felt some strange surge of amusement and shook her head, chuckling. "Damn, I just realized, I'm stuck with Kyon's paperwork again!"

Tsuruya blinked, her smile turning cautiously amused.

"Anyway," Haruhi continued, shaking her head, "I'm sure you can convince your father to talk to Kyon, first. And if you think Kyon's good at negotiating, we can leave that much to him. Still, if this goes to the police, Mori-san, what can we expect in the course of their investigation?"

"Well," the woman said slowly, pausing to sip at her coffee, "naturally, they're going to want to poll witnesses. The NPA will also undoubtedly have entries on at least some members of Tsuruya-san's organization. This means we can expect everyone at the crime scene to be under some scrutiny, even if just for a little while. Ah ... complex background checks, interviews, that sort of thing. They'll _also_ ask about the 'movie' situation."

"We can come up with a cover story for that, then," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "I think it's safe to go ahead and have the Tamaru brothers bring those three in to the police, in any case. Surely we have at _least_ until tomorrow morning before things become very complicated?"

"At least," Mori agreed, pulling her phone from her pocket. "If you'll excuse me a moment..." The conference room had a quartet of adjoining, smaller side rooms, and the woman retreated to one of those.

"Likewise, I must give Tsuruya-sama an update on the situation," Kasai said, rising from his seat and bowing, pausing long enough to receive Tsuruya's nod of permission before he left.

Koizumi also rose. "I'll get an update on Kyon-kun's status, Suzumiya-san," he said, smiling cautiously. "I shouldn't be long."

While they were alone, Haruhi released her coffee cup and moved to Tsuruya's side. "Stand up," she ordered the taller girl.

Tsuruya did so, not meeting her eyes. "You're too mad at yourself to focus properly," Haruhi accused. "You feel powerless because something bad happened that you didn't see coming, right?"

The heiress nodded, wincing. "Yeah," she allowed. "That's right."

"Kyon's not usually the type for revenge, I think," Haruhi said, giving a weak smile. "I don't know if I can speak for him, but Koizumi says he knows for sure that Kyon is going to be okay. I guess I'll have to apologize for calling him a 'creepy stalker'; after all, it sure came in handy today! Anyway, I'm going to go out on a limb and say ... Kyon wouldn't want you trying to shoulder all that weight. Because ... I was _with_ Kyon when it happened! I did even less, and I actually _have_ a power!"

Tsuruya looked up, surprised. "But-" she started, before Haruhi silenced her with a gesture.

"I have to believe that Kyon will forgive you - in fact, that dummy probably won't even think to _blame_ you! So, I can't let you blame yourself, either, because if _you_ can be blamed," she said, her voice thickening as her own eyes teared up again, "then so can _I_. And I don't think I could bear that from him!"

Tsuruya sobbed once, then wrapped her arms around Haruhi and squeezed, almost painfully tightly. Haruhi hugged the taller girl back just as fiercely.

"We have to get through this by leaning on each other," she continued, whispering into Tsuruya's ear, "because we can't all _just_ depend on Kyon. I mean, if we did, he could never lean on any of us, could he? You know that, right?"

"I should," Tsuruya sniffled. "But Kyon-kun ... is very important to me! That he's hurt... I feel so _mad_ that I let it happen!"

"I know," Haruhi soothed, "I feel the same way. It's got you so shaken, you're not even adding your extra 'sa' sound."

Tsuruya made a hiccuping noise, half laugh, half sob. "Sorry," she managed. "It's strange... It goes away when I'm stressed, instead of opposite. Father's the same way."

"We'll get through this," Haruhi repeated, patting Tsuruya's back. "And Mikuru-chan is going to bring Yuki-chan, so we can all work together and figure things out."

"Right!" Tsuruya agreed, releasing Haruhi and wiping at her eyes, managing to smile again. "You're absolutely right. I'm glad I'm your subordinate in the brigade; that makes this easier for me. But, let's be fair! You can lean on me, too, just like you said."

They sat back down, Tsuruya offering a handkerchief for Haruhi's tears. As she wiped her face, Haruhi said, "Mikuru-chan's really shaken up by this, too ... you think she'll be okay?"

"With our help," Tsuruya said, her vocal tremor fading. "We just need to make sure she knows she _can_ lean on us. She's my friend, but sometimes I think she's reluctant to depend on us, you know?"

"Yeah, but we can overcome that," Haruhi replied, smiling.

* * *

Arakawa was a skilled driver, Mikuru was certain. His driving seemed reckless, and should have been nerve wracking ... but she was already too agitated by everything else to really feel nervous about getting into an accident when the car skidded around corners and barely made lights. Thankfully, she had programmed Yuki's number into her phone a long time ago. Her trembling hands wouldn't have held steady long enough to dial the number manually.

The phone rang twice before Yuki's quiet breathing came across the line. "Um," Mikuru said, "Nagato-san, this is Asahina Mikuru. Um, um, something has happened to Kyon- K...Koizumi says he's going to be okay, but..." She trailed off. "W...well, anyway, we'll be at your apartment soon to pick you up, is that okay?"

"Understood," was the clipped reply, as the phone abruptly disconnected.

Arakawa pulled into the driveway of Yuki's apartment complex, and somehow - as though she had simply hopped down from the balcony of her apartment - Yuki was already there. In almost no time, Yuki was seated next to Mikuru in the back of the car. "There is ... interference," Yuki remarked, her impassive gaze staring forward while Arakawa sped out of the parking lot and back towards the hospital. "Cross-temporal loops and wide-band 'noise' signal are preventing accurate scans."

"What?" Mikuru asked, blinking. Cross-temporal loops...? Well, she wasn't precisely sensitive to that, but... She contacted her superior, querying about the situation. Surely if it were anything near the scale of a time quake... What sort of strange time loops would be happening right at that moment? Was some other time traveler interfering with the event - or trying to - where Kyon had gotten injured?

The immediate response was from her supervisor, that mostly anonymous entity that usually gave her instructions. "Confer with local authority?" she repeated aloud, mystified. And how had the response come so _quickly_? There was almost always a twenty to thirty second delay ... except, she realized, for matters relating to Kyon.

Yuki turned to look at her, staring silently.

"S...sorry," she said with a grimace. "My superior isn't helpful, right now; I actually don't know anything."

"What is the situation?" Yuki asked.

Trembling at the memory, and cursing her weakness for fainting with Kyon when he collapsed, Mikuru took a deep breath. "K...Kyon-kun was ... shot by some enemy. Um. I guess ... they were from some violence group?"

Yuki's gaze turned piercing. "What is his status?" she asked, a tiny amount of heat in her voice.

"He's okay," Mikuru managed, swallowing nervously. "K...Koizumi seems very ... very confident that he'll be fine, for some reason."

Relaxing very slightly, Yuki nodded. "I ... want to see him," she declared.

Mikuru nodded back. "I can understand," she murmured, lowering her voice. No telling how sharp Arakawa's hearing was, though. "I... It may be a bit selfish of me, but ... I have a personal request for you."

Yuki didn't react, except to give a tiny nod a minute later.

"We're here," Arakawa announced, stepping out of the car and opening the door for Mikuru.

The girls got out together, Yuki walking at a swift pace to the door. Mikuru wondered at the other girl's restraint, given that she'd seen Yuki win a footrace with no real sign of effort. In fact, she knew from a scientific standpoint when she had accidentally fired a laser at Kyon, Yuki was _capable_ of moving faster than the speed of light. Was it a limitation of being severed from the IDSE, or her own self control that kept her to Mikuru's pace?

Soon enough, they were standing before the doorway to the Intensive Care Unit, where a haggard looking Koizumi waited, starting slightly and giving a weak smile when he saw the pair. "You got here quite quickly," he remarked.

"His status?" Yuki queried.

"Ah ... the surgeons are being daunted by something ... they told me they aren't sure what it is - like a layer of paint on his body? They cannot cut or pierce it, so even though he is unconscious at the moment, they can't operate." He grimaced. "I'm worried it's some sort of attack."

Yuki relaxed slightly, and Mikuru was startled to realize that she could _notice_ such displays from the girl. This ordeal was making even Yuki respond emotionally... "Tactical armor," Yuki said. "Simultaneously functioning as an emergency medical compress if activated after injury. I previously modified his chronometer to provide this as an emergency protective function."

Koizumi's mouth dropped open. "He had some sort of armor attached to his watch?" he asked, surprised. He shook his head, grinning as he recovered his wits. "That explains a bit; they found flattened bullets in his clothing, too. Then, I suppose he was actually only injured the first time, before the armor activated to protect him?"

Yuki closed her eyes and cocked her head to one side. "Yes," she agreed, eyes opening. "I can deactivate the armor and restore his injuries, but security measures and other technical limitations will necessitate physical contact."

Koizumi nodded slowly. "Okay," he said, crossing his arms over his chest, "for the moment, unless it's going to put him at risk, it would be better for our situation here to actually let the doctors work on him, instead of healing him immediately. Not every doctor there is in completely under Organization control. And also, because of that ... I'm not certain that I am capable of getting you access to him through legitimate channels while he's behind this door."

"Understood," Yuki replied, vanishing into nothingness.

Koizumi sighed at that, looking about curiously. "Where...?"

"Now I can believe everything is going to be okay," Mikuru breathed.

"Right," Koizumi decided, straightening, offering her his practiced smile. "I'm going to report back to Suzumiya-san. Would you care to come with me?"

"I'll wait here for Nagato-san," she demurred, unable to smile back. Even if things were going to work out...

He nodded, seeming to understand. "Then, we'll see you later," he remarked, heading swiftly down the hallway.

Yuki returned not long after, reassuming a visible form at Mikuru's side. "Your request?" Yuki asked, once more wrapped in her calm, unaffected demeanor.

"Ah, yes," Mikuru mumbled. "Um, let's find a room to discuss this privately?"

* * *

The meeting reconvened, Tsuruya seeming more herself, and Haruhi's own confidence bolstered by her connection with the other girl. She did wish that Mikuru and Yuki would hurry up, though...

Koizumi returned to the room just a bit after Mori, and then Kasai returned, rubbing at one ear and frowning at his phone. "Any updates?" Haruhi asked, taking control of the meeting again.

"Nagato-san and Asahina-san are here," Koizumi reported as he took his seat again. "Thanks to Nagato-san, ah, it turns out that Kyon-kun wasn't that badly injured in the first place. Suffice to say that he is in capable hands for the time being."

Haruhi very badly wanted to berate Koizumi for giving such a vague update, but realized the meeting couldn't just focus on Kyon's status. There were other, more intimidating factors to deal with yet. "Good," she said, nodding. Especially about the part where Kyon hadn't been hurt as badly as she'd been afraid. "We'll want to discuss that later. Mori-san?"

"Our three criminals are in police custody," Mori replied. "We can guess that the NPA is being notified, and will have investigators here by morning. Likewise, by tomorrow morning, this will reach the news circuit. It's worth pointing out that inevitable as it may be, the story the criminals tell is unlikely to mesh with whatever cover we give."

"Bit late for that," Tsuruya remarked. "Ooh, wait, how abouts this? We were shooting a movies, but one of the gunmen had real bullets instead of blanks?"

"Someone would need to take the role of incompetent producer and spend time in jail for that," Kasai noted, grimacing. "For movies, you're supposed to use a special firearm that only holds blanks. With gun control laws as they are in this country, there's no way a regular firearm with blank rounds should end up on a set."

"I like Tsuruya's angle, though," Haruhi opined. "We don't need a 'fall guy'; we can keep the blame entirely on those three. They were supposed to have stunt firearms and switched in their own - and we don't know how, because they're criminals. Figuring out the why and how is someone else's problem."

"That ... sounds fairly plausible," Mori allowed, tapping her lower lip. "Ah, I do have the names of those three - in fact, Kyon has bad history with all of them, it seems. Ryuguu Ryo, Yamane Jun, and Watanabe Daichi."

"All members of that ring that Tsuruya-san and Kyon exposed," Haruhi mused. "So, we say ... we were producing a dramatic re-enactment, and those three gave false names to get onto the set as extras? Hmm, it still sounds like someone has to be incompetent for them to have made it."

"A dramatic re-enactment of the events would be too suspicious, I think," Mori said, shaking her head. "There were no actual guns involved in the original incidents, and any producer or director _should_ have been familiar enough with the story to become very suspicious of such people joining the cast. I suppose it does seem that the 'movie' excuse is best ... if we gather enough in the way of evidence to make it look plausible, at least. I'm not honestly clear on the legality of that."

Kasai sighed softly. "We probably cannot produce a permit to film on the street before the NPA ask to see it," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Furthermore, we didn't have written permission from all those bystanders who would ostensibly have appeared in the shot. So, that's not legal, either."

"What's the penalty for thats, though?" Tsuruya mused. "Probably just a fine?"

"A fine," Kasai agreed. "Likely to include some very unreasonable markups for the road, the damaged vehicle left in the street, possibly noise and public nuisance violations, and whatever else the official we've annoyed can think of."

"Okay," Tsuruya said, nodding. "I'm going to ask Father if anyone's willing to play 'producer', and then we can back him, and pay off the fines."

"This sounds like a plan," Haruhi noted, rising. "I understand there's a lot left to be figured out, but Kasai-san, Mori-san, I believe I can leave that to you. Koizumi will stay to help out as the SOS Brigade's liaison. Tsuruya-san and I are going to find out where Mikuru-chan and Yuki-chan are." Truthfully, she had just spat out the first quick idea that had come to her ... the fact that Mori and Kasai seemed likely to be able to spin it into a plausible cover story... It wasn't anything she was likely to complain about soon.

"Right," Tsuruya agreed, smiling. "Okies! Koizumi-kun and I can work out further liaison details later. Kasai has my number if you need me."

"Understood, Tsuruya-san," Kasai agreed, nodding.

"Thank you, Suzumiya-san," Mori said, smiling. "I'm glad you're able to take charge in such a situation."

"Take charge?" Haruhi asked, over her shoulder on the way to the door. "Kyon's _my_ subordinate, don't you forget!"

Tsuruya chuckled at that, shaking her head. "Aren't we all, though?" she asked.

"Yeah, but they get off easy... They only need to figure out how to deal with police and the NPA. _We_ have to figure out what to tell Kyon's _parents_!"

* * *

After finding a small room, empty except for the pair of them, Mikuru nervously licked her lips and had immense difficulty meeting Yuki's eyes. "Um, Nagato-san," she began, tremulously, "I don't know how else to ask this, so I may be a bit blunt... Please forgive me for that."

Yuki blinked, saying nothing.

Taking a breath to collect herself, Mikuru blurted out, "I need your help to not be so weak!"

Some strange expression flickered, too briefly to read, on the other girl's face. "Expound," she uttered.

Her face coloring, Mikuru wrung her hands in agitation, staring at the floor. "W...when Kyon-kun was attacked," she explained tremulously, "I was worthless! I couldn't... I didn't do anything but faint! Kyon-kun..." She felt her eyes tear up. "Kyon-kun needs people who are better able to help him out! I'm envious of you, Nagato-san. You can do so much, and you're... You're an amazing person! Really, I feel that between the two of us, I'm more of an 'interface' than you.

"Kyon-kun can ask you for help reliably, and you can make your own decisions. I can only beg my superiors to _let_ me help, and ... and..." She realized that tears were streaming down her face, and stared at the floor. "S...so, I'm asking ... no, I'm _begging_ you... Please ... help me do something to be better able to help Kyon-kun! Looking cute, being good at cooking and sewing... I'm just like a doll; pretty to look at, but with no practical use!"

She sniffled, her already heavily used handkerchief wiping at her eyes. "It's strange," Mikuru continued, mumbling. "When ... you were connected to the data entity, I was ... scared to be alone with you, and had a terrible feeling... But, but now you're independent, and I think you're admirable. And ... I wish I were even the tiniest bit as strong as you!

"D...during the snow mountain incident this winter, when you were sick, I was so useless that when Kyon-kun actually asked me for help, I treated it like a joke. So, because of things like that ... I think that even if Kyon-kun thinks of me as a friend, he believes that I'm not reliable enough to depend on! And I don't know if I can bear that any longer!"

Finally raising her eyes to meet Yuki's, she found the shorter girl gazing at her with a strange, unreadable look in her eyes.

"The indicated discrepancies do not automatically correlate to significant value differences," Yuki said, blinking. "I am uncertain how to proceed."

Mikuru swallowed, bowing her head and looking away. "I guess, even for you ... making me a strong person isn't possible," she managed, her eyes tearing again.

"I am uncertain as to the meaning of 'strength' in this instance," Yuki clarified. She shifted her shoulders slightly, and her gaze seemed more penetrating, and simultaneously more clouded. "At one point it was observed that I might be envious of you."

Mikuru felt her face color again and nodded, looking away.

"Upon reflection," the humanoid interface continued, "I have realized that this is true. You have an ability to ... express yourself that I cannot even mimic with a high degree of accuracy. I term this ability on your part to be a 'strength' that I do not possess, and possibly never will to what would be termed even an adequate degree." She blinked slowly. "I do not understand how causing you to have difficulty expressing yourself would be a 'strength'."

"B...but," Mikuru protested, "you were able to ask Kyon-kun to help you when the Integrated Data Sentience Entity wanted to terminate you! You could express yourself for that, right?"

Yuki shook her head in negation. "I was unable to do so. The possibility of such a thing did not occur to me. It is only because I was not able to make such a request that I was allowed to explain the situation to him, and ask to spend the last moments of my existence with him."

Mikuru stared, shocked out of feeling sorry for herself. "Y...you were expecting to die!? I don't know if I can accept that!"

Yuki gave a terse nod in response. "Similarly, he could not accept it either. I was ... disappointed ... that I requested his presence for ... myself, and he chose to involve others." Yuki struggled, her expression shifting, and didn't _quite_ smile. "Now, however, I believe that his solution was superior, and wish I had that 'strength' that he possesses."

Mikuru's mouth dropped open, and without realizing she had done so, she seized Yuki's shoulders. "You didn't even want to _live_!?" she cried, nearly a yell. "_No_! Do you have any idea how much that would hurt Kyon-kun?! Or the rest of us!?"

"Again," Yuki said softly, visibly struggling for words, "I lack that 'strength'. It is ... difficult ... but with time, I ... hope that I may slowly become ... stronger."

Mikuru wasn't certain what had come over her. All this time, she'd built an image of Yuki as little more than a human-shaped alien entity ... occasionally very girl _like_. But Yuki was trying _so hard_ to become more than that... She'd never even thought to try and consider things extensively from the alie- From the other girl's point of view.

She had an unnerving sense that Kyon simply understood Yuki more clearly, and without nearly as much effort. He was so easy around her...

"M...maybe," she said, her voice quavering slightly, "we can meet in the middle somewhere, and both become stronger?"

"I ... want that," Yuki managed, her eyes shimmering.

Sniffling, Mikuru seized Yuki in a hug, and slowly, somewhat mechanically, the shorter girl returned it. "I'm sorry," Mikuru whispered. "Even just hearing your story and knowing that you see me that way... I feel stronger already, maybe. Right?"

"It becomes difficult to breathe," Yuki's voice came, muffled. "Is this ... appropriate?"

Mikuru squeaked, releasing Yuki and blushing. "S...sorry," she said again, feeling very foolish. "But, yes. Friends who are close, at least among girls can hug ... it's usually a somewhat private thing, but it's an emotional comfort in troubled times."

Yuki nodded slowly. "I am aware of the technicalities, but the practical implementations are beyond my ability to easily grasp. Your assistance in such matters ... is appreciated," she said softly. Then, with a great deal of effort, she continued ponderously, "I think that I ... like that." Her 'almost a smile' expression returned. "Friends."

"I...in the meantime," Mikuru said, shifting her eyes away, "I think, looking back, my request to you was a bit unreasonable. B...but... But maybe I can learn something of more practical use? Um, Nagato-san, i...if you're not there to be relied on, do you think you could teach me something like, um, first aid? I ... know that you gave him armor, and it's supposed to protect him, but if you could teach me to be helpful to him in some way..." She trailed off and made a vague, apologetic gesture.

"Yes," Yuki agreed, more easily than she had been speaking previously. "I can teach you such things."

Mikuru sighed in relief, feeling a smile actually bloom on her face. Next time such a thing happened, she was going to be able to _do_ something about it, not just wail uselessly and faint. Not that she was eager for another violent event, but she was absolutely going to be prepared if it did happen. Strangely, she had the sense that Yuki was reassured by the idea of Mikuru becoming more reliable for Kyon.

Kyon would know, she was certain, but she doubted she could ask _him_ about such things...

Yuki began to raise one hand, then hesitated. "His current condition has caused me significant inner turmoil," she said. "Your previous gesture had an effect on that." She paused, once again seeming to have extreme difficulty expressing herself.

"D...do you want a hug?" Mikuru asked, feeling her face color. And yet, suddenly ... looking at the smaller girl, she could see that Kyon probably thought Yuki was incredibly cute, in her own quiet way. She had a strange desire to put Yuki into a costume of some sort, possibly right next to Kyon in his apron, and take a picture of them together...

Her cheeks coloring the slightest, barely noticeable bit, Yuki managed an incredibly tiny nod. Just as Mikuru gave Yuki a comforting hug, careful not to accidentally suffocate the smaller figure again, the door exploded open suddenly, slamming against the wall with an echoing 'bang'.

"Yee!" Mikuru shrilled, involuntarily tightening her grip and looking back towards the source of commotion with wide eyes.

"There you are!" Haruhi exclaimed, grinning. She blinked, surveying the pair, and her grin grew even wider. "Ah, that looks like a good idea!" Before Mikuru could so much as move, Haruhi instantly crossed the tiny room and glommed onto the pair, followed only a heartbeat later by Tsuruya.

"He's out of surgery!" Tsuruya cheered. "He's stable, and everything looks good!"

"W...waah!" Mikuru yelped. "W...what's this!?"

"You think you're the only ones who are feeling down because of what happened!?" Haruhi asked incredulously, her voice slightly muffled by her face being pressed against Tsuruya's arm. "I feel a bit bad leaving Kanae-chan out, but next time, I suppose. And right now, she doesn't have to deal with the stress of this, actually. _Bleah_! His family is in the hospital right now, so let's hide here for the moment. Considering Kyon's mother ... I just want to melt."

Haruhi suddenly slumped heavily against the other girls she was embracing. "Mmm," she sighed. "Nice."

"...yes," Yuki agreed. "Nice."

* * *

She remembered being just as scared for him the last time Kyon had ended up in the hospital. This time, at least, by the time the family reached the hospital, Kyon wasn't in a _coma_, which reassured her a lot.

They weren't allowed to see him right away, so she simply waited, being ignored like most children her age would be, while a very familiar looking police officer explained the situation. Somehow, while working on a movie, he had been attacked by a yakuza thug, and two would-be yakuza.

She knew that the truth was more likely to involve a dark general, but she didn't see the only suspected magical girl she knew of around. No sign of Haruhi or Mikuru, either. Eventually, while her father stared, looking like he couldn't believe it, and her mother clutched onto his arm and wept uncontrollably, the police officer finished his explanations and yielded to an unfamiliar doctor.

The kindly, friendly-looking middle-aged man introduced himself as Sakura, which she thought was actually usually a girl's name. He explained that he was actually a retainer from the Tsuruya estate, brought in to consult on Kyon's condition by request of the Tsuruya family. A long, technical explanation of his condition ensued, finished with: "So, while he's doing better now, he's not expected to wake for about an hour. And when he does, he's not going to be remarkably cognizant due to the pain-killers. Ultimately, the good news is that he should be just fine, even if he might need a few days to recover."

"I just don't understand how this could _happen_!" her mother protested, sniffling. "What did my baby do to get himself _shot_?!"

"That, I do not know," Sakura said, apologetically. "I do know that he was working on a movie project - the senior producer is explaining the circumstances to the police at the moment, but if you wish to speak to production assistant Sonou Mori-san, she's already given her statement and is free for a moment longer."

"Yes," her mother said, suddenly in control of herself again. "I'd _very_ much like an explanation!"

Nonoko blinked, recognizing that name. Mori was the maid who assisted Arakawa during the winter trip. Was it the same woman?

She didn't think it was much of a question once she stopped to consider it. Obviously she was in on the conspiracy, and if she'd been more trustworthy, they might actually tell her what was going on. She sighed, realizing that she was going to have to find some way of proving herself to her brother and friends before they told her much of anything.

"Stay strong, kiddo," her father said encouragingly, crouching to give her a pat on the back and encouraging smile. "I'm not sure we understand why this happened, but it looks like your brother's going to be just fine!"

"Ah!" she exclaimed suddenly, seeing a looming, familiar figure stepping around a corner and into the main room.

"Sir!" someone called, a nurse trailing the man's cloud of attendants. "There's _no_ smoking in the hospital!"

"It's not lit," the man she thought was called Aida said quietly. "Tsuruya-sama is respecting all hospital rules."

The large man turned and glanced at the nurse, raising one eyebrow before turning back, cigar clenched in his teeth. He gave a toothy, irritated smile, then pulled the cigar from his mouth and tucked it into his jacket somewhere. "No disprespects meant," he said clearly, one fang glinting. "Aida-chan, buy this hospital; see that she gets a bonus for her diligence."

"Right away, Tsuruya-sama," Aida said agreeably, scanning his clipboard. After checking a few pages, then consulting with a pocket computer of some sort, he added, "The transaction should be complete by Friday."

"Good," the Tsuruya patriarch said with a grunt. He clapped his hands together and gave an easier, relaxed smile. "Ah, the family of ... my daughter's friend!" Glancing at the doctor he asked, "And how is our boy?"

"He will be well, Tsuruya-sama," Sakura said again, bowing.

"Good, good!" Tsuruya Kenshiro said, nodding in satisfaction. "Ah, and how has your new jobs been treating you, Yuuto-kun?" he asked her father.

"Er, quite fine, actually, but we're more worried about Kyon at the moment," the man allowed, bowing deeply to the large green-haired figure.

"Do _you_ know why Kyon got shot?" her mother pressed, frowning.

The Tsuruya patriarch sighed, looking irritable once more, and crossed his arms over his chest, cocking his head to one side. "I'm not clear on the details," he grumbled. "Rest assured, I intend to finds out. However, on the subject of my daughter and your son, I did have something else I wished to discuss."

"Oh, no," Nonoko's mother groaned, scowling. "What has he done?! Did Kyon-kun upset your daughter, Tsuruya-san? If he did, I will make him apologize-"

"No, no," the man said with a wide grin. "Quite the opposite," he continued, chuckling. "I realize this circumstances is grim, but why not chase the light of hope in the shadows of disaster? We are a traditional family, and I wish the best for my daughter! I see you wish the bests for your son, yes?"

"Yes," her mother agreed nervously. "That's absolutely the case. It's just ... sometimes I worry that he's not able to make the best decisions for himself!"

Nonoko felt her father's sad groan, and wanted to echo it now. More trouble for Kyon?

"Then we are thinking precisely alikes!" the large man boomed, grinning. "I feel the same way about my daughter, but I know that Kyon is a capable sort!" He shook his head, chuckling. "Well, on that count, there's a formal events for the family coming up soon. I'm hoping that Kyon will escorts my daughter, if he's well by then."

Nonoko's mother slowly began to perk up. "Formal ... family event?" she asked. "Well, naturally! I think your daughter's a wonderful influence on Kyon! If he's up, I'll _insist_ on him going! But, actually, while we're on the subject..."

* * *

Koizumi had already had a very long day by the time Mori and Kasai had finished determining how the Organization and the members of the Tsuruya organized crime syndicate who answered to the green-haired heir would work together - at least, for the time being. He did find some amusement in the fact that Kasai called Tsuruya's followers 'Haru-tachi', or 'Haru's group', after her first name. It wasn't that far off from Haruhi's name, after all, though in his mind the girl was still 'Tsuruya'.

Still, it worked out that Tsuruya would provide funding, and Mori would lead those of the Organization that would follow her into the new structure. He had implied the struggles going on 'behind the scenes' to Kyon before, but the truth of the matter was both simpler, and uglier. The Organization had to effectively beg for their budget, and therefore also had to answer to financiers with varied motivations. The Tsuruya family was a favored benefactor, generally, because they didn't ask questions, and expected the same in return.

At least now Koizumi understood why; for all of their wealth, much of it needed to be laundered, or on occasion just disposed of. The Organization had made a convenient location for the former occasionally, and the latter with some regularity.

Currently, some members of the Organization were already riled up about certain factors - specifically, Kyon's handling of the situation recently. If Koizumi's suspicions were correct, and closed space didn't exist anymore because of certain things that he hadn't gotten the other boy to adequately explain... That left people with power, access to money, and questionable motives free to act with relatively little responsibility.

And that was where the organized criminals would fit in, now...

Still, thanks to Tsuruya, Mori and the Organization were relatively free of the auspices of the syndicate, while still working _with_ it.

"I believe things are in order for the moment," Koizumi said, giving the pair a tired smile. "I will relay the updates to Suzumiya-san and Kyon-kun tomorrow. Is there anything else?"

"There will be more details to work out later, but this establishes our co-operative effort," Mori said tiredly. "Unfortunately, getting past the upcoming police investigation will be the least of our concerns. Well, Kasai-san, if it's not too much trouble, please relay my regards to Tsuruya-san, and convey my gratitude for his assistance in these matters."

"I will do that," Kasai agreed. "And then, our next order of business?"

Mori looked uncomfortable. "Well, we have Kyon-san, Suzumiya-san, and Asahina-san watched," she said with a grimace. "For the purposes of ensuring their safety. Obviously, we've made quite the mistake, this time."

"Our men were there, as well," Kasai mused, folding his hands on the table before him. "One intentionally, and those other three merely by happenstance. None of them were sufficient for prevention, only capture after the fact. Even then, if that van hadn't... Well. If extra time hadn't been bought, it would undoubtedly have eluded us, at least for the time being."

"There is that."

"With due apologies, I believe the greatest hole in defense is the fact that Kyon-dono has no full-time bodyguard," Kasai continued. He turned to look at Koizumi. "As you are the liaison for the Kyon-tachi, what is your thought on this?"

"That ... usually falls to me," Koizumi admitted, wincing. "That is to say, the last time Kyon-kun became injured, it was my responsibility." The elder organized crime member said nothing, but took a very significant look at the table, where Koizumi's hands were. His fingers specifically, he realized. "However, at this point, Kyon-kun's physical capabilities and martial skill vastly exceed my own." Which was a real pity; he'd had to devote long hours to the physical conditioning the role demanded, and seemingly overnight, Kyon had just surpassed him.

Sighing quietly, Kasai removed his glasses and set them on the table. Koizumi was surprised; there was a long scar above both eyes that crossed the bridge of his nose, previously concealed beneath the frame and lenses. The huge man stared at Koizumi for a long minute before judging, "I have seen Kyon-dono fight; it's true that it would take years of dedicated training to match that. However, do you not have ... other abilities that can be used to ensure the protection of the group in general?"

"That's not quite as easy as it may seem," Mori explained, grimacing. "That is to say... Itsuki-kun's power cannot be easily apprehended in normal situations. Only relatively specific crises call for their release. For the others, they all endure similar limitations. However..." She turned to Koizumi and raised one eyebrow questioningly.

"When he's awake once more, I will discuss the situation with Kyon-kun," Koizumi agreed, nodding. "I feel I will be able to convince him to ensure that safeguards exist to prevent this from happening again. Most likely, once the police and NPA investigations conclude, we will be able to move forward in that regard."

"Unfortunately, that will probably be happening sooner than later," Mori sighed. "Well. Enough of that; Itsuki-kun, you'd best get some sleep while you can. I suspect that things will be busy for a bit, soon. Kasai-san, it was good to work with you."

"Likewise," the man agreed, putting his sunglasses back on, "you were more pleasant to deal with than most."

"Yes; we should all get what rest we can," Koizumi agreed, nodding and rubbing at his eyes. "Thank you for your time, Kasai-san, Mori-san." It _was_ late; he was sure even Haruhi had gone home by now. Or was at least sensibly sleeping, even if she were likely to insist that it was in a bag in Kyon's room.

Something _else_ to talk about with Kyon... But, later, later.

* * *

After he first came to, Kyon found himself questioned by an unfamiliar doctor speaking to him as though he were his youngest cousin. The doctor's words came very slowly, and much to his irritation, aside from being dizzy and very uncomfortable, it was a real struggle to answer the simplest of questions.

Still, he endured it, finding some small bit of clarity as the doctor finished a checklist, and then encouraged Kyon to relax and not strain himself.

After that, his father and sister came to visit, the energetic fireball restrained from tackling him by the older man, and his sister asking - for some reason - the definition of the word 'omiai.' He remembered enough to figure that she had learned it from one of her anime or manga, and told her that no one actually _did_ that anymore.

His father mumbled something about six point five percent of the population still subscribing to the idea. Kyon dozed for a minute mid-conversation, trying to formulate a rebuttal that it really only applied to men over thirty, or women over twenty five, that were absolutely without other prospects. He was able to _think_ the argument, but not manage to vocalize it.

A short while later, he came back to his senses. This time, his mother was there, along with Tsuruya's father. He hoped very badly that he hadn't done something to upset the man. "Is Tsuruya-kun okay?" he managed to ask.

"I believe she is in the best possible hands!" the man replied cheerfully. "You take care of yourself, Kyon! I have high expectations!"

"That's right," his mother agreed, looking far too happy considering his current condition, "so I expect to see less running around and general nonsense, and more of you spending time with her! In fact, next week, you're going to a formal family event with her, as long as you're up for it!"

He was pretty sure that last part had to be brought on the pain-killers, so just nodded slowly and waited for things to make sense again.

The next time they did, it was with everything _snapping_ back into perfect focus with jarring, crystalline clarity. Yuki stood before him, the fingertips of her hand resting on his chest. Just behind her he spotted Haruhi, Mikuru, and Tsuruya. He blinked to clear his eyes, able to sit up without help, though Haruhi didn't let him try.

Once he was up, he tried to ignore the medication-induced dreams he'd had and asked, "What's going on?"

"How much do you remember?" Mikuru asked anxiously.

"I think I saw Yamane Jun, and Ryuguu Ryo," he answered, one hand going to his head. Yuki's hand, previously on his chest, had slid to his leg when he sat up. When he dropped his hand from his head, he rested it atop hers. "It felt like I had been stabbed ... no, not quite that painful, but it really stung." He thought back for what had happened next. "Then it felt like I got punched in the chest by an elephant a few times. Or hit by a minivan. That hurt a lot worse."

"Ballistic impact spread," Yuki explained in a soft voice devoid of intonation. He still thought he caught a hint of an apologetic tone, though. "To protect your organs."

"I think it cracked a rib," he said, managing to smile. "But, then again, I'm alive, so I won't complain. Thank you for that, Nagato." Still resting his hand atop hers, he looked around at the others. "Um ... what are you girls all doing here, anyway?"

"The Organization controls this hospital, mostly," Haruhi answered.

Tsuruya giggled, "Also, my father just bought it." Then she stifled a yawn, and he glanced at the window, seeing that it was dark outside. What time was it, anyway? It was after nine by the time they'd gotten out of the movie. It had to be much later than that now.

He looked around the room, suddenly suspicious. It looked familiar... "Is this the same room...?" he asked.

"Yeah," Haruhi answered, grinning, masking a yawn of her own. "I asked for it for you."

"Wow," he said, at a loss for anything else to say.

Mikuru's eyes shimmered, but she was smiling brightly. "I'm so glad you're okay!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together beneath her chin. "Kyon-kun, you had us all so worried!"

"Sorry," he managed. "Um, I guess I'll try not to get shot again?"

"You'd better," Haruhi warned. "Of course, you're clumsy, and a bit careless ... it's a good thing we're looking after you!"

"I'll say," he sighed. "How long do you suppose I'll have to stay here, anyway?" He could tell that Yuki had already healed his injury. He didn't even feel achy anymore. But then...

"Organization doctors will make sure that this looks okay," Mikuru said drowsily, as though she were exhausted, and had struggled to stay awake just for him. Which, he realized, was probably exactly the case. "And then... Um..."

Tsuruya led the other girl to one of the two large, soft chairs and sat her down, covering her with a blanket before yawning hugely and collapsing into the other. "Goods that you're okay," Tsuruya mumbled, her eyes drifting shut. "Mmm, too-long day..."

Kyon shook his head, and Haruhi followed his gaze, smiling with him at the two girls. Haruhi looked tired, too, he thought. Probably just as tired as he felt - at the very least. Yuki looked much the same as she always did, but... "Alright," he decided, reaching out and patting Yuki's shoulder, giving her a nod while Haruhi was facing the other way. As Haruhi turned back, he managed to reach her shoulder and give a small pat as well. "Everyone's falling asleep. You should get some rest - we can visit tomorrow."

"Stupid Kyon," Haruhi retorted, turning back to fix him with a level gaze. "You think I'm leaving after how worried you made me?!"

"Of course," he sighed, remembering when he'd woken from his 'coma'. He wasn't quite able to hide his smile even with his own yawn. "Alright, fine, make yourself comfortable, then." He was sure she'd brought a sleeping bag again.

"Mm," Haruhi agreed, covering a yawn of her own. "I _am_ exhausted."

That and the fact that, even with Yuki healing him, he felt very, very drained. He yawned, laying back down as he felt himself drifting off already. For some reason, he felt his bed shift about - probably Haruhi moving it to make room for her sleeping bag. Then it felt very warm, and he remembered the night he stayed with Tsuruya in her room, and how she had curled up with him while he was asleep. Best to put that out of his mind, though.

"Good night, girls," he mumbled.

"Good night," he heard Haruhi and Nagato whisper back. Something about that seemed too close... But he lost the thought in dream before he could really think about it.


	22. Chapter 21

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Gearing Up Arc III

Chapter Twenty One: Measure and Distance

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is part of the public domain, I think? I actually couldn't find a 'legal' section on the site! Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Three: Friends and Enemies"_

_"There's an old quote that goes, 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer'. Personally, I think that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Don't ignore your enemies, if you've got any, but at no point should your vision and focus be so clouded by ____anything__ that you forget to pay attention to your friends."_

_"Practical Heroism and You: Awareness" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

Morning came, and with it, bright beams of sunlight, spearing through the gaps in the curtain by Kyon's bedside. As they slowly traced across his pillow, finally settling on his eyes, he woke up again.

Blinking to clear his head of the dreams he'd had, he spent a very long moment staring at the unfortunately familiar ceiling. More so than at home, the bed felt warm. And not uncomfortably, unseasonably warm, or 'it's too cold to get out of bed today' warm ... just perfect.

Without trying to rise, he turned his head and looked across the room. The two chairs he'd dreamed that Mikuru and Tsuruya had fallen asleep in were empty. He raised a hand to his chest, checking the injury he'd remembered receiving. One bullet wound, and enough solid impacts to send him to the ground. Yuki had healed him, though, not even a scar remaining.

He sat up, frowning when he realized he was holding a yellow ribbon in his free hand. Haruhi's, at a guess... She must have visited. He was somewhat surprised to be alone in the room, considering Haruhi's insistence the last time he'd been hospitalized. He turned to look toward the narrow space between the bed and the window, wondering if she'd hidden her sleeping bag there again - but before he could even reach the edge of the bed, he realized that someone was curled up at his side, beneath the blanket and atop the sheet.

His face colored at the thought. What did that mean, he wondered... Setting Haruhi's ribbon on the stand next to his bed, he carefully peeled back the blanket, pondering scribbling on her face with permanent marker, as he'd promised he'd do once. Except, when the heavier cloth was pulled away, it revealed a mop of somewhat tousled soft purple hair.

Did Yuki actually have to sleep? He'd never _seen_ her do it before... She was always the last one to go to bed at any SOS Brigade overnight event, and he never recalled her needing to be woken up. Her face was turned toward him, her eyes were closed, and one of her light arms was across his legs - so insubstantial and weightless that he hadn't even noticed. He couldn't help himself; as he'd done once before with Haruhi, he gently traced his fingertips across her face.

Would she show an expression, when she was sleeping? Haruhi's face had gone through a number of amusing contortions before she awoke. But, unlike with Haruhi, he didn't pinch Yuki awake before the door clicked open quietly. Pulling the blanket back up to Yuki's chin, he turned, not particularly surprised to see Koizumi walking into the center of the room carrying a paper bag.

"Good morning," Koizumi said, only smiling the smallest bit. "I hope you rested well?"

"I've rested much worse," he allowed. "What's going on?"

"First of all, I was told to tell you this: 'You can easily overlook "the quiet ones" when you make an assumption about the situation'," Koizumi said. "And also that you would want this." The esper handed a piece of paper with a few handwritten remarks on it, the third of which was what he had just uttered, verbatim. "I trust that you know what this means?"

"Damn it, future self," he grumbled, rubbing at his forehead.

Koizumi looked mildly taken aback. "You don't get along with yourself?"

"Well ... 'future me' is a bit arrogant and constantly thinks that he can talk down to me just because he's been through whatever," Kyon sighed. "While past me is in fact incompetent, and I'd never go back to save him if he hadn't messed up in the first place. Present me, naturally, is just perfect."

The esper blinked slowly, looking at Kyon askance. "Is that an entirely healthy viewpoint?" he asked. "Given that, really, you are all three of the same person..."

"It's not like I say it with much heat," Kyon replied, smirking. "Really, mostly I annoy myself so that I can remember the things I'll have to do at the present later."

"Well, you seem to have a handle on that, so I'll leave it to you, then," Koizumi allowed. "I wish I could be of more help to you."

Kyon studied the esper in silence for a minute. Even if his face didn't betray much, and he'd always had trouble reading Koizumi - or, he forced himself to admit, if he just spent too much time trying to _ignore_ him... There was quite an aura of tension around the taller boy. "What's wrong?" he finally asked. "Sorry if I'm being blunt, but you look troubled."

Koizumi nodded, admitting, "I am troubled, but I do not know if I can put my troubles into words politely. I may have to be somewhat blunt myself, and I'm not certain that the time is appropriate for it."

Sighing, Kyon made a vague gesture with one hand. "Let's get this over with," he said dourly. "That bit right there was blunt enough."

The esper chuckled humorlessly. "As you say," he allowed, inclining his head. "Ah ... in that case... Kyon-kun, you may not test well in school generally, or show much drive to do well on your assignments, but I have a hard time thinking that you are unintelligent."

"Thanks, I think." Kyon took a quick, deep breath, guessing that he wasn't going to like what he heard next.

"Suzumiya-san has ever increasing regard for you, and even when she says unkind things of you, she means them in kind ways. Surely you're not oblivious-"

"I get that she's tsundere for me, if that's where you're going," he overrode the esper flatly.

Koizumi threw a fake cough into one hand. "Ah ... yes. Well. In that case, you are aware of her regard, and then..." He gestured at Kyon.

Not at _him_, Kyon realized, frowning, but _Yuki_.

"It would be ... unfortunate if she were to see this, don't you think?"

Without twitching so much as a fingertip, Yuki's voice suddenly broke in, commenting, "I was instructed to ensure his safety."

Koizmi's ire became visible, though he carefully looked out the window, not meeting anyone's eyes. "Well, Nagato-san. You're intelligent as well; I would suspect that Suzumiya-san's emotional turmoil, instead of creating closed space at this point, reflects upon _you_ in some way, now. Is it wise to bring such upon yourself?"

"Permission had been granted," Yuki remarked, sitting up and looking at Koizumi. "You may discuss this with Suzumiya Haruhi if you wish."

The esper worked his jaw for a moment, wordlessly, then pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. "On to more immediate matters," he said, the tension still in his voice. "Kyon-kun, let us go over the cover story to explain the shooting to the authorities. Also, even though you should only be seen by trusted individuals, it would be best for you not to sit up on your own while any nurses or doctors are present."

Kyon nodded, realizing somewhere that he had screwed up very badly indeed. Watch out for the quiet ones? There were none so quiet as the one he had tuned out. And hadn't he promised his uncle Keiichi that he was going to try and be friends with his group? And in the face of that, he'd left the esper in the dark... The issue of Yuki using him as a body pillow aside (he had no complaints on that count, personally), being shot provided a brilliant object lesson on inattention.

"Koizumi," he said, before the esper could launch into an explanation, "I think we need to discuss something else." He turned to look at Yuki, giving her an apologetic smile, and unable to keep himself from brushing some of the hair soft hair from her face. "I'm sorry about this, Nagato, but could you give Koizumi and I some privacy for a bit?"

She nodded wordlessly in answer, climbing out of the bed and walking to the door without objection.

Once she was gone, he found the control to make the bed's back angle up, motioning to one of the seats. Koizumi sat down, looking wary. "This is my fault, so I suppose I'll have to start it off. First of all ... let me confess to being more than just a bit petty," Kyon sighed, running one hand through his hair. That wasn't comfortable to admit, but it was true. "So ... let me get this out. You're better looking than I am, you've been better connected, and you're smarter - half the time when Nagato talks to me, I need you to translate. And ... you are one of the very few people I have a hard time actually reading."

He chuckled at himself, still not meeting Koizumi's eyes.

"That's kind of arrogant, isn't it?" he continued. "I mean ... my aunts ... Satoko and Rena, they spent a lot of time when I was younger trying to teach me about who I could trust. I won't claim that I'm perfect at it, but that's one of the few things I've ever felt competent enough to claim to be 'good' at.

"So, when you take all of that, and I was suddenly given the ability to do better... I've gone more than a bit overboard, and I let my feelings on those other factors influence me. I've gone and forgotten that you are a part of this brigade too, and ... I have to apologize for that."

He took a breath and turned to look at the esper, who for once bore an honest looking expression - flabbergasted surprise. "Y...you were jealous of me?" Koizumi asked, seemingly amazed. "That had ... never occurred to me!"

Kyon wondered if he'd gone too far by saying he considered the esper smarter.

"Sorry," Koizumi added belatedly, shaking his head. "I'm a bit off-guard." His false smile hadn't come back, yet. "Making myself see things from your perspective, as much as I can imagine that ... I think I might understand some. The 'mysterious transfer student' comes in from seemingly nowhere, and..." He trailed off, giving a somewhat bleak smile. "Well, in that matter, you have Suzumiya-san's regard, which inspires some small measure of jealousy in myself. Admittedly, I don't think I have the courage that you do in those matters; you seem singularly unique in your ability to tell her 'stop'. Even when I did it last night, I could only bring myself to do it as conveying your command."

He suddenly realized there was a gap between his perception and Koizumi's. A rather large one, too. For all that he'd been scared on occasion that Haruhi might react badly to something, really, he wasn't actually scared of _her_. Just her reactions. He'd taken the esper's blind 'yes-man' attitude to be a measure to annoy _him_, or just try and win her trust. It never occurred to him that the esper would be too _scared_ of Haruhi to offer resistance!

But then, when he made himself stop and think about it, Koizumi had as much as told him, long ago, and he'd let his perception become clouded by jealousy and annoyance. Wasn't the esper terrified to discover he had his powers? He'd said he was afraid he might have gone mad, and Kyon had done nothing but remark that perhaps he _had_. From Koizumi's point of view, his own lack of fear toward Haruhi was probably mind-bending; the esper must have seen every interaction with Haruhi as playing with fire.

"We aren't very good friends," Kyon remarked, causing the esper to wince.

"Perhaps that is so," Koizumi allowed. "However, as we must work together-"

"Wait, wait, I wasn't done yet," Kyon protested, rubbing at one temple. "We really _should_ be friends, given our situation. So, let me take that first step and apologize for being jealous of you."

Koizumi didn't meet his eyes, giving a genuinely apologetic smile. "Ah ... well, let me also apologize," the esper managed, "for behaving in such a manner out of my own petty annoyance that a 'mere mortal' was able to achieve so much regard in Suzumiya-san's eyes."

Kyon snorted, shaking his head. "I feel a little bit like a jerk," he allowed. "So, let's put that behind us."

"I must be acting extremely outside of my established character," Koizumi remarked ruefully. "I should-"

"Be yourself," Kyon interrupted, shaking his head. "I know you once said that I might not like your real self ... but judging by the bits I've seen here, I think you'd be happier."

Koizumi said nothing for a moment, pulling some apples from the bag at his side and setting them on a tray. He began peeling almost absently, and commented, "In the time I've known you, though this scares me a bit to admit, I feel I've ... _changed_. In a way, much of the mask I wore in the company of the brigade has come to be the way that 'I' am now. I wonder if that old 'me' is gone, and the new 'true' me is somewhere between what I was, and how I acted...?"

"Now you're just being arrogant," Kyon retorted, snorting. "You're not an adult yet, either. You think personalities are set in stone? That people can't change? At _our_ age!?

"If you _act_ like something long enough, you may well _become_ like that. That's why our parents teach us good habits when we're younger; so we grow into responsible people. If you really want to try and convince me that you were an unlikeable person, then shouldn't you admit to yourself that you might just be a person with an unlikeable history?"

Koizumi pursed his lips, quartering the apple before him. "Truly," he said after a moment, "you have a strange way of rendering difficult ideas with simple vocabulary."

"I can try some complex analogy, if you'd prefer," Kyon suggested, grinning. "But I'll warn you right now, it's going to be centered around water, stone, and erosion. Seems kind of obvious, really."

The esper actually managed a chuckle, shaking his head. "That is a fair point," he allowed. "Still..."

"Anyway, I ended up joining an organized crime family," Kyon added. "Is your 'unlikeable' history that bad?"

"Perhaps not," Koizumi admitted. "But it still causes me difficulties to remember it. I believe you must know the facts to make your own judgments."

"Why not?" Kyon asked, shrugging. "You know my history. Your Organization already investigated that, right?"

"Ah ... true enough. Well, in retrospect, it's possible that you're right, and I'm making a much bigger deal out of this than I must." The esper paused to reach for another apple. He hesitated, then set the knife down and folded his hands in his lap, staring at the floor. "When I was younger, though not truly that long ago, I found that quite a few people felt that I was 'better looking', as you said. And at the risk of sounding arrogant, I traded on that heavily, using my appearances to manipulate people for my own ends. I ... was very shallow. I couldn't be troubled to do my own homework when I could convince someone else to do it for me ... or bring my own lunches, when that could be arranged, too."

Kyon had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. "You were petty, manipulative, and shallow?" he asked.

Koizumi nodded, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably.

"Ah ... well ... as respectfully as I can say such a thing ... that's a lot of noise for acting childish when you were younger," Kyon judged. "You don't have someone in the Organization doing homework for you or cooking for you now, do you?"

"Haha, no, of course not."

"Well ... manipulating people isn't the best thing in the world, but it's a habit you've grown out of now, right? I can admit on occasion being annoyed by you acting superior, but you've never been a bad person in the way you describe yourself - at least, that I've seen."

The esper nodded. "It wouldn't have fit the persona we wanted Suzumiya-san to see as her 'mysterious transfer student' to be conniving. Shortly after joining the Organization, I had to undergo 'training' to learn more positive habits."

"So! That's that, then. You've grown, and the person you are isn't the person you were. I mean, don't we all change? A year ago, I doubt I'd be having a deeply meaningful conversation about the nature of the self with an irritatingly bishounen fellow the day after I got shot." He gave a weak, but sincere smile to show he didn't mean anything harmful. "So, yeah. Let's try and actually be friends; right now, with Haruhi acting the way she is, confusing me all the time, I could really use that."

Koizumi chuckled again. Kyon wasn't one to care much for how other males around him laughed, but the _honesty_ of Koizumi's expression was refreshing. "Fair enough," the esper allowed, reaching for the apple he had set down. "Let me just say this, though. I'm not convinced that it's for the best for you to ... show so much affection for girls aside from Suzumiya-san? I mentioned this once before, during the winter. While I generally believe you are the expert in Suzumiya-san related subjects, I think she would be ... jealous, at the very least, if she were to see something like that."

Kyon thought about it. Koizumi was probably right. "Well, I agree," he allowed. Oh, he was going to burn for a long time for making out with Yuki on occasion behind Haruhi's back. Unfortunately, he was just too spineless to tell Yuki 'no' ... he could try and hide behind the excuse of 'helping her stabilize', but even if that weren't a factor, her quiet requests broke through his defenses without being slowed in the slightest. And then, there was Tsuruya, and the picture that Mikuru sent him, and the way that Mikuru's future self was constantly-

"I would like to point out that I woke up with Yuki at my side," he added, eyeing the esper. "I mean, I didn't ask her, or anything." Admittedly, he still had no complaints whatsoever, except that Haruhi would eventually-

Yeah, there was going to be a special hell set aside just for people like him. Still, it would be best to jump off that bridge when he got to it.

The esper gave Kyon a frank look, one that spoke volumes of skepticism. "Suzumiya-san is the one you must convince," he finally answered, before shaking his head and turning his attention back to his apple peeling. "Though I suppose, if she does not become aware of it, it may not be so much of an issue. Well, thank you for this opportunity to become friends, Kyon-kun; I appreciate that. Now ... at the risk of becoming that annoyingly superior-acting fellow again, we really should get to explaining that cover story...?"

"Right," Kyon agreed, sighing.

* * *

She was shaken from the experience, and horrified - terrified, actually - that her friend, that ever-reliable Kyon, had been injured trying to do her a favor. After the initial jarring rush of being hauled through the night air at unreasonable speeds, and then being carried through a series of explosions in terrible variety, Miyoko finally found herself holding a strange, heavy metal cylinder, while that same ever-reliable person - though, dressed differently, evidently not wounded from a gun-shot, tried to explain things to her.

His explanations were surprisingly easy to follow, but it was hard to focus with the eerily familiar woman next to him constantly objecting, "That should be classified!" Well, when she wasn't protesting that, she looked very lost in thought. The older woman - Miyoko judged she was probably twenty two, at most - spent a lot of time bantering with Kyon, using strange code-words, or referring to things that she just didn't understand.

Eventually, Kyon did manage to explain things to her, somewhat. He was a time-traveler. Well, she'd gathered he was some sort of hero, his sister was claiming _that_ was true for some time, going on about dark generals and such. Evidently, she'd only seen the merest tip of the iceberg, which Miyoko understood well enough. She loved Nonoko like her own sister, but even she knew that Kyon's little sister could not keep secrets.

Kyon did try and explain that he was more of a 'time passenger' than a 'time traveler', but she doubted that was really that important. No matter the means, even if he was hitchhiking through time, he moved in ways that Miyoko was relatively certain most people couldn't. After the explanation, Kyon concluded with a heartfelt request, explaining he needed a favor that very few people in the world could do for him - and she was one of those very few people.

In her mind, she owed him already. Buying drinks and popcorn at the theater was hardly enough payment on her part, considering that he'd gotten assaulted by armed ruffians. As far as she could tell, he was going to be _okay_, since he was in front of her from the future. Getting shot, though ... that couldn't feel very good.

So, after he'd returned her home, on time, with her parents oblivious that she'd had an adventure, she found her normal life returned. Mostly.

Horror movies had lost some of their luster, though the idea of becoming a doctor or a nurse still sounded good to her. At school the next day, Kyon's sister mentioned that Kyon was in the hospital when she asked, but surprisingly enough did _not_ elaborate on his situation. A mystifying development; was Nonoko learning the value of secret-keeping?

Still, as Kyon had requested, she went to visit him in the hospital. It was no trouble going with Nonoko; the hospital was near their school, so they could go together, and Nonoko's mother was going to pick her up there, anyway. When they got to see him, Kyon looked remarkably healthy, considering, offering a weak smile at the pair and reclining in his hospital bed.

When Nonoko was distracted briefly by an unfamiliar boy offering both of the girls some apples he had sectioned, Miyoko crept close to Kyon's bed and whispered, "I need to talk to you about something classified."

She _thought_ it was a code-word, based on the way that he had given her the instructions last night. Still, he barely seemed to react, just raising one eyebrow, then nodding. "Imouto," he called, looking past her at his sister, "could I ask you a favor? The doctors said I can have it, so would you get me a drink?"

"Okay! What kind?" she chirped. "You've got a pitcher of water right there."

"Well, you know me; I do love cold milk," he answered, giving her a smile. "Koizumi can show you where the cafeteria is, if you need."

Miyoko was aware of the looks the boys exchanged at that, conveying hidden messages she couldn't follow. "Naturally!" Koizumi agreed. "This way, young lady!"

"Miyoko-chan, are you coming?" Nonoko asked, pausing in the doorway.

"I have to thank your brother," she answered, waving at her friend.

Kyon's sister looked the tiniest bit doubtful, but nodded and followed the tall boy away. Sighing, Miyoko turned to her school backpack and hauled the heavy metal cylinder out. "This, um, can only be touched by certain people," she said apologetically. "I don't know why that is, or who those other people are. I was told to leave it for you, but that you shouldn't touch it yet, either."

"Do you know what it is?" he asked, studying it without reaching toward it.

"Nope!" she answered, ducking her head apologetically. "Someone named Nagato Yuki-san can explain it to you?"

"Alright," he answered, nodding. "Anything else, then?"

"Um, something about a Michikyuu Kanae," she said, struggling to remember. She set the object on the stand near his bed. What was it that he'd said... "Something about one of her enemies, and that this object is related to them." She paused, wracking her memory. Wasn't there something clearer? "I... I'm sorry, I should have remembered better, but last night was so... So strange..."

She braced herself for the deluge of questions that he'd have for her. She knew she would have _countless_ questions for someone who'd met a version of her from another time. And she'd even forgotten a part of the message!

He didn't ask anything, though. Instead, he gave her a sad smile. "I'm terribly sorry that this got you tangled in it, as well," he apologized, shaking his head. "You just wanted to see a movie, not any of this..."

Amazed, she could only stare for a long minute. "You got hurt!" she protested, feeling like she should cry. "You had to... I couldn't even remember all of the details of the message you gave me! Why are you apologizing to me!?"

He chuckled, shaking his head again, giving her a rueful smile. "Miyoko-chan," he said reassuringly, "you haven't done a thing wrong. What happened was a predetermined event. It's not something you can blame yourself for. I had to tell Mori-san the same thing earlier today. I'll admit; I'm not clear on the _why_ yet. But I'm satisfied that some day, I will be. For me, that's enough. For _you_... Well, I'm just sorry you have to deal with this craziness."

She wasn't sure why, but she found his relaxed demeanor made her laugh. Well, why should she worry? He had more to deal with, and didn't seem particularly troubled. "Thank you, Kyon-nii-san," she managed, just before Nonoko and Koizumi returned.

After some brief chatting until Kyon's mother showed up, Miyoko and Nonoko left the hospital together, a few paces behind the woman, just out of earshot. Nonoko gave Miyoko a very calculating look, and asked, "So, Miyoko-chan wants to date Kyon-kun?"

"Geh!" Miyoko choked out, her face suffusing red. "T...that's not it!" she protested anxiously. Admittedly, she wouldn't complain - but surely he had to be interested in one of the other girls around him? And when she compared their relative ages... But then, maybe if she let Nonoko think that's all it was... "Um, I just... I mean... T...there was..."

Nonoko giggled, giving her friend a smug, knowing smirk. "I won't tell on you," she said solemnly. "But I will warn you ... there's quite a few girls interested in Kyon-kun~!"

"Oh, well..." She gave a weak smile. "I'll just have to settle for being a friend, I guess," she said.

Kyon's little sister nodded knowingly, as her mother glanced back at the pair. "What's this all about?" she mused.

"Nothing~!" Nonoko chirped. "Just talking about Kyon-kun!"

* * *

Mikuru had slept too long to bother attending school. When she finally woke up, a bit stiff from being in the chair all night, she realized she was the first one up. Tsuruya was curled up awkwardly in the chair opposite her, also soundly asleep. Kyon was still sleeping in his bed, but with Haruhi and Yuki cuddled up on either side of him in matching poses. The tiny bed was really only meant for one person, so they were almost squeezed together - but didn't look uncomfortable at all.

She didn't pass up that opportunity, and snapped a quick dozen pictures with her cell phone's built-in camera. She envied both Haruhi and Yuki, but she'd always found it strangely soothing looking at Kyon's sleeping face. She'd even had a picture she kept, taken during the island vacation last summer, hidden in her room for a while - though, she'd just recently replaced it with the much more ... interesting ... picture that Haruhi had gotten from Kyon's aunt.

"Whatcha droolin' over this early?" Tsuruya asked with a sleepy chuckle, snapping her out of her contemplative daze.

"I just woke up," Mikuru mumbled, wiping her mouth with her handkerchief.

She stretched awkwardly, and Tsuruya did the same, wincing a bit and putting her hands on the small of her back. Once she was up, Tsuruya fished her own handkerchief from the sash of her rumpled formal kimono, and wiped at Haruhi's face until she woke up, grumbling. After a quick, hushed discussion, which Kyon slept through, it was decided that everyone would collect changes of clothes, then meet at Tsuruya's to take a bath.

Haruhi instructed Mikuru to bring the coat she'd made for Kyon, and Yuki to stay behind and watch over him. Without shifting from his side, Yuki nodded her acceptance. Mikuru was a bit baffled that Haruhi didn't seem jealous or upset with that, and wondered, just maybe, if she could...

She tried not to think about it, but it was very hard. After everyone had washed and changed, they swung by the school as it would be letting out, and Tsuruya and Haruhi got the assignments for their respective years. At the same time, they picked up Kanae, who hadn't been told what was going on, but was anxious until she saw her friends.

"Where did you guys go!?" she cried, waving her arms. "The club room was locked, and no one's seen Sempai around all day!"

"He's okay," Haruhi assured Kanae, ruffling the small girl's hair. "Let's go see him!"

"Suzumiya-san," Mikuru managed, as Tsuruya's limousine pulled into the hospital parking lot, "could I ask you about something?"

"You just did!" Haruhi gave a knowing smirk, crossing her arms over her chest and nodding. "But, I'm gracious; I'll let you ask me about something else, too!"

Mikuru couldn't help but smile a little at that. They climbed out of the car, Tsuruya taking Kanae ahead, giving them a small degree of privacy. "Um ... you said once, almost a year ago - last Tanabata, actually - that we should have a contest, and see who got their wishes granted first, right?"

Haruhi looked taken aback, but nodded. "I didn't forget," she agreed. "Now, Tanabata's an important time for me! You'd better not be joking around!"

"I'm absolutely serious!" Mikuru protested, feeling her face flush slightly. "Um, um, what I mean to say is... The contest... I wished to become better at cooking and sewing, right?"

"Yeah," Haruhi said slowly. "The Tanabata tree is still there... I mean, kind of simple wishes, but-" She cut off suddenly, raising her eyebrows. "Well, okay, I guess when you look at it, with Yuki-chan's help, you actually did get your wishes granted first! But, I was expecting to wait for the speed-of-light delay to... Hum. Alright, congratulations, then, Mikuru-chan. I guess you win the contest!"

"You didn't choose a prize yet, right?" Mikuru guessed, her face still warm.

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "I thought I had at least a dozen years," she groused. "So, not really. That's fine, though! It sounds like you have something in mind, so what is it?"

Steeling herself, remembering what Yuki had said, the other girl's difficulty expressing herself, and Haruhi's instructions to herself to really try her hardest, she blurted out, "I want to go on a date with Kyon-kun!"

Too loud, she thought, wincing in on herself as Kanae and Tsuruya looked back, surprised. One of Haruhi's eyebrows ticked very slightly. "I ... guess I did ask for that," she said slowly, sounding annoyed. "Urg... Well..."

"I... Um, I mean, Yuki-chan should come too," Mikuru added quickly, her face so hot she was afraid it would melt. She felt a dreadful certainty that the x-ray technicians down the hall would be bemoaning the radiation that escaped her skin and ruined their film. "S...so... I mean..."

"Alright," Haruhi sighed, shaking her head and looking down the hall absently. "Fine. Yuki-chan wanted 'peace' and 'harmony' for her wishes, so at times, she's won, too... However!" Haruhi suddenly wheeled on her, and Mikuru felt she was looking up a great distance when she met the other girl's gaze. "Remember what Yuki-chan wanted, and make sure that it isn't a competition! The two of you with Kyon ... together."

"R...right," Mikuru squeaked. "J...just like us last night!"

Instantly Haruhi's agitation seemed to vanish. "Right," she agreed, giving an encouraging smile. "Just like that! Slowly, step-by-step! Always edging toward that brighter tomorrow... It's a real pain, but I've been told that's the key." The brigade chief nodded knowingly, before continuing:

"And, you know what? Sometimes I think that there's a distance between yourself and Yuki-chan. I'm actually really pleased with you just now, Mikuru-chan~! Standing up for yourself, not taking that quitter's attitude, and looking out for Yuki-chan, too? That's the kind of thing I expect from a brigade member!" She clapped one hand on Mikuru's back encouragingly, even though the time traveler was terrified for a moment that she'd be imbalanced.

"Though," Haruhi noted, as Tsuruya pointed out the door to Kyon's room, and Kanae dashed through it like a shot, "we are leaving Kanae-chan out."

"U...um..." Mikuru didn't mind the slider ... the smaller girl _was_ cute, not quite in the same way Yuki was. It was going to be a little awkward as it was having a 'date' between herself, Yuki, and Kyon, already. But she had trouble imagining Yuki being able to easily request it herself, even if she wanted such a thing. Adding Kanae to the mix...

"Well, I'll come up with something for her," Haruhi decided. "Tsuruya-san's going to take Kanae-chan and Kyon out to see that 'Trope-tan' movie, anyway. That won't make for a bad start."

"Y...you think that Kanae-chan really likes Kyon?" Mikuru wondered aloud.

Haruhi looked at Mikuru sidelong. "There must be a connection between insane cuteness and blind spots. Well, if you haven't gotten it from the way she adores Kyon, what with her worshipful 'sempai'-" she started, before a crash echoed from Kyon's room.

The pair dashed the remaining distance to the room, Haruhi making it first. Inside, Kanae was clinging to the side of Kyon's bed, bawling her eyes out. "Sempai!" she wailed. "Waah~! Don't scare me like that! I don't know what I'd do if you were hurt! I can't stand being alone again - you're all I've got!"

Tsuruya was taken aback, and Kyon looked utterly bewildered, one hand awkwardly patting Kanae reassuringly on the back, while his gaze went beseechingly to everyone else in the room in turn.

"Maybe that's been on the back burner too long already," Haruhi mused thoughtfully.

Mikuru sighed, grateful that her request was answered, at any rate. She spotted the bedside stand that Kanae must have knocked over in her agitation, and straightened it back up. Some metal cylinder was on the floor nearby, as well. She decided it must have fallen from the stand, and grabbed it, setting it back on the tray. For some reason, it made her hand tingle faintly. She wondered what it was, but really, Kanae seemed the higher priority at the moment.

"Sempai!" Kanae sobbed, shuddering.

"That's enough of that," Haruhi said surprisingly gently. "Such behavior... I'm disappointed in you, Kanae-chan!"

"Ah, um," the slider managed, burying her face in Kyon's side, still sniffling.

Sighing, Tsuruya nodded her understanding, setting a gentle hand on Kanae's shoulder. "Alone?" she asked. "What abouts us, Kanae-chan? We'd still be heres."

"Right," Haruhi said in a commanding tone. "Dry those tears! Turn around and face your friends! We're your allies in this, and anything else! I guess we've been distracted by other things, but it seems to me you've been running for a very, very long time. I don't know if you can stay here forever, but if you want to try, we'll help you. I know that this place isn't your home, but as long as you do, too, then we can try our best!"

"Y...yeah," Kyon agreed hesitantly. "Kanae-chan ... we're all friends - nakama, even. Don't just rely on me; I'd like to be reliable, and I'm, um, flattered you think so highly of me... But to say it's all me, well, you discount the help that Asahina-san, Tsuruya-kun, Nagato, and Haruhi give you, too. Even Koizumi has his Organization trying to watch out for you!"

"I'm sorry," Kanae sniffled, slowly turning around and looking up at the other girls. "I... I just..."

"Next official brigade meeting, we're going to have a talk about your enemies, and what we can do to help you," Haruhi decided. "Until then, Kyon's fine! Don't make him feel bad for making you cry - be happy that he's alright!"

"Y...yes," Kanae agreed, as Mikuru knelt and dabbed at the girl's tears with her handkerchief, giving the most reassuring smile she could.

"You know," Mikuru remarked, "I should have learned this a long time ago, but friendship is a very powerful force!"

"Believe in it!" Haruhi declared. "Anyway, if you want something to cry about, it's this: I brought our assignments, so we can catch up on missed school work!"

"Well," Kyon commented dryly, "_I_ might cry over that one."

"Wuss! Where's Yuki-chan, anyway?"

"Oh, my parents forgot, so she and Koizumi are grabbing a change of clothes for when I get released tomorrow."

* * *

Haruhi naturally had already brought everything he needed to do his homework while hospitalized, including a small lap-desk, so he could write. Or if she hadn't brought it, she stole it from a nearby room - he decided it was better not to ask. After Kanae settled down, still shaken, he followed along with Haruhi's instructions, but was distracted by a culmination of factors, and a realization that he'd done something wrong. More specifically, that he was being lazy and putting off things he needed to do. Yet another ignored 'quiet one'.

That Sunday when he went back and fought off twelve goons for Tsuruya had yet to occur, after all. And then he'd let himself get shot without taking care of that... He'd been given ample clues and warnings about whatever it was Kanae was being chased by, the last one delivered by Miyoko. Haruhi thought it needed to be dealt with, too...

Maybe he _should_ rely on the others, but there was no real excuse for delaying the initiative on taking care of something so important. Though, the fact that Haruhi had left one of her ribbons with him left her with a very distracting ponytail. That wasn't helping. Her hair wasn't _quite_ long enough to pull it off, just yet, but it was absolutely coming along.

Yuki and Koizumi returned just as the homework was being finished, and then Haruhi suggested getting dinner. Kyon was still ostensibly confined to his bed, and Kanae was reluctant to leave, so Mikuru, Koizumi, and Tsuruya volunteered to see if there was anything worthwhile at the hospital cafeteria. No point in mentioning that the nurse would bring him a meal, anyway, he decided. Plus, there was every chance that Haruhi had already intercepted such a nurse.

Now that the hospital was under a combination of Organization control and the ownership of Tsuruya's family, Haruhi hardly even had to do anything ostentatious to arrange things like that, either.

Still, while things were relatively calm, he turned his attention to Yuki. "Um, Nagato, I was given something a bit strange, maybe you can shed some light on it?" he posed, giving a weak, apologetic smile.

She blinked at him, and Haruhi fell silent, watching curiously.

"I was told that only specific people could touch it," he added, pointing at the metal cylinder on the bedside stand.

Yuki nodded and rose from her seat to step near the thing, placing one hand over it thoughtfully. After a moment, she said, "This device has a genetic security measure installed. Only a specific individual or near relatives can come into direct contact without triggering it." She paused, staring intently, then pulled her hand back. "This technology is beyond the means of the humans of this time."

"Well, we've got you and me," Haruhi said, grinning. "And I haven't gotten to do much fun in a while. So! Yuki-chan ... you can hack that security thingy and figure this out!"

"Program loaded," she acknowledged, looking to Kyon.

He couldn't see anything wrong with understanding whatever the device was, at least. "Permission granted," he allowed, shrugging. And Haruhi was right that he hadn't let her do much in a while, either. Though, when he looked back and considered things, she hadn't _tried_ much, lately.

Yuki nodded, her eyes going back to the strange device. Tiny, almost invisible crackling blue lines of something like electricity surged from her fingertips to the surface, then back, and after a moment, she dropped her hand to her side. "The device is now awaiting a new genetic imprint to identify ownership," she announced.

"Well, before that - what is it?" Haruhi asked suspiciously.

Kanae made a quiet noise, shaking her head. "I think I know what it is," she admitted unhappily. "It's a weapon ... the one that I've seen one of the other sliders use. It changes shape for him; he can make it turn into different things."

Yuki blinked, then studied the device intently. "Malmetal compound," she commented. "This device has the potential to assume multiple forms."

Haruhi made a gesture, and the cylinder lifted from the tray as she studied it, frowning. "I'm going to guess that your future self did something to get this for you, Kyon," she finally decided. "Which is good enough ... I mean, mostly we have powers, and you don't. So you'd need tools to make up the difference. Hmm, yeah. You're going to need a lot of tools." Another gesture sent the thing spinning toward him, hovering within reach over his lap. "Well, I'm sure you can be trusted with this. Oh, hey, I missed seeing Yuki give you that wristwatch armor thing, but now I get to see your much-needed powerup!"

He wasn't actually certain he _needed_ a 'powerup', but reluctant shonen heroes ended up getting forcibly reminded that they couldn't handle things without help - and he'd had enough painful reminders recently. "So, I just touch it?" he asked Yuki.

She nodded.

Deciding he was best off not thinking about it too hard at the moment, Kyon reached out and grabbed the cylinder. He felt a tingling sensation, an eerie pulse of power that resonated through his entire body, and felt a highly disconcerting _awareness_ of the weapon. Like it was telling him what its capacity was. In his hands, it shifted shape, exactly like Yuki had said. The metal seemed to _melt_ into a different form, and in less than a second he was holding an over-sized model of the same weapon he'd been shot with.

"Ah, great," he said sourly. "I would have preferred something more futuristic, and more liable to stun people, not hurt them." Abruptly, the surface shimmered and wobbled, reshaping itself to some highly shiny sci-fi looking weapon. "On second thought, I think I can deal with this. It's a bit heavy, though ... it'll be a pain to lug this around, everywhere."

He set it down on the bed and let go, curious. Instantly, it re-assumed the original cylinder shape. Kanae stared at the thing nervously, and given that he remembered her saying she'd been shot with it once, he understood why. "The big question in my mind, though," Kyon said, crossing his arms and staring at the piece of metal, "is how this got here? My future self didn't give me many good clues this time. What do you think, Kanae-chan?"

"I... It's better for Sempai to have that ... thing ... than my enemies," Kanae managed, nervously. "Um ... but I'm still a bit scared of it."

"I can imagine," he agreed, sighing. "Um, Nagato, will this thing still melt if people aside from me touch it?"

"No," she answered. "That security can still be re-enabled."

"Will it work for other people?"

"There is a high degree of compatibility in function with genetic relatives," she said. "Your parents and sister are highly likely to be able to utilize all functions. As well, further distant ancestors would have chances of being able to activate functions."

"Hmm, that explains why Miyoko-chan could touch it," he mused, nodding thoughtfully.

"Kyon!" Haruhi protested, growling. "Are you telling me that your future self abducted Miyoko-chan off the street to get this while you lay there bleeding - and didn't do a damn thing to help!?

"I keep saying that future me is a jerk!" Kyon grumbled. "I mean ... I guess at some point I must see this as the way things _must_ be... But then, I suppose if you think about it ... I know right now that you were able to handle things. Why would I interfere with that and risk the stability of the timeline?"

Haruhi's expression flickered between annoyed and pleased before she finally settled on thoughtfully pensive.

"My head hurts," Kanae whimpered.

"Right," Haruhi decided, making another gesture. The cylinder rose from Kyon's bed and landed back on the stand it had been retrieved from. "On the subject of _tools_, hmm... Well, Mikuru-chan can give you a little something after we eat dinner!" She clapped her hands together. "Subject change! Let's talk about something more cheerful! So, Kyon, you actually _have_ an ancestral sword style?"

He blinked, staring at her, then chuckled and shook his head. "Not that I know of," he admitted. "I asked Nagato, and she said she'd guess what style my ancestors used based on region and my family name."

"Oh, but you really did learn to use one... Yeah, we should figure out how to get you an energy sword," Haruhi mused. "As long as it can be set to 'stun', that'll be really awesome! Plus, _something_ cut through the back of the van last night, but I never saw what it was ... energy sword or beam saber sounds really good to me!"

Somehow, with Haruhi making decisions for him like that, Kyon felt simultaneously relieved and annoyed.

Kanae blinked, shaking her head quickly, seeming to dispel her previous discomfort. "If he lets you borrow it, since you can already levitate things, does that mean you'd be a Jedi?" she asked curiously.

Haruhi burst into laughter at that. "Kanae-chan, that just gave me a _great_ costume idea for Kyon!"

"Oh, good," he managed, smirking anyway as he shook his head.

* * *

After picking out what looked best from the cafeteria and finding that the cashier already understood the Tsuruya's imminent purchase of the hospital, Mikuru, Tsuruya, and Koizumi took their loaded free-of-charge trays back to Kyon's room. Mikuru was starting to realize all of the cooking skill Yuki had imbued her with was leaving her with a remarkable bias, but the attendants had gone out of their way to make everything that they had picked out freshly for them.

Tsuruya seemed to take it in stride, likely not even really thinking about it. Koizumi, quietly observant as always, seemed to notice but not remark on it. Haruhi and Yuki had brought a number of folding chairs into the room, and another small table, so there was just barely enough room to set all the trays down. Kanae was still agitated, in Mikuru's estimation, but the slider was putting on a strong show of pretending that she was fine.

As she expected, Kyon was observant as well, his considering gaze flickering to her more than anyone else in the room. After everyone finished eating, Haruhi inspected Kyon's tray, frowning slightly. "You ate all your vegetables," she remarked.

"Well, of course," he said, raising an eyebrow. "I can hardly tell my cousins that they have to if I don't do it myself... Wait, you wanted to chastise me about that?"

Mikuru smiled, and barely resisted the urge to giggle at Haruhi's faint blush. "Never mind about that!" the brigade chief snapped. "Even though you messed up and let yourself get hurt, well, Mikuru-chan went way out of her way for you! So, here's something that should help the next time you're clumsy, and make us all worry about you!"

Not expecting to be put on the spot so suddenly, Mikuru's repressed giggle escaped. "Um, one moment," she managed, setting her tray down and going for the bag she had set on the floor earlier. "Er..." She hesitated. Kyon would hardly be able to try it on, sitting up in the bed. "Um, maybe, Kyon-kun, are you well enough to get up?"

Koizumi glanced at the closed door, remarking, "It should be fine; the duty nurse has already come by ... she shouldn't be by again for a few hours."

"Alright, then," Kyon agreed, flipping back the covers and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, seeming to have no trouble standing. His hospital gown was thankfully modest, tying at the side instead of the back, but she still felt herself blushing when she presented the bag to him.

"I m...made this for you," she managed. "I wanted, um, to thank you for helping me get that new sewing machine, and this is the first major project I really worked on with it."

He accepted the bag gratefully, bowing his head as he pulled the heavy coat from within. The bag fell to the bed as the full length of the cloth unfurled, and he quickly raised it to prevent it from falling to the floor. "Try it on!" Haruhi demanded, bouncing excitedly in her seat. "Come on!"

His own face coloring slightly in embarrassment, Kyon did as instructed, pulling his arms through the heavy sleeves. When it was on, he tested the fit, raising an eyebrow at how well the shoulders were adjusted to him. There was the tiniest bit of room for him to grow, just in case, and she'd already washed it, so it shouldn't shrink any further. But, as she'd anticipated, he looked very dashing in it.

There were no epaulets on the shoulder, but deep pockets were on both sides, and the interior as well. It was long on him, and cut to allow full movement, without a lot of decoration. It was an entirely different look from her favorite Kyon - that being what Tsuruya teasingly dubbed his 'domestic-mode'. She could easily imagine him with a noble expression, one leg up on a boulder and someone swooning in his arm on the cover of a cheap sci-fi novel.

The buttons hadn't been shined yet, so were currently a dull color. In retrospect, she wished she had gotten a blue cloth, instead of tan, but supposed that it would look a bit more conspicuous if it were so sharp. But those observations aside: "Y...you make it look very dashing," she managed, offering him a shy smile.

"It's really comfortable," he returned, grinning. "Very warm, too. It's pretty heavy, but it doesn't feel like it once it's on." He nodded thoughtfully and grabbed the heavy metal cylinder that Kanae had previously knocked over, tucking it into one of the coat's interior pockets. "Oh, that's good," he mused, shifting his shoulders around experimentally.

Tsuruya and Koizumi were giving him matching odd looks. "What?" he asked them, frowning. "I think Asahina-san did a great job!" Turning to her, he gave that knee-melting grin she rarely received, a much more potent version of his 'grateful for your tea' smile that she usually got. "I won't be able to get much use out of this until next winter, but I know once I do, I will greatly appreciate this! Asahina-san, I don't know what I've done to deserve such a fine present, but I am very grateful."

"I've seen that coats before," Tsuruya remarked, cocking her head to one side. "You had it on when you beat up those Sumiyoshi-rengo fellows who hurt Kasai!"

"Y...yes," Koizumi agreed, nodding. "I've seen that once before, as well, that day you left even Mori-san impressed."

"Or, you know," Kyon sighed, "maybe even sooner than that." He shook his head, straightening, giving Mikuru another, though less knee-melting smile. "It appears I already am going to get quite a bit of use out of this, then. Hmm, that's a bit reassuring, though, since I guess it means I haven't put off going back _too_ long..."

She didn't like the idea of taking him back in time to get into a fight ... she hoped if it had to happen, she'd be able to receive some of that promised training from Yuki, first. She managed to smile back, her face still warm. "I...it's not much, but I'm glad you will like it," she managed.

"Right," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "Yuki-chan, Mikuru-chan made something amazing; we should help to make sure it never goes to waste, right?"

"Huh?" Mikuru and Kyon managed together, looking at the enthusiastic brigade chief.

"So, let's see... Um, most importantly, that coat's subtle enough that it won't stick out too much. So, it should be super durable, too, so it doesn't get damaged - that would be a real pity, and more work for Mikuru-chan! And Kyon's lazy, so maybe it shouldn't get dirty very easily, either... Yeah, that sounds good." She nodded decisively, then looked at Yuki. "Is that doable?"

"Program loaded," Yuki acknowledged.

"Let's not go overboard," Kyon protested. "I really like it, but don't sell Asahina-san's hard work short!"

"I ... don't mind only doing the least important part," Mikuru lied, forcing a smile. More honestly, she continued, "The important thing is that I wanted it to protect you ... maybe only from the cold, but making it something better able to help you out is fine, too - more than fine, really! So, that's okay!"

"If you're sure," he said dubiously, seeming to see some small bit of her inner doubt.

"It's fine, really fine!" she insisted, waving her hands. She _did_ at least get to give him a gift ... that was worth something.

"Alright, then," he allowed. "Permission granted."

Yuki raised her hand, and shimmering bands of electrical energy licked out from her fingertip, surging into the coat ... and leaving it looking identical, once the light-show faded. "Protective attributes have been assigned," she announced.

Kyon shook his head ruefully, taking off the coat and folding it carefully before putting it back in the bag. "I really am grateful, Asahina-san," he said again, sitting back on the bed.

"Well, in that case, since she and Yuki-chan finished this for you, you can make it up by taking both of them to see another movie," Haruhi declared, nodding decisively. "After all, that last one didn't end so well, did it?"

"I suppose that's my fault?" he asked dourly. "But, alright, fine. If it was fouled and requires a do-over, I'll try harder next time."

"Don't forget, you owe me a make-up movie, too," she added, grinning.

* * *

On occasion, Maruyama Iyouji still had nightmares. In some of them, a bored-looking school girl chastised her way through ranks and ranks of burly, but ineffective Sumiyoshi-rengo. In others, the growling, annoyed expression of the dread bodyguard Kyon didn't flicker, dark eyes locked on Iyouji as dozens of yakuza were mown down like wheat.

In all cases, he woke in a cold sweat, believing for long minutes that he still heard the ominous echoing laughter of the Tsuruya heiress.

Far from interfering with his work, the dreams compelled him to work even harder on making sure that the numbers were neat, and the operations were all run flawlessly. More importantly, he and his boss were especially diligent to ensure that in no instance, did a single one of their activities step on the toes of the Yamaguchi-gumi. _Especially_ they went out of their way to avoid _anything_ to do with the Haru-tachi.

Iyouji considered himself, ultimately, to be a little bit of a coward. He wasn't ashamed of that; even if he _had_ gotten placed in a criminal organization, it was as an accountant, not a common thug. But as a coward in a criminal organization, he was careful to remain calm, aware of his position. When trouble came, he faced it logically, methodically, and when there was danger he bowed, scraped, and if required, begged without a scrap or shred of pride or dignity.

So for the first time in a long while, probably, he thought, several years, Iyouji found himself surprised at how angry he was.

He was careful! He didn't make mistakes - but if he did, he would calmly and apologetically own up to them. When someone else made a mistake, he was sure that his own share was done well enough to show where the fault lay. Most importantly: He was too much of a coward to willingly bring danger down upon his own head.

Thus, as he was happily reviewing the numbers for a blackmail scam involving a minor public official and a woman who worked with their group, he received a phone call on the 'emergency bail' line. Not too unusual; Fujiya Masao had long ago ordered Iyouji to maintain a fund specifically for the purposes of posting bail when any of his men were jailed. There was usually enough in it to afford to hire a decent lawyer for preliminary hearings, as well.

However...

When he first received the call stating that one of Masao's top three men - Watanabe - had gotten himself arrested, he felt concern. In these trying times, the loss of a high-ranking enforcer was nothing to laugh about. But as the explanation went on, and Iyouji understood what Watanabe had done, concern gave way to fury.

After politely declining to fund any kind of lawyer, and acknowledging that bail wasn't going to be permitted for Watanabe, Iyouji hung up the phone and stormed to Masao's office. The men in the room - those who had only been badly bruised, and weren't still recovering from the last unfortunate encounter with the Haru-tachi - looked up in fascination at the irate banker. He ignored them, pummeling the door.

Masao wrenched the door open with a dark glare, blinking when Iyouji didn't back down. Lip curling in annoyance, the boss nodded, gesturing his underling in and slamming the door back shut behind him. "Sit," he growled, taking a seat behind his desk.

Iyouji did as he was instructed. "It's Watanabe, Sir," he said. "And trouble with the Haru-tachi."

Masao groaned, dragging one hand across his face, then pulling a pair of tumblers and an unopened bottle of Suntory whiskey from a desk drawer. After pouring both glasses almost entirely full, he slid one to Iyouji. "Explain," he ordered.

Nodding his head and sipping at the strong, burning beverage, Iyouji explained what had happened - repeating the phone call verbatim. Masao listened to the entire thing before offering a single, succinct curse in response, throwing back his entire drink and pouring himself another.

After finishing the second tumbler and contemplating, Masao sighed deeply, setting his elbows on his desk and steepling his hands, palms apart, fingertips touching. "You are going to tell them that I must apologize," the boss said. Realizing that Masao was right - only a spineless coward like himself would be allowed close enough to beg forgiveness - Iyouji grimaced and downed the rest of his drink.


	23. Chapter 22

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Gearing Up Arc IV

Chapter Twenty Two: Homecoming (Take Two)

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Two: Fight or Flight"_

_"Running away is just buying time, not solving a problem. You may not be able to solve every problem on your own, but if you just run from everything ... then you never solve anything at all."_

_"Mirror, Mirror" - T.K._

* * *

After being given cursory inspections by the Organization members of the hospital staff, Kyon was pronounced fit to return home. His parents and sister left him alone long enough to change into his own clothes, and then his father drove the lot of them home. Expecting that the strange, harmonious peace of the hospital stay would be shattered the moment he stepped through the door, he tried to brace himself for whatever it was that his mother was going to come up with next.

The moment came, and as if he'd tripped some door-mounted motion-detector, his mother commented, "You know, Kyon, I think that Tsuruya-chan is a good influence on you. She's from a good family with a respectable background and excellent upbringing! You should invite her over more often!"

Off-balance by this sudden show of support for one of his friends, he stared. "Um ... maybe," he allowed. "I mean, she lives in a mansion, you know; her family is really, really wealthy."

"I've noticed that," Kyon's father remarked, flopping onto the couch in the living room and turning on the television. "Anyway, Dear, give Kyon some space - he _did_ just get out of the hospital, after all."

"Yeah~!" his sister cheered. "So, play with me!"

"I know!" his mother exclaimed, snatching Nonoko's jumper just as she lunged towards Kyon, leaving the little girl straining like a dog trying to pull its owner. "Nono-chan, you're growing up a bit, so it's time you learned something important! We'll let the boys talk about things, and you can help me make a 'welcome home' dinner for Kyon! Won't that be fun?"

"Yay!" Nonoko enthused, switching directions from a charge towards Kyon to the kitchen, but still straining his mother's grip. "Cooking~!"

Staring at the pair as they vanished into the kitchen, Kyon gave a slow sidelong glance at his father. For all that the television was on, quietly reporting a baseball game that he doubted either of them cared about, the man's gaze was on the far wall, his focus absent.

Sighing quietly, Kyon left the small bag of his possessions at the foot of the stairs for the moment. Settling onto the couch near his father, he asked quietly, "Is something up?"

"You know your mother," Yuuto groaned, rubbing at his face with one hand. "Hey, I asked you once if she was worth it, and you said 'yes'. That girl is Tsuruya-chan, right?" Kyon did not miss the way that his father's expression had become simultaneously worried and hopeful.

"Well, she's not the only person I'd go that far for," Kyon admitted.

Yuuto grimaced, turning the volume up slightly, providing a screen for their conversation as the sounds of pots and pans clanging together carried from the kitchen. "I'll be blunt," he said, giving Kyon a stern look. "I know this is a bit sudden - but you like her, don't you?"

Kyon looked sharply away, feeling his face heat up. That _was_ blunt. If there was one thing he could usually rely on his parents for, it was that they were indifferent to his romantic life - or, really, the total lack thereof. "I wasn't trying to take Miyoko out on a date, if that's what you're asking," he answered. "Man, one thing after another ... I don't have an interest in young girls that way!"

He looked back in time to see Yuuto sharply wince, for some reason. The man coughed into his hand. "That wasn't what I was asking at all. Seriously, Kyon ... do you like her?"

He considered the green-haired heiress. She was attractive in a different way from Mikuru, usually very poised and athletic, and even though he was reluctant to admit it, he _firmly_ remembered first meeting her on the baseball field, when she put her hair up in a-

"Yeah," he allowed. "I mean ... I'm not really looking for a relationship," he said, the same lame cop-out he had given Haruhi. "But if I was, I wouldn't really complain about her."

Yuuto looked troubled. "Look at it this way," he posed, instead. "I mean, when you consider her, could you imagine being part of her family?"

With supreme effort, Kyon managed not to roll his eyes. He was _already_ part of the Tsuruya organized crime family. "I think I get what you're suggesting," he said slowly. Obviously, even though his mother was in the dark on it, or had been given some good cover story, Kyon's father had been told about the truth of Kyon's role in Tsuruya's family by _her_ father. Did he mind being an advisor to Tsuruya?

He wanted to say that he didn't like it at all ... except, it did a lot of good for the brigade. And on a personal level, he could admit that he enjoyed being closer to Tsuruya, even if it was only as a friend and advisor. It wasn't _sensible_ for a boy his age to be satisfied with such a career...

"I can," he finally answered his father, nodding. "Yeah ... I mean, if her father asked, and Tsuruya-kun wanted it, I'd probably spend the rest of my life at her side. Actually, if she wanted it, and her father _didn't_, well... If that's what it took..." He shrugged.

His father's eyebrows shot up, and his mouth hung open slightly. Well, perfectly reasonable, in Kyon's mind; his son had just admitted he was happy in organized crime. "I know," he said, before the man could protest, "it sounds crazy - but ... well, I've had time to think about it. And I kind of ... ended up talking about things like that with uncle Keiichi and aunt Mion, while I was up in Hinamizawa." The man's eyes managed to widen even further. "Yeah, I know mom will throw a fit if it comes to light, but it worked out for him, and aunt Mion, so if I can make it work nearly so well, it's entirely worth doing."

Yuuto worked his jaw twice, then managed to nod. "I am so proud," Yuuto said, when he found his voice again. "You're right - your mother can _never_ know about certain parts of this - but ... my son, if I'd been _half_ as decisive as you at your age... Well! Anyway, I think at this point, there should only be good things in your future!"

Kyon nodded uncertainly. Considering that the job had already gotten him _shot_, he wasn't sure why his father was so enthusiastic ... but then, maybe he was considering the money? Deciding it wasn't worth discussing where there was further chance of his mother overhearing, he shrugged and turned his attention to the television.

* * *

After returning to school, Kyon realized that once again the high point would be the club room. Even though he was keeping his head above water - so to speak - thanks to Haruhi's efforts, spending time in the hospital hadn't helped. His shoe locker was stuffed with notes again, this time mostly get-well wishes from the other students.

He despaired Mikuru's future self ever being able to send him a message that way again. But, maybe she had known how overwhelmed his shoe locker would be, and thus taken advantage of it for personal amusement because she knew what was coming?

As he walked slowly towards the club room, he tried to banish that thought. He would have preferred to walk a little more briskly, but he'd been given a note that said he didn't need to participate in physical education for two weeks to better suit his cover, and his pace needed to match accordingly.

By the time he reached the clubroom, costume changes had been finished, and when he knocked, it was Tsuruya who answered: "Come in~!"

"Hey," he said, opening the door and freezing, stunned.

"I gots the hair for it," Tsuruya said cheerfully, grinning. "Whatcha think?"

"Well, it's got so little material it didn't even take Mikuru-chan an hour to finish," Haruhi commented with a smirk, hands on her hips as she admired the taller girl, as if she had done the sewing herself.

"I ... could have made it a bit more modest," Mikuru managed, her face red in embarrassment for her friend.

Kanae stared at Tsuruya wordlessly, looking a little envious. As usual, Yuki was reading a book in the corner. Kyon didn't check the title; it was struggle enough to tear his eyes from Tsuruya's tiger-striped two-piece bikini. "Lum, right?" he asked, trying to rivet his gaze on the tiny horns that Tsuruya had peeking out of her hair, and not the expanses of smooth skin-

Horns. Two of them. They looked spiraled. He wasn't sure how they were kept in place, but they peeked out through her long hair, which flowed down her back, past her almost entirely bare sides-

Yeah, that wasn't working.

"Yep~! You gots it!" Tsuruya said enthusiastically, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

That had an interesting side-effect, and Kyon gave in to a sudden need to sit down at the table, barely remembering to close the door behind him. "Looks good," he managed. "Um. I don't ... think you should ... wear that outside, though."

"I don't look good enough?" Tsuruya asked with a pout, leaning forward to stare at Kyon.

He screwed his eyes shut, which didn't help, just bringing to mind the image of her saved on his phone. "That's entirely opposite the actual problem!" he choked out.

She sounded on the verge of sniffling - or giggling - when she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Hello!" Koizumi said brightly, stepping into the room. "How is eve- ...uh." Kyon was rewarded, however briefly, with the view of Koizumi's face showing an expression of near shock, before he mastered it, turning to close the door and taking a seat just as quickly as Kyon had. "That's an, um, enticing outfit you've got, Tsuruya-san!"

"That's more of what I'm getting at," Kyon said, nodding. "Haruhi's idea, right?"

"What makes you think it was my idea?" Haruhi asked warily, raising one eyebrow.

Kyon decided he would live longer if he _didn't_ say, 'because it shows off too much skin'. Instead, he tried, "Well, you know, the Lum character is an alien, so I thought it would appeal to you."

Haruhi nodded doubtfully, but seemed to accept that answer.

"It was my idea," Tsuruya said, pouting more deeply. "I wasn't sure what kind of characters to be if I were picked for the day's mascot. So I thought of something that wouldn't bother Mikuru-chan for materials~!"

Her face glowing red, Mikuru sank slightly in her seat. "That is _not_ the problem," she whimpered very quietly. Sitting up straight, she added more firmly, "Um, I mean, that's... Such an easy costume - to make, I mean - isn't any problem! Something more intricate would let me use the skills I've learned! So, I wouldn't mind making you something more elaborate, even if it was a floor-length dress! Or a formal kimono! I really, _really_ wouldn't mind!"

"Oh, are you sure?" Tsuruya asked, putting her right fist on her hip and touching a fingertip from her left hand to her lip. "Well, in that case, I'll let you come up with somethings! I trust you, Mikuru-chan~! But I wear kimono all the time at home and for work, so that's not much of a costume for me. Let me know if you need money for materials!"

"Yes!" Mikuru said quickly. "Um, um, Suzumiya-san, what do you think about Tsuruya-san in a Gothic-Lolita outfit?"

"If you want to make it," Haruhi agreed, shrugging. "We don't have one of those on the rack. Anyway, we need to discuss something else right now."

"I'll need a lot of lace," Mikuru mused, already scribbling in her sketchbook intently. "Um, hmm ... maybe petticoats..."

"Eh, um, Mikuru-chan?" Haruhi posed, leaning forward from where she stood to peer into the other girl's eyes before sighing. "Okay, well, we've lost Mikuru-chan for the moment - I swear, she didn't _get_ this focused before she became better at sewing."

"No, she's been like that for a while," Kyon disagreed. "You weren't often here to see it when you were running around for the Literature Club anthology we had to publish. She almost completely tuned everything out while she was drawing pictures for her story. She's just really involved because she's trying her best."

"Really?" Haruhi asked, staring at Kyon in surprise before shrugging and taking her seat. "Hum. Okay, I guess. Anyway, since she's distracted, I guess that leaves tea to you, Tsuruya!"

"Dunno how to make it!" Tsuruya said cheerfully.

"Even Kyon knows how to make _bad_ tea!" Haruhi protested. "You can't really mean you don't _know_!"

"Never learned!" Tsuruya waved one hand dismissively. "But how hard could it be? Um, let's see... It needs water, tea leaves, and heat, hmm? I think I've seen Mikuru-chan do this-"

"On second thought," Haruhi decided, rising from her seat with a sigh, "I think I'd better take care of the tea." Tsuruya beamed Haruhi a smile and stole her chair while the brigade chief went to the tea set and started the kettle.

"What's this 'something else' we should be discussing, Suzumiya-san?" Koizumi asked politely, setting a deck of cards on the table.

"It's about Kanae-chan, actually," Haruhi said, glancing over from where she was working. "I thought I mentioned this? Anyway, Kanae-chan says she's on the run from some other sliders - and one of _them_ evidently had that thing that Kyon got."

"Right," Kyon agreed, pulling the chunk of metal from his coat and setting it on the table, balanced on one end. "I'm not clear on all the details yet, but somehow this came from the future."

"What's that mean, though?" Kanae asked nervously. "I thought it was from another world?"

"Well, it could be that too," he admitted.

"I think I follow," Koizumi said, shuffling the cards absently. "So, would I be correct in guessing that if this is here, now, that it means that in the future, the slider who brings it over loses it to a time traveler?"

"That's my guess," Kyon agreed. "But the only other time traveler I know of is the smirking bastard. He arranged for Asahina-san to be kidnapped once."

"It's funny you should bring that up," Koizumi remarked, frowning. "Ah, this may not be news to you, but the vehicle that your enemies were attempting to use to escape you is the same one that was once used for her attempted abduction. Albeit, evidently an alternate-time version of herself."

"Kyon mentioned that," Haruhi mused. "So, somehow this time traveler character was involved again?"

"I didn't know about that," Kyon mused, rubbing his chin. "Seems kind of stupid of him to use the same vehicle a third time."

"Third time?" Koizumi and Haruhi asked together, looking at Kyon quizzically. Tsuruya looked mildly confused, and turned to check on Yuki, who merely turned the page of her book. Kanae stared at the table in concentration, also silent.

"Um, yeah," Kyon said, frowning. "You know, that same van was once used to try and run over that kid your tutored? If it weren't for Asahina-san telling me to be there at just the right time, he would have been flattened."

Haruhi blanched. "Er, I didn't ... actually pay much attention to that part of his story," she mumbled.

Kyon blinked in surprise. The kid _had_ told her about the rescue? Evidently Haruhi was too distracted by the supposed 'date' aspect of the encounter to pay attention at the time. "Anyway, yeah, that leads to what Asahina-san's people call a 'predetermined event'. That is, something that cannot be changed. Or really _shouldn't_ be, anyway."

"Predetermined events are symptomatic of a stable-time loop reality," Yuki observed, turning another page. "Entanglement with predetermination makes it exceedingly difficult for the Integrated Data Sentience Entity to actively interfere. Other temporal agencies are likewise hampered by predetermination."

"...what?" Kanae asked, cocking her head to one side and blinking.

"That's the first time my procrastination has done me any good," Kyon noted. "If I get that right. You're saying that because I haven't gone back in time to deal with certain things that it's already revealed that I'm going to do, the IDSE can't do anything against me?"

Yuki looked up from her book long enough to meet his eyes, and then gave her tiny nod. "Other temporal agents with the capability to require their own predetermination would also likewise have some limited protection," she added.

"Well, if I follow this right, then ... I'd already _guessed_ the smirking bastard was involved initially. It involved a time traveler, and he's the most malicious time traveler I know." He paused to thank Haruhi as she passed out tea cups, and took a seat at his side. "It's just a guess, but my suspicion is that Miyoko-chan is going to be one of his ancestors. I think that's why she was able to touch it while it was genetically linked to him."

Mikuru looked up from her sketchpad, blinking, then studied Tsuruya for a long moment before turning her attention back. "More ruffles," she mumbled. "And _ribbons_."

"That seems logically consistent," Haruhi allowed. "But you don't have proof, just speculation. What if it's actually just some person who's, say, Miyoko's brother in an alternate reality? Then it would be a slider, and not a time traveler at all."

"That's possible," Kyon admitted, flicking one finger at the base of the cylinder and making it resonate with a quiet 'ping'. "But I do have it on good authority that time travel was involved."

"Well, if that's the case, how did _that person_ get it, if it's got a genetic key lock thingy on it, and Kanae says that it's from the other slider?" Haruhi posed, frowning. "How is that possible?"

"Well, as I understand it ... Suzumiya-san and Nagato-san were able to 'hack' this device," Koizumi said, gesturing at the metal object. "I'm not at all clear on the capabilities, but isn't it within the realm of possibility that Nagato-san's ... unknown counterpart may _also_ have that ability?"

"I think I'm missing some backgrounds," Tsuruya said uneasily, smiling anyway. "Who's this 'smirking bastard' fellow? What's his real name?"

"No idea," Kyon sighed. "I don't know much about him, either, except that he's a time traveler who wants to prevent time travel from being possible, or something along those lines. We don't know how he gets this, or why he brings it back to last Wednesday. Evidently, I get it from him ... or it's just sitting in the back of the van and he left it there, or _something_. I'm not sure about that."

Kanae's face fell. "If I understand this," she said shakily, "you mean I'm going to stay here long enough for m...my enemies to find you? And you say it's already a pre-something event? W...what does _that_ part mean?"

"It's just speculation," Haruhi said, looking at Kanae closely. "You don't need to panic about it. I promised we'd take care of you, you know!"

"Some parts are known and should be immutable," Kyon argued, setting his fingertips around the upper rim of the cylinder and spinning it, causing it to wobble for a moment before it lifted off the table and spun smoothly in midair. "This thing is here, already. That means that at some point in the future, it does get sent back in time - to last Wednesday. So ... at some future point, somehow, it gets into the hands of someone else who can time travel, and then ... well ... we end up getting it."

"To play the role of devil's advocate," Koizumi mused, sliding the thoroughly shuffled cards to one side, "that's a lot of elaboration. Isn't it also possible - however grim - that the one responsible for orchestrating what happened last Wednesday was yourself, Kyon-kun?"

Haruhi blinked, then narrowed her eyes at Kyon. "Kyon," she warned, "if you mastermind your own failed assassination attempts, I will _kill_ you, is that clear?"

"Well, I'm under orders for it to not be me," he told the esper dryly. "On point of death. I assume I get a pass if I'm supposed to die, and engineer a minor wound instead?"

"Perhaps that's a bit far - but bear with me," Koizumi continued, giving a small, polite smile. "Perhaps the shooting was inevitable, and already happened. And your own 'entangled' involvement was to leave that weapon somewhere it could be retrieved now."

"I don't think it quite works that way," Kyon disagreed. "And, anyway, if it were genetically locked, and I touched it, it would melt, wouldn't it? How would I get it into the past? The only one who could move it without touching it is Haruhi, and I think she's opposed to being party to such a thing."

"Absolutely," she agreed. "I didn't like Kyon needing to go to the hospital last time, when I thought it was an accident - if it's on _purpose_ and _we're_ behind it?! Not happening!"

"So," Kanae mumbled, her eyes distant, "I'm destined to cause trouble for everyone."

Kyon bit his lip. He hadn't expected the slider to get upset about her enemies following her. Were they really so terrifying?

"I don't think that's a good way to look at it," Tsuruya disagreed, shaking her head quickly. "If I gets this, then Kyon-kun got some important tools because of that!"

Kyon nodded his agreement, but snatched the cylinder off the table and stowed it in his greatcoat. No reason to leave one _more_ thing to unsettle the slider laying around.

"You know," Haruhi said slowly, getting up out of her seat and circling around the table to Kanae, "Kyon was going on for a while about how important friends are. And I'll admit, until recently, I didn't actually put enough stock into the idea. So, as much as I hate it, I might be just a bit out of my depth on this one. Even so, I think that you have the same problem I did, Kanae-chan. You're afraid to let people really be your friends, aren't you?"

The slider winced and hunched in on herself, not meeting Haruhi's eyes.

"In fact, I've been thinking _further_, since I figured Kyon was distracted ... and I've been trying to figure out you and what to do with the people you've been running from. I never said anything about it, because I wasn't sure I could figure it out, but I remember something you said. You said, 'Even though everything changes from world to world, I still have my family! Sometimes I even have friends! And most importantly, I almost always have Sempai.'

"But, I'm starting to get that when you say 'family', you don't mean the parents you grew up with. When you say 'friends' you mean people who are friendly to you - that you don't remember. I get that you think Kyon is important, because he's the biggest element of stability in your life. And then I think I was more right than I realized when I said you'd been running for a very, very long time. Kanae-chan ... how long has it been since you left home?"

"I don't remember," the slider whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry ... I ... I don't remember! It feels sometimes like, like, _ages_, always running... I counted slides, at first. But sometimes they were really close together, and I ... I lost track around seventy six. I ... think it's more than that, now? By maybe fifty? B...but I don't know! I'm so _terrible_ at this!" She shook her head, sitting up and dragging her sleeve across her eyes, wiping away her tears. "N...nevermind that! It doesn't matter... I've been really lucky this time, but I like you all so much! You're so nice to me ... I won't let my enemies come here and give you trouble!"

She sniffled loudly, giving a decisive nod. Mikuru looked up from her sketchpad, realizing how the mood had changed, but not sure what was going on. The time traveler looked around in bewilderment, giving Kyon a questioning look before turning her full attention to the slider.

"W...what I want to say then, is thank you ... b...but I've avoided my problems long enough. I may not be able to face them, but they're my problems, so I won't let them become yours!" She took a deep breath, as though to say something else-

"Dimensional anchor engaged," Yuki remarked, flipping pages in her book without looking up. "Your ability to slide has been blocked."

"Good catch, Yuki-chan!" Haruhi said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kanae blinked several times, then gave Yuki an incredulous look. "B...but-"

"Future events require your presence in this world," Yuki explained, closing her book and looking at the slider. "This is the nature of predetermination. Attempting to deviate from this path could have catastrophic effects upon causality."

"How can me staying here and having my enemies follow be _worse_ than me running away?" Kanae protested, unbelieving.

"I have mentioned previously that his use of predetermination and temporal self-entanglement prevents the Integrated Data Sentience Entity from directly acting against him," Yuki said in a quiet, toneless voice. "If you attempt to break the causal loop and are successful, then the Integrated Data Sentience Entity will no longer have any cause for restraint."

Kanae's expression become incredulous. "S...Sempai's in trouble because of me?! And it gets _worse_ if I don't make it happen!?" she cried. "No! That's awful!"

"You've been running so long, you act like it's your only choice," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "Well, I won't accept cowardice like that in the brigade! Your enemies are _our_ enemies! I told you that before, you know, and I meant it then, too! If you're really too scared to do anything, then believe in us! Follow our example!"

Kanae wobbled, and was about to collapse back into her seat when Haruhi, waiting for that moment, swept in and caught the small girl in a hug.

"I have absolute faith in Kyon-kun when he says that things are predetermined," Mikuru volunteered, still uncertain what was going on. "Tsuruya, Nagato-san, Suzumiya-san, Koizumi-san - everyone here is able to do different things, but if we work together, then it will all be okay!"

"I'm really lost," Tsuruya said, shrugging with a wide grin. "But I knows this is a good crowd; Mikuru-chan is right!"

"Perhaps, as Tsuruya-san said before, we should take a more positive view," Koizumi suggested, nodding. "If it's already determined that you stay here, couldn't that mean that you have chosen to face your enemies in the future?"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Kanae protested weakly.

"Yeah, it does make perfect sense!" Haruhi disagreed. "Kyon, stop staring like an idiot and tell her so! You're the expert, aren't you?"

"I don't know that it's a specific message from your future self," Kyon said, pinching the bridge of his nose. From experience, time travelers tended to be able to be pretty hard on their past selves, given that their future selves knew what they could endure already. But that hardly sounded reassuring. He already wasn't looking forward to whatever future point he would travel back to in order to watch himself get shot. He dropped his hand to the table and sighed. What were the magic words Haruhi thought he could just pull out?

What would a shounen hero say? Then it clicked for Kyon, and he realized he was over thinking it. They all were, really. Haruhi had been on the right track, before straying into complex justifications involving time travel. "But that's not the point," he said, looking at Kanae earnestly. "You're being selfish, Kanae-chan."

She squeaked in response, looking mortified, and Haruhi gave him a very confused look. "W...what?" the slider eked out. "S...selfish!?"

"You think you're the only one who can handle your problems, and you're not willing to share them with people who can help. Kanae-chan ... maybe I've got my head in my old manga, but you like manga, too. You know what nakama are. Right now, we're a nakama that's waiting for you to realize that we want you to join, to stop running and take a stand. I'm not going to try and say that there's an absolute message from the future to you, here; that keeps you from making your own choices and having them be meaningful.

"Instead, I'll say that whatever choice you make is yours ... but Nagato relies on your help very much. And the rest of us wouldn't do well without her. Is it so bad to depend on us, when we're already depending on you?"

Kanae's already wide eyes managed to widen further before she began bawling in earnest, clinging to Haruhi for support and clutching at the front of her uniform. "I'm s...sorry!" she managed, between sobs. "I j...just don't want to make trouble!"

"That's more like it!" Haruhi said soothingly, patting the smaller girl's back. "Okay, Kanae-chan, you've had a really stressful day, so we can talk about this later... Kyon, you and Koizumi get out of here for a few minutes to let Tsuruya-san change - we'll work on a different project for today!"

* * *

After calming Kanae down slightly - the girl was incredibly jumpy and nervous after her breakdown - Haruhi forced as much cheer as she could and gave Tsuruya and Mikuru instructions to take care of her for the weekend. The time traveler and the heiress both seemed to understand the smaller girl's frail emotional state, so offered no complaints. Haruhi was certain that Tsuruya's ever-positive demeanor would break through some of the slider's depression, and Mikuru was a gentle, soothing presence anyway.

More importantly, once she was gone, Haruhi closed the door and took her seat at the head of the table in the club room, very pensive. Even though clubs were typically already letting out, she, Kyon, Yuki, and Koizumi remained. The cards that Koizumi had set out were still in a relatively neat stack, untouched for gaming.

Yuki's book was closed and she seemed to be staring at nothing in particular, though Kyon was in her field of view. Kyon was staring at a different nothing in particular embedded in the ceiling, and Koizumi was absorbed in examining Kyon thoughtfully. "Okay," Haruhi said abruptly, jarring the boys to look at her. Yuki continued looking at Kyon.

"I had a suspicion something like that was coming, but I didn't think it was going to be that ... intense," Haruhi said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm worried about that girl."

"It caught _me_ by surprise," Kyon sighed, resting his elbows on the table. "Damn. Still, I'm glad the 'nakama' bit worked ... sad that my life is becoming a shounen story."

"Seinen," she corrected him absently. "There's no way in hell we're going through a tournament arc."

He snorted, rolling his eyes. "Thanks for that moment of levity. Anyway, we didn't find as much out about Kanae's enemies as I'd hoped, and even if she does open up to us more and actually gain the confidence to stick around, I don't want to push her."

Normally, she would have disagreed ... but seeing how easily Kanae had snapped under pressure already... "Yuki-chan, Kanae-chan is blocked still, right?" she asked.

"Yes," Yuki answered immediately.

"Well, let's start with a reasonable basis," Koizumi suggested. "Her enemies are sliders, so the better we understand how her ability to 'slide' works, the better we can understand them."

"Maybe not," Haruhi said glumly. "I have a very bad suspicion about that. See ... Kanae-chan has her family here, right?"

"Yeah," Kyon agreed, frowning. "But that makes sense, doesn't it? If her family were here in other realities ... why not this one?"

"You're missing the point," she said, shooting him a sharp look. "Time travel expert, slider inept. The question you should be asking is, 'what happened to the Kanae that was here originally'?"

Kyon blinked slowly, his mouth hanging slightly open.

"That _is_ a good question," Koizumi remarked, frowning. "But isn't she also being pursued by an alternate version of her? It may be related, somehow."

"I think it is," Haruhi agreed. "Now, I'm just guessing here... Well, nevermind. There's no need to guess - Yuki-chan, you've been trying to study how her sliding works for weeks. How has that been going?"

"Progress has been minimal," Yuki answered. "Michikyuu Kanae is capable of opening dimensional breaches in simulation, but there are discrepancies between simulation and emulation."

"Okay, maybe I _will_ guess, then. Yuki-chan, do you think it's possible that when Kanae 'slides', she leaves her body behind and just swaps places or overwrites her 'local' self? That she only sends her mind?"

Yuki blinked several times, seeming to digest the thought. "This theory," she said, very slowly, "does not contradict gathered information."

"Now," Haruhi continued, twirling her pen through the fingers of one hand so she'd have something to fiddle with, "this does mean that sliding _physically_ should also be possible, if she's being chased, and that weapon that Kyon's got now came through. She just doesn't know how to do it, yet!"

"But, she told me that she had landed badly from a jump once, and hurt herself," Kyon countered, frowning. "Wouldn't that mean she moved physically, not just her mind?"

"What if the body she jumped into just happened to have a skinned knee, or something, and that's how she interpreted it?" Haruhi replied. "And I hate to bring this up, too, but if she's moving her _mind_ instead of her _body_, Kanae-chan ... may be older than she realizes."

"Looking at it from that perspective, she could very well be in denial," Koizumi mused, frowning. "Or, less pleasantly, an unwitting pawn of the 'enemy', inadvertently forging a trail ahead."

"That pisses me off!" Haruhi snapped. "If they did that... Oooh, we will _so_ stop them!"

"...right," Kyon sighed, rubbing at his temples. "And today started off so well, too... Tsuruya-kun gave me a ride to school in the limo and everything. Nagato, does any of this make your job of trying to train Kanae-chan in sliding easier?"

"Potentially," the girl allowed. "I will determine further tonight."

"Excellent!" Haruhi enthused. "I have a feeling that solid progress will help cheer her up!"

"Yeah, look ... for the time being, I think it's best we not let Kanae-chan _know_ that she may have potentially overwritten previous versions of herself," Kyon opined. "That terrified _me_ when I ended up in an alternate reality, and to be honest, I still have nightmares about it sometimes. For her, with _hundreds_ of slides... Gods above, I'm now absolutely _terrified_ of facing whatever enemy slider it is that looks just like her!"

Haruhi felt a small shiver down her spine at that thought as well. "Of _course_ we're not going to blab this to her yet!" she grumbled. "That's why I brought it up after she was gone!"

"Fair point," Kyon allowed. "Ugh ... so, what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"Anime marathon at Tsuruya's," Haruhi answered with a shrug. "I wanted to do something more adventuresome originally, but given how Kanae's rattled, I think it would be better for her to stay in one location with a lot of friends. That should make her feel safer."

"You know, you really are a good leader," Kyon remarked, smiling softly. "Thank you for being so responsible, Supreme Commander."

She wished her face wasn't so warm at that comment. "Of course! Anyway, you're supposed to be injured - I'll walk you home. Let's go!"

* * *

After spending a day to set his affairs in order - visiting his mother for the first time in seven years, donating a small fortune to Kannon, goddess of mercy, and finishing it off with a visit to soapland - Iyouji found himself ready to face his ultimate destiny. Dressed in his cleanest suit, wearing a pin of affiliation that he'd taken from an enforcer who took better care of the decorative piece, and staring down the street, he swallowed, then put one foot before the other.

It was a breach of protocol for him to approach a higher ranking member of an opposed family directly; ideally, he should find another accountant of his own rank in the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi, and pass the message through the ranks that way. However, that took time and social graces that Iyouji simply didn't have. Aside from which, a _street shooting_ was an even _greater_ breach of protocol.

After all, he told himself with dark humor, walking down the street towards Tsuruya Towers, the publicly known residence of the Tsuruya family head, he could expect to be killed _properly_ by these people. He came from a two-bit operation, and the Tsuruya branch would probably nod at him and quote poetry before politely stabbing him to death, like civilized criminals. They might even have a priest on hand to ensure his spirit wouldn't get the chance to haunt them.

He was completely unsurprised, but still very nervous, when a neat quartet of dark-suited men with unsmiling faces and Tsuruya family pins on their collars seemed to materialize from the surrounding shops, a few steps away in any direction, but easily able to prevent him from fleeing. All the same ... they hadn't tried to grab him, or just killed him yet.

The civilians in the area had their gazes slide over him, as he settled into that uniquely Japanese social invisibility that all yakuza engendered. So much easier to ignore the problem when it was someone else's... Though, as he came nearer to the base of the thirty seven story luxury apartment building, he couldn't help notice that the crowds became thinner and thinner ... at least, in terms of civilians.

Even though the density of dark-suited Tsuruya branch members increased as he strode towards the lobby doors, none of them moved to stop him, until he stepped into the shadow of the building. He froze on some unknown impulse, looking around him. There were only a handful of civilians, busily walking away at high speeds and seeing nothing, but several dozen men in black, some of them watching him warily, more looking to see if he'd brought any friends.

For a moment, he wished he had. The base of Tsuruya Towers was strangely lush, a small man-made watercourse wending between vibrant patches of flowers, and tall, skinny trees. Walkways wove through the foliage, occasionally crossing the - perhaps - half a meter deep flows with elegant, classically styled wooden bridges, and near the bridges, the occasional park bench was placed with a sign reminding any guests not to feed the pigeons.

The nearest of these benches was a handful of meters away, and a figure seated at it was partially concealed by a large newspaper, the headline bemoaning the Hanshin Tiger's crushing defeat in their last game. The figure behind the paper grunted, folding it in half, then again, and a third time, before setting it on the bench.

Iyouji's mouth suddenly felt dry. He thought his knees might literally be shaking, as the figure before him - not the dreaded bodyguard Kyon, or the near silent little girl who juggled grown men like rag dolls ... but almost as terrifying, the Tsuruya heiress's _other_ personal bodyguard: Kasai. The huge form lumbered to his feet, adjusting his sunglasses and peering down at Iyouji as if he were, perhaps, a particularly interesting type of bug.

Sensing imminent chastisement, he realized that the Sumiyoshi-rengo, or at least, his _own_ branch, had significantly more to apologize for than they had initially considered. Even though Masao had not dwelled on it, he _had_ followed the dreaded bodyguard Kyon's instructions. They no longer did anything involving illicit photos of highschool students at all - but they'd never even made overtures towards actually apologizing to Kasai.

Kasai remarked, "I assume it is some grand purpose that summons you here, Sumiyoshi-rengo."

It took every bit of resolve in Iyouji's spineless body to keep from throwing himself to the ground at the big man's feet right then and there. "I have a message for the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi," he replied instead, pleased his voice only cracked a few times. "Fujiya Masao wishes to apologize for a mistake made by a man we no longer consider to be part of our organization."

"Oh," the bodyguard said, nodding easily, smiling slightly. "This should be amusing."

* * *

"Kyon-kun~!" his little sister carolled as he climbed out of the bath and wrapped a towel around himself. "Phone~! It's Yuki-nee-san!"

He frowned, wondering what was wrong, and opened the door a crack. "Alright," he said, reaching a hand out.

His sister gave him a strangely determined look through the gap and held the phone out of reach. "Nope!" she said, shaking her head. "Not until you give me a small secret! I'll really keep it this time, just something to prove that I _can_ keep secrets!"

After Kanae's breakdown earlier that day, and the unfortunate implications of the theory behind the slider's power, Kyon wasn't really in the mood to play around. He was about to snap at his sister for being childish when he caught himself - outside of inconsequential chatting while he was recovering, he hadn't really paid much attention to her. He was beginning to suspect that the vague message his future self had left was nothing more than a tool to make him so paranoid he paid more attention to _everyone_, because it could apply to all of them.

Still, his sister trying to use coercion to get her way... "No," he said sternly, giving her a small smile anyway. "If Nagato called, then I need to talk to her. How about I promise to talk about this with you later?"

She seemed surprised at the offer, and hesitated a bit, then gave a decisive nod. "Okay!" she agreed, holding the phone out. "But you _promise_, right?"

"Promise," he agreed.

"You'll swallow one thousand needles if you lie!" she chirped, smiling.

"It wasn't a pinky swear," he noted, taking the phone. She pouted, but shook her head and skipped to her room. He rolled his eyes and lifted the phone to his ear. "Nagato?"

"I wish to request your assistance in an unresolved matter," she said without hesitation.

Mindful of what he said, unless he wanted to get instantly teleported to her apartment wearing only a bath towel, he replied, "Once I've finished dressing I'll call you back; I'll be all yours, then."

Yuki was silent for a moment, just the sound of her breathing carrying across the line, before she asked, "Promise?"

She must have overheard his sister's remarks, he decided, and then followed it with one of her rare attempts at humor. "Just in case, let's leave swallowing needles out of it," he answered with a chuckle. "But, yeah. Anything I should know before I call you back?"

"Bring the coat that Asahina Mikuru made for you."

That didn't sound promising... But he doubted she'd ask him to bring the coat just for another session of kissing. And that meant he wasn't going to visit her just to make out, which simultaneously saddened and relieved him. He realized he was distracted by nothing, and shook his head. He was straying way too much for a guy who had declared his interest in Haruhi. Especially given how jealous she got.

"Understood," he said, trying to put that extra bit of meaning in it he always felt from her. Of course, he couldn't see her response, and she wasn't the type to gasp or giggle. "I'll call you back soon."

"Thank you," she said softly, hanging up. Heading back to his room to change, he tried to focus on whatever was to come next. If she wanted him to bring the coat, that most likely meant that she thought he might need the weapon with it. The previous night's training session left him with a good overview of its capabilities, and how it worked ... but the thing was damnably complex. It was easiest to regard it as more mechanical than it really was, and pretend there were buttons or contact points that would cause it to shift shapes on demand.

Otherwise, it just seemed to read his surface thoughts, and he was terrified what that could mean if he tried using it while angry. He was satisfied with just using a small handful of preset functions on it, with the ability to add more later - if that somehow became required. For the time being, the only 'modes' he'd learned were designed to disable without injuring.

Of graver concern was the fact that it could hold a small charge, but was otherwise powered by his own kinetic energy - using it literally stole his body heat. Effectively, he was best off using only weaker, more power-efficient attacks, or waiting several minutes if not longer between uses.

That was still better than the cliche of 'life force', but he somehow felt it would be more shounen if it were that way, instead of just making him cold. As he finished pulling the coat on, he mused that Haruhi might be right; it really could be that his life wasn't turning into a shounen action story as much as a seinen drama.

Well, shounen stories seldom progressed, so he supposed he could settle for that.

He had just grabbed the cell phone he had left on his desk when his sister peeked in, her eyes widening. "Do you wear that for fighting the forces of evil?" she asked in an excited whisper.

He grinned weakly. "Actually, yeah," he admitted. "See, it's even got this spot here on the collar that's reinforced, so it'll hold up better when I put my pin on it."

She gasped in delight. "I know that pin!" she said quietly. "I see people walking around with them on my way home from school all the time!"

"Alright, Imouto, here's a secret for you, then... This pin means that I'm part of a special organization. I can't tell you what we do, but Tsuruya-kun is in charge of it," he told her. That should be harmless enough for a secret. His father evidently already knew, and his mother seemed to like Tsuruya so much - for some reason - that she wouldn't care.

"So, if I ask anyone who's got that pin to call you, they can do it?" she asked, her eyes glowing eagerly.

"Well, I don't know about that," he said, frowning. Getting calls from random members of the organized crime syndicate that he hadn't properly met yet... "But if you're in danger, you should be able to ask them for help. Just make very sure it's this pin!" He leaned close and pulled the collar of his jacket out slightly. "See? The crane means Tsuruya's family."

"Got it!" she said cheerfully. "Good luck fighting the dark generals!"

He tousled her hair affectionately before trotting out of the house, watchful for his mother's sharp-eyed gaze. Surprisingly, after being attacked, he wasn't _grounded_ ... but why tempt fate?

* * *

Iyouji found himself hemmed in closely on all sides by burly and unsmiling Tsuruya family enforcers. The doormen were sharply dressed, blank looks in their eyes suggesting that they, too, saw nothing worthy of comment. There were a number of elevators, but only one with a pair of guards, standing at attention on either side. That elevator was the one that Kasai gestured Iyouji towards.

He tried to console himself - a thirty story fall would be _terrifying_, but it wouldn't _hurt_. Not for long, anyway. The elevator opened silently to admit him and the five men escorting him. Surprisingly, there was enough room for all of them to stand comfortably. If he were in a more cheerful mood, he might try to stare out the glass wall of the elevator at the skyline, but as it was, Iyouji was just thinking about how powerfully chastising the figures around him were.

Then again, he was never one for violence, anyway. The elevator stopped and opened at the top floor, revealing a large private lobby where a half-dozen uniformed members of the Tsuruya branch sat on the sofas lining the walls, looking up from their newspapers or books at Iyouji and raising an eyebrow. Nervously, the accountant followed Kasai across the thick, plush carpet to a massive pair of double doors.

The doors swung open silently as Kasai approached, allowing the lone member of the Sumiyoshi-rengo to see into what was probably the heart of the Tsuruya branch's organization. A large room, the far wall of which was all glass, showing the skyline of the city as lights came on, and the sun's glow vanished from the sky. Before that was a large, imposing desk, which the Tsuruya patriarch sat at, a smoldering cigar held in one hand.

Turning around to study the newcomer, standing side by side in front of the desk, was a pair of women. One of them was the feared heiress, and she seemed to recognize him instantly, not looking terribly amused to see him at all. The other was unfamiliar, a brown-haired and slightly older woman; she began to smile slowly.

It was not a friendly smile. Iyouji had watched enforcers learn menacing smiles over the years - it was a powerful tool for any low-ranking criminal, allowing suggested chastisement to persuade people without needing to _actually_ chastise them. This woman, however, could probably teach even Fujiya Masao or the incarcerated Watanabe a lesson in grim amusement.

He didn't realize he had frozen until Kasai jabbed him in the back with one hand, and he stumbled forward, nearly sprawling flat on his face on the floor of the grand room. He caught himself and hesitantly moved to the center of the area. Far enough from the lobby and the imposing figure of the Tsuruya family head to- Who was he kidding? He was at the heart of their territory. He needed to cling to the most likely hope, that being that he would be killed _swiftly_, without much suffering.

The Tsuruya patriarch took a few thoughtful puffs from his cigar, blowing the plumes of smoke straight up. A ventilation system made the smoke stream away into a nearby vent before it could spread, then he stubbed the brand out in a nearby ashtray and interlaced his fingers, setting them flat on the desk. "Sos," he said, leaning forward and giving his own ominous smile as his giant leather chair creaked. "A member of the Sumiyoshi-rengo, hmm?"

"Yes," Iyouji yelped, as Kasai walked around the desk and took a stand before the glass wall, but far to one side of the patriarch. "Uh... That is..." He swallowed, taking a moment to try and stand up straight - impossible, under those gazes, but he really _did_ try - and said with slightly more conviction, "Fujiya Masao wishes it to be known that the offense perpetrated by Watanabe Daichi and his underlings was not the plan of the Fujiya branch of the Sumiyoshi-rengo! Furthermore, he wishes to meet in person to apologize for the offense, as it goes beyond and above reasonable conduct! We in no way intended to insult the Haru-tachi, or the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi!"

One of the patriarch's eyebrows rose, and the brown-haired woman shot him an inquisitive glance before returning her attention to Iyouji. "What says you, daughter of mine?" the large man asked, turning a questioning glance at his heir.

"Kyon-kun doesn't approve of violent revenge," she judged after a moment, shaking her head. "Howevers, this is an affront to all of us. So, the apology is in orders."

"Fine, fine," the patriarch rumbled, nodding. "Where is this meetings to take place?"

"That is your decision," Iyouji squeaked out. If they were to choose on their own, it would look too much like a trap... But then, he was still stunned over the fact that, evidently, they would at least be heard out. How could the dread bodyguard Kyon just dismiss being _shot_? What kind of person _was_ he!?

The patriarch nodded slightly. "We will meet and discuss terms at that point," he allowed. Turning to the brown-haired woman, he added, "Mori-chan, arrange a neutral place to meet. Daughter, asks Kyon-kun to attend." His gaze went back to Iyouji. "And you, messenger ... wait in the lobby for now."

Kasai nodded, moving from his place behind the man and motioning Iyouji through the doorway to the lobby. All of the men in that room watched him silently, none offering him a seat or even so much as speaking. "Stay here," Kasai instructed as he stepped back into the main room and the door began to close. "It will be a few hours."

Swallowing nervously, Iyouji realized he was in for a very uncomfortable wait.

* * *

As she had anticipated, her primary protection target contacted her shortly after she had requested his presence. It took only a moment to summon him, and he arrived with his eyes closed, almost instantly adjusting to the teleport. He brushed one hand across the greatcoat, glancing down before kicking his shoes off and walking into the room from the entryway he had arrived in.

He gave her a smile that seemed different from the other smiles she knew; she'd only seen it a handful of times before. She poured tea for both of them, then knelt at the table. After a moment of thought, he shrugged off the coat, folding it over one arm, and joined her at the table.

"Well, I don't know what it is, yet, but I get the idea that there's finally something I can do to help you?" he asked cautiously, taking the teacup and sipping from it.

She gave him a nod, and that rarer smile returned. She blinked as the most logical reason was calculated. Was it possible that somehow, instead of being inconvenienced, he actually desired to do things for her?

Strangely, the thought triggered another unexpected excitation in her capillary loops and the temperature of her face increased accordingly. Another enjoyable, unexpected reaction from him. She wished she could smile back at him as easily ... but as always, he somehow seemed to read her anyway.

His own face reddened slightly and he looked away, gesturing at the folded coat. "So, what is it that I can do for you, then?"

"Previously," she began, tilting her head back to gaze into his eyes, "I identified a corrupted function created by Asakura Ryouko."

He stilled, his smile vanishing as he met her eyes and gave a solemn nod.

"At that time, I believed that I had purged Yamane Jun of all unknown mechanisms. However, it appears that the function re-engaged itself, or there is some source that empowers him and reapplies the corruption. I wish to investigate this."

He blinked, turning the cup before him in place absently. "How is it that I can help you with this?" he asked after a brief period of contemplation.

"Normally in this situation, I would request unknown protocols and information from the Integrated Data Sentience Entity," she said slowly. "Currently, I must rely on my memetic link to Suzumiya Haruhi for new information. Due to recent data exchange concerning Michikyuu Kanae, while it is unlikely, it is possible that she may become aware of information requests. In this instance, your guidance will ensure that she is not notified, as I have observed emotional destabilization when Suzumiya Haruhi perceives threats to your well being."

"Ah... Um," he manage in response, furrowing his brow. "I guess ... it's a bit flattering that she's upset when she thinks I'm in trouble..."

"I also experience emotional destabilization in those instances," she said, struggling to form the words, feeling that same increase of heat and blood pressure in her face. "It is ... difficult to experience that and also filter accelerated attempted subconscious data-creation from her."

"So ... when she's upset and confused, it comes down on you?" he asked, staring into his tea. "Like Koizumi said?"

She nodded slightly, but he caught it anyway.

"Well ... in that case, I don't know what I can do specifically, but like I promised, whatever I _can_ do for you, I will," he swore, looking up and giving her a smile. She felt a very strong impulse to attempt to engage him in another physical exchange of affection, but filed it for later consideration. "What would it be?"

"Firstly, I must establish direct contact with Yamane Jun to examine him and determine the effects of data-manipulation on him, and then purge those effects. Secondly, the source of corrupted data must then be located and dealt with."

"This is going to be kind of difficult," he answered after ruminating. "I understand that it's something we have to do ... but Yamane Jun should be held by the police. I can probably have Koizumi use his Organization contacts to find out specifically _where_, but I really don't think they'd let us talk to him easily ... and I think what we are doing would be pretty obvious, too. Hmm, well, I suppose that wouldn't be a problem for you ... you can just go like you did when you met Hanyuu, right? And then you'd be invisible."

Her eyes went to the coat. "I do not have the ability to bring you into such a state," she said, "but I can temporarily allow you enhanced stealth capabilities so that you can accompany me on this investigation. There is a significant probability that I may require further assistance and information from you."

"I really don't think I understand," he sighed, even as he picked the coat back up, "but I trust you. Alright, then, let's get to the bottom of this, okay?"

He caught her uncertainty and gave her a reassuring smile before she formulated a response to that.

"Alright, Nagato, first off, we're going to have to get to the police station, right?"


	24. Chapter 23

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Gearing Up Arc V

Chapter Twenty Three: Undercover Work

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Five: So, You Got Away"_

_"Are you sure? I mean, really, really, ____really__ sure? It could just be the calm before the storm, as they say. Check, double-check, check again, and then, once you're done, don't get overconfident or cocky."_

_"Clearing the Event Horizon: How Close is Too Close?" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

Yuki knew where Jun was, but not how to get to him. After she enabled what she termed a 'stealth field' and hugging tightly onto one of Kyon's arms, the pair of them strolled into the police building, unobserved and silent. It took a few tries to figure out where the holding cells actually were, and there was a tense minute walking around a thick cluster of suited detectives deep in conversation with other folks in suits, who Kyon _guessed_ were NPA agents. He didn't really want to find out, but their conversations seemed centered around finding out how Yamane, Watanabe, and Ryuguu had gotten the guns.

Fortunately, each of the three was in their own small cells, spaced far enough apart they could only communicate with one-another in easily overheard shouts. Out of sight of the police officers, Kyon stopped before Yamane's cell. The boy was laying on his cot, with his head as far away from the cell door as possible.

"Can they hear us?" Kyon whispered into Yuki's ear.

She slowly turned her face towards him and shook her head.

Still whispering, he asked, "So ... do you have what you need?"

Yuki's eyes lowered, and she shook her head again, answering at her usual volume, "Speculatively, the pattern corruption is either dormant or otherwise concealed. If Yamane Jun becomes aware of your presence, the corrupted data should be revealed."

Kyon grimaced, glancing down the halls of the quiet holding area before sighing. "Okay," he agreed. "I really, really hope we don't get caught." Yuki released his arm, seeming hesitant, and Kyon guessed he was no longer 'stealthed'. Squaring his shoulders, he glanced at the girl. He could still see her, at least.

Rather than call or or yell, he rapped one knuckle on the bar of the cell, resulting in a very subdued metallic ring. Yamane shifted in his cot, then rolled onto his back slowly and sat up, staring at Kyon blearily. After a moment of fumbling, he produced his spectacles, slipping them on and shooting Kyon a disgusted, hateful sneer. "You," he hissed. "Come to gloat?"

Shaking his head in response, Kyon considered facing his attacker for the first time. He'd been stabbed once, and he'd never wanted to see the being that had done that to him. He wasn't exactly eager to see Jun, either, but Jun was a normal person, not some being beyond mortal comprehension with abilities so advanced they might as well be magic.

"This isn't about revenge," Kyon answered softly, mindful of being overheard. "Truthfully, as far as I understand it, this is about you being influenced by someone - something, really. You were the one who decided to start taking pictures and selling them - what prompted you to do that?"

"It _is_ about revenge!" Jun snapped.

"Shut up!" Ryuguu yelled from out of sight, a few cells over. "Look what that's cost us already!"

Kyon spread his hands in a shrug, before pocketing them in the greatcoat. His armor had been activated the moment that he and Yuki had set out, and he'd forgotten the black paint-like coating across his skin, leaving only his face seeming clear. "He's got a point," Kyon remarked, still keeping his voice low. "But, come on. Seriously. This started because of you; why did you do it?"

"Me!?" Jun gasped, indignant. "Are you _serious_!? You banished my Tenshi! You _defiled_ her! It's only because of _you_ that she had to leave!"

"Y...you," Kyon began cautiously, frowning. "You were harboring this grudge for almost an entire year before you chose to act on it?"

"I'm not _like_ you," Jun spat. "I can't overpower; I have to out _think_."

Kyon rubbed his chin. "You have something from her?" he surmised. Yuki had said there was a source; it was most likely a physical thing. A note, maybe a book... He didn't think it would be one of Ryouko's knives, or else Jun might have tried to stab him with it. Then again, maybe it was a file on Jun's computer...?

"Do you _really_ think that I-" Jun began before suddenly jolting, pressing one palm to his forehead. "I... What... I feel her drifting away from me..." He started, flinging himself forward so suddenly against the bars of his cell that Kyon reflexively extended an arm before Yuki protectively. "Don't!" he howled, suddenly shrieking. "Don't take her away from me! Thief! Defiler! You ruin _everything_!"

Yuki seized Kyon's arm and pulled him down the hall; he followed without resistance as Jun reached through the bars, unable to touch either of them. They passed another cell, where Ryuguu was starting to scream back at Jun to shut up, and then another cell where Watanabe sat on the floor with a dour expression, cards arrayed before him for a game of solitaire. "I have identified the source," Yuki announced, as the group of police and NPA agents stormed into the hall, unable to see the pair of them.

"What is it?" Kyon breathed when Yuki stopped, still clinging to him.

"An item of apparel belonging to Asakura Ryouko," she responded. "Most likely in Yamane Jun's place of residence. We should go there now."

"Okay," he agreed, closing his eyes and bracing for the teleport.

* * *

After reaching Tsuruya's home, Mikuru took Kanae to the taller girl's room and they changed from their uniforms into casual kimono. Mikuru didn't mind wearing the outfits ever since Haruhi had introduced her to them. They were actually Tsuruya's preferred clothing, around the house - and they were fairly easy to adjust to various sizes, so Kanae could wear one of Tsuruya's older robes with no problem.

They were mostly all the same blue with green patterned diamonds on the sleeves, and dressing up managed to cheer Kanae a little, even if she didn't smile. But not long after they had settled in, comfortably nestled in the ludicrously over sized couch before the equally over sized television in the family room, Tsuruya had to excuse herself to attend some 'family business'.

It wasn't the first time Mikuru had stayed in Tsuruya's home without her, but doing so while _also_ looking after Kanae was a bit new. She didn't have much of a rapport with the slider, and had resolved that this time, she was going to stand up and be useful for the brigade. Keeping half an eye on the other girl, she rifled through Tsuruya's anime collection until she found salvation.

Salvation was a strange girl with a magical girl outfit, a giant quill in one hand, and two different colored eyes. Was that what had inspired Haruhi to make her wear the colored contact lens for her movie? There was a stack of boxes covering several seasons, but Mikuru remembered that Kanae was a fan of the show, too.

"Oh, Kanae-chan, is this show good?" she asked, holding the box up and turning it towards the slider.

Kanae blinked, seeming to only just then come aware of her surroundings. "Y...yeah," she allowed, frowning. "But ... recent things, they always change, so I have a bit of a hard time following the plot, really."

Something else the slider was unhappy about... Mikuru brightened, realizing that this was an opportunity. "Well, that's going to change!" she said decisively, putting the first disc in. Kanae looked at her, confused. "You're staying with us until you leave because you want to, not because ... strange people are chasing you. So we can watch this version of," she double-checked the title, "Magical Pretty Soldier: Trope-Tan, right?"

The slider gave a reluctant nod. "I suppose," she allowed, as Mikuru wrestled with the remote to skip a needless array of advertisements for other shows, and finally got to the main menu. "I mean... I'd _like_ to think that..."

"Then have faith in Kyon-kun," Mikuru said resolutely. She hit 'play all', and blinked at the upbeat, peppy intro music. "So, like Suzumiya-san said, trust in your friends, right?"

"B...but ... I can't do anything to _help_ Sempai!" Kanae protested, shaking her head. "I'm not really even good at sliding, and that's my only power!"

Mikuru sat on the couch next to Kanae, and put one arm around the other girl comfortingly. "Well, worry about that _later_," she insisted. "If you really want to do something for Kyon-sem-" She giggled, realizing she had slipped into Kanae's term of address. "Kyon-kun, I mean. If you want to help him, then trust him! And then, if you think that's not enough, maybe at some point, take a break from learning how to slide better, and learn something else!"

"I did," Kanae mumbled, bowing her head. "I didn't learn martial arts, like Sempai... But I learned how to escape from being grabbed, and run better, because..."

Mikuru stifled a sigh and gave her warmest smile to the slider. "Then hope you don't need to use that, and for _now_, just relax and trust in Kyon-kun."

Kanae gave a doubtful nod, straightening as the opening sequence ended, and the scene of a typical anime schoolgirl waking up and being late for school began. "I don't think I've seen this one," Kanae murmured, watching the schoolgirl hurriedly run down the street, a piece of toast in her mouth as she tripped over a spotted brown and white dog. Kanae's eyes widened and a tiny spark of excitement came into her eyes. "Oh! It's Tropey! They usually end up putting him on a bus in later seasons!"

"A bus?" Mikuru wondered, as 'Tropey' began to explain Magical Pretty Soldier Trope-tan's destiny.

"You're the chosen one!" Tropey barked on-screen.

"Yeah," Kanae explained, "see, the bus is a one-way connection between Neo-Tropeyo and the next higher plane of existence, where all of Trope-tan's powers come from." Mikuru nodded her understanding, as Kanae let herself be distracted by the anime. Even though it was fairly interesting, and exceedingly well drawn ... she couldn't help but think she had seen it - or something _very_ like it at some point before. Why did it feel so familiar...?

Still, she was confident that spending some time near Kyon would help settle Kanae, and being teleported away for the nightly lessons would be less calming. Nodding thoughtfully as Trope-tan completed her first transformation sequence in an explosion of film reels, novel pages, and manga covers, Mikuru resolved to call Yuki and ask her to change locations for the nightly lesson as soon as Tsuruya returned from whatever work she was doing. That would let Kanae see Kyon _and_ remain in a hopefully comforting environment.

* * *

It was either much easier than previous transitions, or Kyon was becoming _far_ too used to the effect.

He found himself standing on the street near an unfamiliar row of houses. The block of homes were nearly identical two-story affairs, laid out with more thought to conserve space than his own home, but each building had its own single-story cement wall and a steel gate leading to the doorway proper. The space between the wall and the house was minuscule, making the back yard of his parents' home seem spacious in the extreme.

The neighborhood looked decent, and Kyon tried not to be judgmental, but couldn't help but think it suggested that Yamane's family was less well-off than his own. He shook his head to dismiss the thought as unworthy, turning his attention to Yuki, still clinging to his arm.

"You can tell where the item is?" he asked. "And what it is?"

She shook her head, pointing at the nearest doorway. "That is Yamane Jun's registered address. Most likely, the item is located among his personal effects."

"How did you know his address if you can't tell where the thing we're looking for is?"

Slowly turning her gaze to him, she blinked. "Yamane Jun's place of residence was listed in the student directory," she replied.

Kyon felt himself smiling softly in spite of everything. With so much access to unusual powers, he'd overlooked the most obvious method. "Right," he said. "Good thinking to check that. Now we just need to figure out how to get inside." The illumination spilling out of the ground floor windows suggested that someone was home, but there was no way he wanted to deal with talking to the parents of the boy who had shot him, if he could help it.

Yuki released his arm and stared at a window on the upper floor briefly. Without any further warning, she leapt, hopping as though weightless to the wall surrounding the house, then again, to the top of the roof. She flipped off the edge, dangling from the peaked slope one-handed as her other hand pressed against the glass of the window before it silently slid open. With an effortless swing, she slipped into the room, then turned around, looking at him expectantly.

Mentally gauging the distance, Kyon deduced that his chances of mimicking her were abysmal, at best. Still... Hoping the very nice coat wouldn't interfere with his movements, he dashed into motion, not even trying to leap to the top of the wall. Instead, he threw himself at it in a shorter jump, thinking to grab the edge and vault onto it. The process was not _quite_ as smooth as he'd hoped, and he ended up scrambling to get there.

Still, to his credit, he did make it, and he was moderately proud of getting it on his first attempt. However, leaping the distance from the wall to the window was going to be a much more difficult trick. Crouched low on the wall, suddenly self-conscious of how he would look if anyone happened to see him, he scurried around the corner, to where the barrier was closer to the slope of the roof.

It was more roundabout, but once he passed the yard he had callously labeled 'tiny', yet far too large for him to leap across, he steeled himself and leapt at the side of the house, just barely grabbing the edge of the rooftop. Thanks to the training that Yuki had instilled into him, he found he was able to pull himself onto the roof in a minute. Trying his best to be quiet, he worked his way to the part of the rooftop that Yuki had used to swing into the room.

Suddenly realizing he was climbing across the peaked roof of a two-story house in the dead of night, he wanted to smack himself. Why was he doing something this insane?

His view of the shadowy ground below was broken when Yuki leaned out the open window and gazed up at him.

That was right, he reminded himself, carefully lowering his body, not nearly as stylishly or smoothly as Yuki had. She withdrew into the room, allowing him to swing in after her. He landed at her side, and she took a moment to study him before gesturing, saying, "I have dampened sound in this room. We will not be heard from outside."

"Great," he managed, his heart slightly unsteady from the alarming action. "Is it safe to turn on the light?"

She nodded in response, so he fumbled for the switch, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness.

Jun's room wasn't quite the den of iniquity that Kyon had been expecting. Instead, it was clean - immaculate, even. Every single object was placed just so, from the neatly made bed, to the laptop at the desk. A pad of paper was perfectly square with the edges of the desk and laptop, and pencils and pens were lined up in an orderly array of descending length, ending with an eraser.

Yuki scanned the room visually, then went to the laptop and flipped it open, tapping at keys hesitantly. Judging that Yuki could handle the laptop without his help, he checked the room again. Bed, desk, closet, a dresser, a single chair, no carpet, no posters, no pictures... If if weren't for the fact that Yuki seemed absorbed in checking the computer, he'd wonder if they got the wrong room.

He ran a hand over the top of the dresser, frowning at the realization that it was very like his own, then turned his attention to the bed. Yuki tapped at keys on the laptop while he checked beneath the pillow - nothing. The mattress had nothing beneath it, either. There were a handful of boxes beneath the bed, filled with personal possessions - old report cards, old cameras ... there was too much dust on them for whatever they were looking for to have been in them recently.

Sliding the boxes back into place, he looked over Yuki's shoulder, where she was busily scanning through files. "Anything?" he asked.

She shook her head in negation, closing the laptop and turning the closet. It opened to reveal more boxes, clothes hanging as they should be, and a few shelves, covered with more camera parts. Kyon made a face, leaning against the dresser again before something occurred to him. "Wait," he said slowly, as Yuki froze, reaching for the first box in the closet.

After a moment to pull out the lowest drawer of the dresser, he peered inside to look beneath it, and grimaced. "Oh, uh ... wow," he managed. "I'm pretty sure I found it."

Yuki moved to his side to look inside the dresser with him, blinking at a pair of slightly faded blue gym shorts. The inner waistband was visible, and evidently Asakura Ryouko had written her name there at some point in permanent marker.

"And _this_ ... is what got me shot," Kyon sighed, shaking his head. "Amazing. So, what do we do now? Burn it?"

After staring at the bloomers for a long, quiet moment, Yuki shook her head. "I will extract the data. Creation or destruction of data is beyond my means at this point. However, manipulation of this data should still be possible."

"You want to take the crazy Asakura bits left in this pair of old gym shorts to use them later?" Kyon guessed, looking at Yuki in consternation. "Setting aside how disturbing that idea is for now, are you sure it's safe? Couldn't it be a trap?"

"There is a possibility that some trap exists," Yuki acknowledged. "However, it is exceedingly unlikely that Asakura Ryouko prepared it in expectation of her defeat. The more significant probability is that this data was established to serve some function designed to assist her, and Yamane Jun corrupted it via contact."

"I'll take your word for it that it can happen that way," Kyon decided, crossing his arms over his chest. "But what's the safest possible way to handle this thing?"

Yuki hesitated. "Direct contact with the data can be avoided," she allowed. "An alternate storage location will be required."

"Right, so, what could we use?" He rummaged through his pockets, but found only his keys, wallet, and cell phone. He pulled the phone from his pocket and studied it, frowning. Risking his picture collection for this was really not an appealing idea...

"That will work," Yuki said, reaching for the phone.

"W...wait!" he protested. "I don't want to lose the data on this phone! I mean, it's..."

Yuki blinked at him, then went to the desk, touching her fingertips on the large eraser near the pencils and staring at it fixedly. After contemplating, she picked up the eraser. Returning to the dresser, she touched it against the gym shorts, which then collapsed into nothingness, leaving not even dust behind.

Straightening, Yuki looked at the eraser thoughtfully, then presented it to Kyon. "Keep this," she instructed.

"Why is that?" he asked, managing a half-smile. At that moment, as though to underscore the oddity of the situation, his phone began to ring. Wincing and looking at the door worriedly, he answered, dismissing the eraser in Yuki's hand for the moment. "Hello?"

"Um, Kyon-kun," Mikuru's voice came, breathy and slightly hushed, as though to keep from being overheard. "Um, I tried calling Nagato-san, but there was no answer - could you ask her a favor for me, if you see her?"

"Oh, yeah, sure thing," he agreed. "I'm with her now. What is it?"

"Um ... since Kanae-chan is already here with me and Tsuruya, could you ask Nagato-san to bring you and herself to us, instead of bringing us to her apartment tonight?"

"No problem," he agreed, as Yuki put the drawer back into the dresser, leaving the room the way they had found it, except for the loss of the eraser and the opened window. "Do you think Kanae-chan will be up for that, though? Is she doing alright?"

"Um ... she's still a bit shaken ... but Tsuruya and I are watching over her, so she's doing better. Well ... I think she'd do even better if she saw you. So I'm sure she won't mind; really, why don't you ask her tonight before we begin?"

"I will," he agreed. "Um, thank you, Asahina-san. I'll see you then?"

"Yes! Take care until then, Kyon-kun~!"

He looked at the phone to verify she had disconnected, then turned his attention to Yuki. "Alright," he said, reluctantly, not eager to carry something so closely linked with Asakura. "Why exactly should I have this, though?"

"You can not be influenced by such data in the manner of Yamane Jun or potentially myself," Yuki said. Her eyes went to the door, as a creak sounded from outside. "We should depart."

As much as he wanted to ask her for more details, he _really_ didn't want to be caught trespassing in Jun's room by his parents. Flicking the light switch off, he quickly asked, "Can you take us to Tsuruya's place? You remember where her room is, right?"

Yuki nodded in answer, and Kyon took her hand, closing his eyes.

* * *

Kanae was really uncertain what to make of her current situation. She'd spent so long running that being _trapped_... She had expected if she were well and truly trapped it would be by her enemies - except, the one time they _had_ captured her, the long-haired vulgar boy shooting her with a gun very like the one her sempai now wielded, she'd gotten away.

Now the people who called her allies insisted on her staying with them, even if it meant blocking her ability to slide. She thought that she _should_ be grateful, and she _should_ be happy that the people around her wanted to help her so much ... but at the root of it, even with the entire Trope-tan anime, she was just _scared_. What if, even though they meant well, her friends weren't strong enough to handle what was to come?

What if they somehow failed, and she was captured? But ... Mikuru was trying so hard to cheer her up, and Tsuruya was, too. They were surprisingly comforting presences, even though a small part of her mind wanted to regard them as captors. That wasn't fair, though. They wanted to help, and she knew she should accept that help.

All that being said, as she and the other girls changed out of their kimono and into more comfortable, loose robes to sleep, she couldn't help but wish that her sempai was there.

And then, quite suddenly, he _was_. He was wearing that very nice coat that Mikuru had made, and Haruhi and Yuki had made somehow even better for him. Yuki was standing at his side, and she couldn't help but stare with a small bit of jealousy at the fact that Yuki was holding one of her sempai's hands. Even if that hand was coated in a black skin-tight glove, like a layer of paint at the moment.

Her sempai opened his eyes then blinked, staring at her, and quickly screwed his eyes shut. "Sorry," he managed, his face reddening.

Mikuru, to one side, let a nervous squeak escape as she dived into her robes. Tsuruya, with her robe on, but not belted, grinned and waved excitedly at the boy. "Kyon-kun~!" she called. "Are you going to sleeps with us tonight?"

Her own face heating up alarmingly, Kanae hurriedly closed her own robe and tied it up. "Tsuruya-san!" she cried out. "Y...your robe is open!"

Tsuruya blinked, looking down at herself, then shrugged, closing her garment and knotting the sash. "No worries," she said cheerfully. "You can look now, Kyon-kun!"

"Er," he managed. "S...sorry about that. Um, Nagato brought us here directly, and I didn't think... Well, my fault- Sorry again."

"I...it's no problem for me," Mikuru managed, blushing and staring at her feet. "It's my fault, too ... I asked you to come here, after all."

Yuki blinked expressionlessly, then turned her gaze to Kanae's sempai. "Er," he said, turning to look at Yuki, as the black skin-tight substance seemed to flow away, vanishing into his wristwatch. "Um, you don't need to think it's your fault; you were just following my instructions." She nodded slightly in response.

He turned back to Tsuruya, and looked like he was about to say something else when the door to Tsuruya's room slid open, and one of her maids crept in unobtrusively, carrying two pairs of slippers and folded robes. "Your shoes, Kyon-dono, Nagato-san," the maid said very quietly, setting the slippers on the floor and kneeling between Tsuruya and Yuki.

"Sorry!" the boy yelped, looking aghast at the realization he was still wearing his outdoor shoes. He quickly pulled them off and handed them to the maid, bowing in apology. Though she seemed indifferent, Yuki also doffed hers.

The maid whisked their footwear away, then left as swiftly as she had appeared.

Kanae's sempai stared after her in consternation. "She is _good_," he muttered. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to Tsuruya. "Anyway, I'm sorry again about the sudden arrival. I, uh, wouldn't _mind_ staying over, but I get the idea that Haruhi might not appreciate that so much - and like I said the last time you offered, I don't think I'd get enough sleep..."

"Next times, then!" Tsuruya said cheerfully, winking. "Haru-nyan's on her way over, anyway, nyoro~! Next time I'll ask after she's here, so you can't say no!"

"Tsuruya," Mikuru said, still blushing, "y...you shouldn't tease Kyon-kun like that."

"Tease?" Tsuruya asked, looking at Mikuru in surprise. "I invited Kyon-kun to stay heres with me and you when you were 'Michiru', once, but he's too polite."

The time traveler's eyes widened, and her face darkened. "Um..."

"Nyahah~!" Tsuruya chuckled. "Ooh! Kanae-chan, Nagato-chi, you should let me and Mikuru take pictures of you for Kyon-kun's collections~! Won't that be nice, Kyon-kun?"

Kanae's sempai scratched the back of his head and stared at the ceiling, his face slightly red. "Um, well, that wouldn't be too bad, I mean-" He coughed and shook his head. "N...nevermind that for now, though."

Kanae wasn't sure what he was talking about, but she wouldn't have minded if her sempai wanted a picture of her. And as glad as she was that he was around, the heat in her face had finally faded to reasonable levels. "Um, Sempai, what did Asahina-san ask you to come here for?" she managed.

He blinked, straightening, then shook his head again. "It's just that since you and Asahina-san are already here, it should be easier for Nagato when we train tonight," he explained.

"Ooh! I heard abouts that!" Tsuruya exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Can I go, too? It sounds fun!"

"Well ... I don't know," Kanae's sempai admitted. Turning to Yuki, he asked, "Is that possible?"

The stoic girl blinked slowly, studying Tsuruya as though sizing her up. "Possible," she allowed.

"Ah, but then, Haruhi can't," he realized aloud, grimacing. "And you said she's coming over. I think it might not be very nice for her if we all left her alone, though."

Tsuruya nodded thoughtfully at the boy, then grinned at Yuki. "I understand. Nagato-chi, if it's no trouble, I'd like to go along some other time! Okies?"

"Understood," Yuki acknowledged.

"Speaking of which," her sempai noted, checking his wristwatch, "we should take care of that - then Nagato and I should get home. But before that, how are you doing, Kanae-chan? Are you feeling a bit better?"

Realizing that it was the truth, since he was there, she said, "A little bit, Sempai."

* * *

Just as he was about to congratulate himself on becoming used to the jarring transitions of teleporting, quasi-dimensional sliding, and time travel, Kyon opened his eyes only to be smacked in the face with a pillow forcefully enough to send him stumbling backwards, crashing to the floor tangled up with another person. Dazed, eyes closed and stinging, he sighed and asked, "Haruhi? Was that you?"

"Wah!" Haruhi exclaimed. "Seriously? You can tell it's me because of how the pillow hit you?"

"I can tell it's you because you hit me with a pillow at all," he countered, squinting, realizing that he'd knocked Kanae down when he fell. She was staring at him curiously, sprawled half across him, one of her arms pinned behind his head. "Sorry," he mumbled, helping her up.

"I don't mind!" she said cheerfully, seeming to genuinely mean it, her seemingly eternal blush not fading.

He decided it was another one of those things he was best off not thinking about. One he was standing, he glanced around, not surprised to see Haruhi and Tsuruya peeking at him from behind a low barrier made of stacked pillows. "Anyway," Haruhi said, waving another pillow menacingly, "we got left out of your whole training thing and set up an ambush. Bah, what kind of action hero are you if you get knocked down by a _pillow_?"

"A tired one," he muttered. She suddenly launched the pillow at him, and he snatched it, ducking in the same motion so her next flung pillow passed over him, smacking Kanae in the face.

"Gwah!" Kanae squeaked, flailing as she toppled to the floor again.

"Suzumiya-san, you must be careful!" Mikuru protested, running to the slider's side.

Yuki watched impassively, and Kyon dropped the pillow he had caught instead of throwing it back. "Oh, come on!" Haruhi complained. "Aren't you going to try and play?"

"It's late, and I didn't tell my parents I was going out," he answered, turning around to help Kanae up again. "I'd rather not try and explain, this to my mother. Hmm, yeah, she'd love that. 'Where were you?' 'Oh, you know, just having a pillow fight in a girl's bedroom until around midnight. Nothing special.'" Shaking his head, he added, "I'm happy to have not gotten grounded for being put in the hospital - best not tempt fate."

"T...thanks, Sempai," Kanae mumbled, rubbing her nose. "Ow..."

"Don't worry about it, Kanae-chan; if you insist on calling me 'Sempai', I'd best live up to that title for you, right?"

The girl blushed more darkly, giving a weak giggle and not meeting his eyes.

Pouting, Haruhi stood, crossing her arms over her chest. "I guess," she grumbled. "Yeah, making your mom mad would be-" She was cut off when Kyon suddenly kicked the pillow he had dropped on the floor, sending it flying into her chest and making her wobble unsteadily. She narrowed her eyes, then smirked. "I'll let that one pass for _now_," she said in a warning tone, waggling a finger at Kyon. "But don't be late and make your mother mad! That's worse than any penalty _I'd_ assign."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Um, Nagato?"

"Shoes," Yuki replied, turning her gaze from one of the pillows on the floor to him.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that," he mumbled. "Front entryway, right?"

"I'll walk you there!" Tsuruya said cheerily.

* * *

After Yuki and Kyon teleported away, things at Tsuruya's settled down. As Haruhi had expected, Kanae had calmed after spending time with Tsuruya and Mikuru. Kyon's presence, especially, seemed to calm her... Which Haruhi could understand well enough.

Then again, she still had to sit down with Yuki and explain at length what the ongoing plan _was_. She had conveyed it to Tsuruya, though Mikuru was still charmingly in-the-dark, but it wouldn't _work_ if she didn't trust the others with what the plan was.

Yuki first, she decided. She and Tsuruya would have to find some opportunity to corner the girl and explain things to her. Then Mikuru, and finally Kanae. For the time being, Kanae would probably just be confused, possibly even thinking it was staged specifically to reassure her. Thinking about that, Haruhi drifted off to sleep, dreaming about flying through the sky, sentai-style, with Kyon and the rest of the brigade, to fight evil aliens.

She was woken up before breakfast by Tsuruya tickling her nose with a peacock feather. Kanae was already awake, sitting up and rubbing one eye in typical moe fashion. Haruhi quickly grabbed her camera and snapped a picture of the slider's sleepily surprised expression, then Tsuruya grinned and handed Haruhi another feather. Kanae was handed the camera while the older girls snuck up to Mikuru, curled up on one side, and they started tickling _her_ nose.

After an adorable, petite sneeze, the time traveler managed to wake, unconsciously mirroring the slider's gesture as she rubbed at her eyes, while Kanae obligingly snapped several pictures. "Whaaa..." Mikuru mumbled, before yawning hugely, which Haruhi noted with a small surge of jealousy threatened to burst her sleeping outfit open. No sense letting Kyon get a picture of _that_, though; he'd never be able to concentrate again.

Not that she could really blame him...

After breakfast, Tsuruya showed them to her over sized bath, and had clean kimono brought in for Mikuru and Kanae, since they hadn't had time to grab their own clothing before heading to the Tsuruya household the day before. Feeling a bit left out, Haruhi was pleased when Tsuruya offered her a kimono, too. She _did_ have her own clothes, but dressing up for fun was nice, too...

And the robes that Tsuruya offered were of _much_ higher quality than the pretty but cheap clothing that Haruhi had picked out during the endless summer vacation. Shortly after that, Yuki, Kyon, and Koizumi arrived together.

Haruhi didn't see it, but guessed that they had gotten a ride together from Arakawa or Mori. Tsuruya chirped a bright greeting at the trio as they changed shoes in the entryway. Koizumi was sharply dressed, as always, while Kyon's clothing was more casual; jeans, an undershirt, and an unbuttoned flannel. Haruhi frowned slightly, realizing that Yuki was still wearing her school uniform, even though it was a weekend... Her eyes widened at the realization that this was a perfect opportunity.

"Hmm, Tsuruya-san, do you have any kimono that would fit Yuki-chan?" she asked, looking at the taller girl.

Tsuruya nodded. "One size fits many!" she said happily. "She'll fits some of my older ones, just like Kanae-chan! This way, Nagato-chi!"

"Don't you dare try to peek!" Haruhi warned Kyon over her shoulder, as Yuki followed Tsuruya and Haruhi placidly.

Kyon shrugged, rolling his eyes, then greeted Kanae and Mikuru, while Koizumi held out a bag containing the DVDs for the anime they were going to watch. After that, they had passed from sight, into Tsuruya's room. The taller girl traipsed happily to her closet and slid the door open. Behind the door was an extensive array of formal kimono, as well as a small selection of high quality dresses in assorted colors.

"Let's see, let's see... What's a good colors for Nagato-chi?" she mused, flipping through the robes. "Ah! How about this? I think Kyon-kun would like you in this~!" The pattern was the same as the others, except the main color was more of a sea-green than blue.

Yuki's expression barely shifted, but it went from tolerant to mildly interested. If Haruhi hadn't been looking for it, she was positive she never would have caught it. "Hey, Tsuruya-san, while we've got some privacy here, we should talk about him with Yuki-chan, shouldn't we?" Haruhi noted.

Tsuruya cocked her head to one side, the kimono half pulled from the closet, then grinned, nodding her agreement. "Yeah! Good thinking, Haru-nyan."

Saying nothing, Yuki turned her gaze between Tsuruya and Haruhi.

"Um ... Yuki-chan," Haruhi tried, unable to meet the shorter girl's eyes, "you said once that you liked Kyon, but you needed someone else to tell you if he liked you, right?"

Yuki gave a tiny nod in response.

"Well ... he does. And I know I said you could 'borrow' him, but ... I learned from Auntie Rika - er, that is, Kyon's aunt, that it maybe doesn't work that way. Um, what I'm trying to say, then, is that ... it's okay if you want to date Kyon, as long as that's what he wants, too. But, the plan is that he can do that with any of us, right? Just like ... Mikuru-chan asked if she could go on a date with Kyon, and wanted you to come, too. Do you understand?"

Haruhi had never seen Yuki struggle for words before, but the girl creased her forehead slightly in contemplation, obviously thinking about it very hard. "A little bit," she answered.

"The practical plan," Tsuruya said, grinning, "is that we can all be with Kyon-kun~! I think that's quite fine, nyoro!"

Yuki tilted her head back and looked up, blinking. "Interesting," she finally remarked.

"D...does that sound good to you, though?" Haruhi asked, trying to cling to her confidence.

"Optimal," Yuki agreed, nodding, turning her gaze back to Haruhi. "I am unfamiliar with protocol in these situations. I ... appreciate the opportunity to observe others."

"You mean, you want to watch us on dates with Kyon-kun so you can figures out how to do it yourself?" Tsuruya asked, giggling. "Silly Nagato-chi - you'll do fine on your owns! Aside from which, Kyon-kun wouldn't want you to just try and copy other peoples; wouldn't he says it would be better to be yourself?"

Yuki blinked, turning to study Tsuruya thoughtfully. Haruhi was slightly taken aback as well, but thought that Tsuruya was most likely right. "I ... see," the shorter girl said.

"Howevers..." Tsuruya said with a broad wink, leaning forward and pressing one fingertip to the side of her lips. "If I ever get Kyon-kun to likes me enough to ask me out on a date, I'll let you watch me, anyways, if you really like~!"

"I think he likes you just fine, Tsuruya," Haruhi opined, taking the kimono that Tsuruya had picked out and presenting it to Yuki. "Now, Yuki-chan, go ahead and change. We just thought it would only be fair at this point to explain what the plan was ... and see if you wanted to be part of it. That time that we were all ... around Kyon after he got hurt, that wasn't meant to be a fluke, but it shouldn't only happen after something like that."

"Understood," Yuki replied, accepting the offered kimono, and giving Haruhi and Tsuruya a look that wasn't _quite_ a smile.

* * *

Mikuru gave a slightly nervous smile to Koizumi and Kyon as they watched Haruhi and Tsuruya lead Yuki away for her own Kimono. "Good morning, Asahina-san, Kanae-chan," Kyon said, smiling.

Koizumi echoed the greeting, giving a much brighter smile.

"Good morning, Sempai," Kanae said, giving him a shy, cautious smile. "Um ... thank you ... for yesterday. And especially last night."

"Any time, Kanae-chan," Kyon assured her, nodding.

Koizumi sighed, his smile not fading, but becoming very forced. "I hope we can all enjoy the anime that Suzumiya-san chose for us," he commented, following Mikuru and Kanae as they led the way to the plush living room with the giant television screen.

"Oh, yeah, what was that one about, anyway?" Kyon asked, flopping onto one of the couches and sprawling out, knuckling back a yawn. "Sorry, a bit tired from last night."

Mikuru was positive one of Koizumi's eyebrows twitched at that. "It's titled 'Kamichu', and it seems to be a story of a middle-school student who suddenly finds that she is a god," the esper answered, setting the discs down by the player, near the stack of Trope-tan discs that Kanae and Mikuru had watched the previous day. He sat on the other couch with a good deal more refinement, cautiously lowering himself.

Kanae sat immediately at Kyon's left, and Mikuru reluctantly shared the couch Koizumi had chosen. Undoubtedly, Haruhi was going to want to sit next to Kyon, as well, and Mikuru couldn't bring herself to try and oust the slider.

"No, really?" Kyon marveled, raising an eyebrow. "That seems ... well, interesting, to say the least."

"Somewhat like Suzumiya-san?" Kanae asked, innocently edging a tiny bit closer to Kyon, her face the eternally pink blush it always seemed to be in his presence.

"Not especially," Koizumi replied, ratcheting his smile slightly wider. "It's more in the traditional sense. She must tend to area shrines and answer prayers, as I understand it. I hear it's more oriented to girls than boys."

"It fits today's demographic," Kyon said, shrugging.

"Was there something you would rather have watched?" Koizumi asked, arching one eyebrow higher.

"I can't really think of anything," Kyon admitted, grinning. "I don't especially find myself in the mood for a shounen action series."

"I've heard this is very cute," Mikuru supplied. "Tsuruya has seen it, I think. You know, I think she watches a lot of anime?"

"If that library is any indication," he replied, gesturing to the collection of boxed sets lining the shelves on either side of the screen.

"She's got the entire Trope-tan series in boxed sets," Kanae commented helpfully, edging another centimeter or so closer to Kyon. "We watched almost all of the first season last night!"

He sat up suddenly, leaning forward and peering at the boxes she indicated, then nodding. "Imouto _loves_ that series," he remarked.

"Sorry about the delay!" Haruhi cheered, breaking into the room without warning, Tsuruya and Yuki flanking her. Haruhi eyed the seating arrangement, and nodded decisively, taking a seat next to Kyon, as Mikuru had expected. "Sit here, Tsuruya-san!" she called, patting the small amount of space between her and Kyon.

Seeming unsurprised, Kyon scooted slightly closer to Kanae to give Tsuruya room. Yuki blinked, then took the seat between Koizumi and Mikuru. Why would Haruhi want Tsuruya closer to Kyon, Mikuru wondered. Hopefully Haruhi wasn't _upset_ with Kyon... That would be no good at all!

"You picked this anime out, right, Haruhi?" Kyon asked, as Tsuruya nonchalantly stretched her arms over her head, incidental nudging Kyon slightly closer to Kanae, who perked up, but said nothing.

"Yeah, I found it on the website that inspired the Trope-tan anime - seriously, you guys should check that place out. Anyway, Kyon, go put in the first disc!"

"Right, right," he sighed, rising to his feet and ambling over to the entertainment center, rifling through the boxes and setting everything up. "Easier than last night..."

"What happened last night?" Mikuru wondered, noting that Koizumi flinched at that question, for some reason.

"Eh, Nagato and I snuck into the police station to track down some mystery 'corrupt data' or something that was making Jun crazy," Kyon said absently, loading the first disc into the player, then sauntering back to the couch. Mikuru stifled a giggle, realizing that both Kanae and Tsuruya had shifted slightly closer to where he had been sitting... Still, she thought, they'd better be careful not to upset Haruhi.

"Really?" Haruhi asked, raising her eyebrows. "You broke into a police station?"

"Nagato 'stealthed' us, so we were invisible," he said dismissively. "After that we went to Jun's place and got the ... data that was causing the problem in the first place."

"Excellent work!" the brigade chief said, nodding enthusiastically. "So, what kind of power-up did you get from it?"

He gave her a strange look and pulled an eraser from his pocket. "I didn't. It was dangerous, so I asked Nagato to seal it away. See?" He wiggled the eraser.

Haruhi stared, her smile fading as she looked very unimpressed. "It's an eraser," she said flatly.

"Well, if it's dangerous, containing it seems safer than using it," Koizumi offered. "It seems quite reasonable to me."

"Boring! Okay, Yuki-chan, we need to make that into something useful for Kyon!"

"Oh, come on, I don't want to have to remember a billion different things," Kyon protested, shaking his head and staring at the eraser. "I can keep track of the jacket and - that other thing, but what else are you going to insist on?"

"Sounds like you need a PDA," Haruhi said, crossing her arms and raising one eyebrow. "Like a new cell phone with all those neat features on it."

"Hmm, well, a new phone would be kind of nice," he admitted, rubbing his chin. "But I have, er, some data I'd need to transfer over."

Mikuru felt her face redden, but couldn't deny the tiny surge of pride at that. He was talking about the pictures she and Tsuruya had sent him, right? Surely that meant he had liked them... Maybe she could ask Tsuruya if it would be okay to send another...?

Haruhi nodded, not seeing the time traveler's reaction. "Anyway, that data you found last night can become a useful new PDA or something for Kyon, right Yuki-chan?" she asked.

The shorter girl nodded in answer, rising from her seat and walking to Kyon, then holding one hand out expectantly. "I can trust you," Kyon mumbled, reluctantly handing it over, "even if I _am_ nervous about using this..."

In Yuki's hands, the eraser seemed to wobble and melt, before reshaping itself into something larger, a rectangular prism that coalesced into a shiny looking new phone. "Here," Yuki said, offering it towards Kyon.

He accepted it, turning it over in his hands and examining it thoroughly. "Does it do anything neat?" Kanae asked hesitantly, incidentally leaning so close to Kyon that they were almost touching to try and peer at the device as well.

"It is capable of learning," Yuki answered, walking back to her original seat with her usual silent, weightless seeming steps.

"Awesome, my new phone slash PDA is Skynet," Kyon deadpanned. "Is it going to go crazy and get stab-happy on me?"

Yuki shook her head, while Tsuruya began to laugh, clutching her sides as she leaned on Kyon. "Is that the end of the world in your pockets, or are you just happy to see us?" she chortled, before breaking into even harder laughter.

"Well, what else do you need, Kyon?" Haruhi asked, unable to resist smirking at Tsuruya's infectious laughter. "You were able to sneak into a police station, and then break into Jun's house undetected, right?"

"Only with Nagato's help," he admitted, already fiddling with his phone. Kanae made a subdued cooing sound, staring at the thing with wide eyes as he flipped through various functions. "Oh, huh, it tracks that ... other thing I picked up and tells me the charge level. That's handy."

"What, you had trouble?"

"I don't think it's necessarily a good thing to be skilled at breaking into police stations or houses," Mikuru offered timidly.

"I agree," Koizumi echoed, nodding. "Not to be too presumptuous, but ... don't you have people more capable of that who answer to you?"

"Gots to lead by example," Tsuruya countered, shaking her head as she recovered, but still leaning against Kyon.

"That's very true," Haruhi agreed. "So, tell us about the break in! How did you do it?"

"Nagato jumped from the street to the roof of Jun's house, like an anime ninja," he answered absently. "I followed with a series of significantly more mortal jumps, and eventually managed to climb up next to her. She opened the window from the outside, and then we went in. Nagato's quite adept at that sort of thing, so once we were inside, she made it so that any noises we made wouldn't be heard, and we searched the room until we found the bl- Uh, the corrupted data thingy."

Haruhi's smile had faded, and she gave Kyon a disappointed stare. "So she did all the work, and you were lazy, following in her footsteps like usual," she surmised.

He looked up from the phone he was fiddling with, blinking, then nodded. "That sounds about right," he agreed. "I am just a normal person, you know. I wish I were able to do things like that by myself, so I wouldn't have to rely on Nagato so much, but..." He trailed off with a shrug.

"That goes on the to-do list, then," Haruhi decided. "A proper hero should be able to jump thirty meters, at least!"

"Sure thing," Kyon agreed, turning his attention back to his phone. "Anyway, are we going to start watching this anime?"

Haruhi gave a pointed glance to Yuki, who nodded at something Mikuru hadn't caught. What was that? _Another_ secret she wasn't in on!? The time traveler was starting to get frustrated by this... Maybe she should try and corner Kyon and ask him about it...? But it seemed like he might not know, either...

Koizumi coughed politely, holding up a remote. "If you'd like me to start the show, Suzumiya-san...?"

"Yeah," Haruhi agreed. "Let's see what this is about!"

Koizumi nodded just as politely, eyes flicking to Kyon briefly before muttering so quietly that Mikuru wondered if it might be her imagination, "Though, it seems the show's already started..."

* * *

Akasaka Miyuki was her father's child. She adored her mother, too, but more than that, she took after her father. He joined the National Police Agency when he was young and idealistic, and in the days shortly before she was born, he had rescued a high ranking government official's son from a group of kidnappers.

Well, she didn't have any accolades nearly as impressive as that when she started her _own_ NPA career, but she was smart. She paid attention to details, she was always cheerful, and more than anything else, she retained her father's inquisitive nature. She couldn't have avoided that, seeing as she had grown up with stories from her mother about how he was always being sent afield to investigate this, or that...

But he had finally finished those days, retreating to a desk job as she was entering college. And just as she was finally accepted into the force, he gracefully retired. She didn't mind that, though; she would have loved working with him on cases, but knew that having a family member on the active force would always cast doubt onto her accomplishments. That aside, the man had invested long, hard years into improving the force he worked for, always following the rules, and always respecting his ideals and the goals of the organization as a whole.

She could not imagine a better role model.

On one of the first assignments she had been trusted with any real responsibilities, a gas-refinery worker had rigged an oil tank to explode, and held his wife at knife-point in the harbor control tower. She told him that he was acting out of desperation that he didn't need to feel; it was never as bad as he thought it would be. Her inspiration for the speech that finally got the worker to surrender was all thanks to her father, and his stories of a trip he took to Hinamizawa in her younger days.

He wasn't alone, and being calm and rational would allow him to see things through without anyone getting hurt.

As a result of that and other accomplishmentds, she was the first female NPA officer to ever be promoted to the rank of Special Investigator in the Organized Crime division. From there, she'd forged ahead, happily overseeing operations destroying operations in the areas of smuggling, especially firearms and drugs. Her track record was nearly flawless, with no real errors - just those lucky few criminals who were extradited, or escaped somehow.

Even then, she didn't let her closure rate bother her; she was easily a dozen points ahead of any of her colleagues. Mindful of that, she maintained their respect by respecting _them_, and never trying to boast. Indeed, she'd helped her fellow investigators out so much that no one was especially surprised to hear the rumors that she was being considered to replace the department chief's current aide, once he retired.

She wouldn't reject the promotion, if it were to come through, and weren't just a rumor... But she would miss being able to do field work. Like her father, she felt she could tolerate a desk job. She just knew that she would only truly _enjoy_ the more real feeling work of confronting criminals and examining evidence first hand, not perusing dockets and fighting bureaucracy.

Take her current assignment, for example:

A boy had been attacked in the streets of Nishinomiya. Attacked with a _gun_, not the more traditional knife. Gun smuggling was one of her pet projects; while it was dangerous, she dearly loved seeing her Special Assault Team cousins and their no-nonsense attitudes when it came time to crash a yakuza operation, ideally before they could properly ready the weapons they were trying to move.

In the temporary office she had been given in the main Nishinomiya police headquarters, she tabbed through pages of information on her laptop, and a much thicker stack of good old fashioned _actual_ pages. Something about handling real documents was reassuring, too. Perusing the current file, she read over information she alread knew.

There hadn't been just one gun, there had been three. The weapons were illegal, smuggled in. They also had consecutive serial numbers, which meant that the operation was dangerously exposed - for the criminals. For _her_, people who couldn't bother to conceal such information were easier to track. The NPA as a whole shouldn't have too much trouble finding out what had happened.

There was more evidence, of course. And people to interview! Watanabe Daichi was a known member of the Sumiyoshi-rengo; he'd been caught before, for more minor offenses. Generally, in her mind, he was too small-time to be involved in such an operation. Even more intriguing, his own organization seemed to have no interest in pressuring the judge to back away from the case, or provide him with a lawyer!

That part was a bit of a pity; it probably meant that Watanabe Daichi didn't know very much, or that he'd gone and acted behind the backs of his superiors in his organization. She smiled anyway. Even if he didn't intend to cooperate, there were other leads, more interesting things to investigate.

From the same crime scene, there were two somewhat suspect police officers - naturally, she didn't mention this to their superiors. That might arouse suspicion, so she'd only told her NPA colleagues about that part. The Tamaru brothers were being investigated by the financial office already ... there seemed to be a strange amount of money in their background, for a pair of police officers on relatively fixed income. Nothing solid, but the investigation was moving.

Then there were some of the witnesses, most of whom had been fooled into thinking that the genuine incident was a _movie_ shooting. The mayor had pressured the NPA chief to leave that cover story intact, pleading that it made the city look terrible to acknowledge what amounted to children shooting children in the streets. It wasn't like they lived in America, after all. Also, there was enough evidence to support the claims that a movie _was_ being produced ... without many of the proper permits. The movie seemed to be scrapped, given the fines, but those had already all been paid.

The statements from the victim's friend were uniform, and logical, and didn't have any holes in them... And, Miyuki admitted, she hadn't spoken to a single one of them, herself. But it was starting to veer towards that time, she thought, when she might have to take the stage.

One of those friends was the heiress to a known crime ring that was opposed to the Sumiyoshi-rengo, the Yamaguchi-gumi. The victim appeared - to accounts - to be that heiress's boyfriend. Was the shooting revenge for some other incident? Was the attack meant for _her_, and not _him_?

She was confident that it was more than just two criminal families fighting one-another. Daichi was either knowingly involved, and discarded as useless after failing, or had independently tried to cause the two factions to fight, most likely goaded by some third, currently unknown party.

All of that, of course, was ignoring the victim himself. He'd been shot, according to witnesses multiple times. But only one bullet had gotten to him. The medical records from the surgery were sound, and seemed reasonable. In addition, the hospital recorded video of _all_ surgeries for insurance purposes.

Somehow, unfortunately, it seemed that the video of _his_ surgery was lost. A few days after his hospitalization, a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the powerful figure of Tsuruya Kenshiro, had outright _bought_ the institution. Coincidentally, most of the surgeons who had operated on the victim had immediately undertaken expensive out-of-country vacations, and weren't available for questioning about it. Those who remained insisted it was exceedingly routine.

Add in the fact that the victim had already been noted for criminal involvement with the two younger members of the group that had attacked him in the street... A young tough who had joined with a powerful yakuza family?

Plausible.

A young tough so important that the head of the most powerful local family casually bought a hospital to try and cover some aspects of his involvement? Corruption hinted at in members of the police force?

She knew she was just scratching the surface of the mystery, but her latest bit of evidence was by far the most interesting.

Yamane Jun was not well. On a mental level, he was nearing the verge of collapse. Psychologists had examined him and determined that he was obsessive, fixated on some classmate of his that had mysteriously transfered to Canada nearly a year earlier. There was an investigation on that, too, but so far, the NPA hadn't even been able to prove that the classmate had ever _existed_, except for photographs and spotty school records.

Something about her, and that event, scarred him, and he'd become bent on revenge with the victim for some perceived slight, ranting uncontrollably, shaking off the effects of minor sedatives. If it weren't for the gun charges, he'd be in a hospital instead of jail.

But abruptly, something had made him _snap_. Something had happened to him and incited him, made his fury burn even _hotter_.

And then, strangely, it had burnt _out_, and he'd returned to something nearer to sanity, wailing that he wasn't in control of what he had done. That some other force twisted his mind, made him do things he would never do.

Miyuki tapped a fingernail against the screen of her laptop, reviewing the footage of the cell that Jun was still being held in.

And there, wearing an unfamiliar outfit, but the right size, the right general features, even with the coat and dark gloves... The how was something she couldn't understand, so she just accepted that it appeared to happen, and focused instead on the _why_.

"Why did you suddenly appear for him, little boy?" she mused. "What makes a victim confront the one who attacked him ... and make him _better_? What did you say?"

She couldn't help but smile. If the ever-increasing rumors were true, this could be her last case before the seemingly inevitable promotion came through. "I don't know those things," she said quietly to her empty office, "but I do know you'll make a fascinating case, little boy... They call you Kyon, hmm?" Her smile widened. She'd find out the truth. She'd understand the why, and then maybe investigate the how.

Clasping her hands together in her lap, she hummed, tilting her head from side to side. "But if you're linked to that Tsuruya heiress ... it won't be too hard to get you to come out, will it? Let's see what happens when this anthill is stirred~!"

* * *

Author's Notes: I tend to do my research, but opted for slightly more Action Movie-style organization for the NPA, so, don't take their representation here as entirely accurate with regards to what NPA officers actually DO. In the real world, they basically almost only do administrative work. In this story, they're a bit more like the FBI for a more interesting (I hope) narrative. _


	25. Chapter 24

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Initial Conflict Arc I

Chapter Twenty Four: Thus Solving The Problem Forever

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Fragment: Clan Annals (unverified)"_

_"Entry for 5.16.2011:  
Civility is the prized, fading, heart of proper criminals. But there's this bad impression that somehow, it just won't work as neatly as it feels it should have.  
- Tsu-Oyabun # 108"_

_"[Undecipherable]" - Recovered From Primary T.E.S.A. Archive_

* * *

After watching an almost terminally cute first six episodes of the anime, Haruhi realized that Kanae had fallen asleep. Even though she was (somewhat embarrassing to admit) really enjoying the show, she knew an opportunity when she saw one. Tsuruya had noticed it as well, and was grinning even wider than usual. The tall girl looked almost catty with amusement - but held herself still, somehow. While Yurie dragged herself across the floor of her family's living room on the screen and moaned about the heat, Haruhi gave Yuki a sharp look, jerking her head the tiniest distance in a nod.

Her face not turning, Yuki's eyes met Haruhi's. She blinked for a moment, and Haruhi wondered if the 'connection' she had with Yuki was strong enough to send specific thoughts... She'd considered the possibility before - it seemed reasonable to her, anyway. And, come to think of it, Yuki could get a clue just from whatever changes she tried to make. Of course, lately, Haruhi had been restraining herself - barely. She really wanted to make specific changes, but it was a pain to need Yuki to translate, and then Kyon to allow it... Plus, she'd gotten to be part of the force that would preserve Mikuru's excellent gift to Kyon.

Still, if she formed a request, the quiet girl should pick it up - and she'd gotten her attention already anyway. Yuki blinked once, then turned towards Koizumi and opened the bag at his side, pulling the digital camera out and holding it up on one flat palm. Haruhi concentrated, and the camera lifted the slightest distance and drifted towards her, ducking around the edge of the couch from Kyon's view until it reached her hands.

She'd long ago memorized all of the controls by hand, but checked with a quick glance anyway to make sure there was still space. The card didn't have many pictures on it yet, so she nonchalantly rose from the couch during a slow point. As the characters on screen retreated into an abandoned house to escape the rain, she snapped a shot of Kyon in passing, then a quick handful of follow ups. She took the first one before he had time to react, but was quick enough that his reaction was merely a confused blink, until she had caught two more pictures, before he suddenly flinched back in confusion, looking from side-to-side.

Tsuruya was barely holding in her laughter when Kyon realized that Kanae had fallen asleep against him. Haruhi remembered the pose from late night in Hinamizawa, when Kyon's sister had fallen asleep against him on the couch the same way. As with that time, he'd absently put an arm around her, just as he'd unknowingly done with Kanae. The next shot was his double-take at the camera in Haruhi's hand, further stunned amazement.

His face turning dark red in realization covered the next three quickly snapped frames. "I...it's not what it looks like," he said defensively.

"Um, um, Kanae-chan didn't sleep well last night!" Mikuru said hurriedly, looking nervously between Kyon and Haruhi. "S...she's just tired!" Beside Kyon, Tsuruya finally exploded into laughter, clapping her hands over her mouth to try and restrain herself.

Yuki turned towards the pair and watched, tilting her head to one side curiously as Haruhi finished taking pictures. "Er, it's just..." Kyon tried lamely. "I mean..."

"This is the perfect kind of picture for our scrapbook!" Haruhi said excitedly, wrestling to keep her own voice low, and trying to avoid disturbing the slider. "These are the memories we want to store forever and always be able to look back on!" Kanae mumbled something incomprehensible in her sleep and curled up more closely with Kyon, turning her face into his side. Reflexively snapping more pictures, Haruhi decided, "Dozens of scrapbooks! Some day we'll have a whole library of them!"

Koizumi coughed very quietly. "Michikyuu-san is like a sister to you, Kyon-kun?" he suggested.

"Yeah," the other boy said quickly, nodding. "That's what this is."

Well, Haruhi wouldn't have minded curling up with Kyon herself, but not with quite so many witnesses. She realized that was probably a little bit hypocritical, but felt that the extreme cuteness of the slider at that moment made up for it.

"Huh?" Kanae mumbled, sitting up sleepily and rubbing at her eyes. Face still somewhat red, Kyon quickly reclaimed his arm, looking steadfastly at the screen as Haruhi snapped a picture of Tsuruya, who gave up trying to muffle her laughter and just guffawed openly, clinging to Kyon for support. "Wha...?" Kanae managed, looking over at the older girl and trying to blink away her sleepiness. "Did I miss something?"

"Nothing much," Haruhi assured her, reclaiming her seat. Tsuruya slowly subsided to merely chuckling loudly, straightening up.

When Kanae turned a questioning gaze on him, Kyon just scratched the back of his neck and studiously examined the ceiling.

"Check these pictures out," Haruhi suggested, sending the camera to float back to Yuki across the distance between the couches. "Koizumi-kun, go ahead and restart the episode."

"Right away," he agreed, raising the remote.

"Sorry," Kanae giggled. "I guess I dozed off!"

"It's okay, if you're tired. But next week you're going to have to be at full energy! We have next Saturday off from school, so we're going to have a bigger event for the SOS Brigade!"

"I'm kind of liking this event," Kyon said, before Koizumi gave him a strange look. "Er, that is ... I'm really enjoying this anime."

"You're just being lazy, and like to lounge around all day on the couch," Haruhi countered. "But it's okay to have this kind of activity, too, once in a while."

"I don't mind this kind of thing, either," Mikuru managed. "Um, the show is quite cute, I think."

"It has an interesting story," Koizumi agreed. "Honestly, however, I find the male lead's obliviousness to the female lead's romantic interest somewhat frustrating and over-emphasized." Haruhi thought Koizumi was trying to stress the last statement, for some reason.

She couldn't fathom why, but thought the rest of the show worked despite that. "It's cute," Haruhi disagreed. "I think it's better to have a relationship slowly grow; it seems to me to be more realistic than the typical quickly-resolved romance plots! Plus, I'm pretty sure that he's just playing really really dumb because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings, considering how easily she's embarrassed." The male lead was too competent to actually be _that_ clueless.

"Hehe, now would be a good time to breaks for lunch," Tsuruya said, her laughter finally under control. "Why don't we pause the anime here?"

Nodding enthusiastically, Haruhi exclaimed, "Great idea! We can decide on an activity for next weekend while we eat!"

* * *

Even though she had dozed off through almost half of the anime, Kanae ended up thinking it was fun to watch. She felt a little embarrassed about falling asleep and having her picture taken, especially since Haruhi had only grinned knowingly and refused to show her the pictures when she had asked about it.

Had she drooled, or had something scribbled on her face in marker? She hoped not... For some reason, her sempai had looked a bit embarrassed, too. Surely it couldn't be that she had said something she shouldn't have in her sleep?

Whatever it was, Haruhi and the other girls seemed amused by it, so she supposed it must not have been that bad. It was kind of reassuring, actually, for her friends to be aware of the possible troubles they might face, and be so cheerful anyway. After a filling lunch, the rest of the brigade focused on the anime, which gave her more time to consider the idea of trying to stay in one world for an extended length of time and fight...

It was still scary, but she had her sempai, and he seemed confident in the other members of the SOS Brigade. Now, at least, she could admit to herself that she _was_ scared, instead of blindly scrambling to escape... It also didn't hurt that there had been a breakthrough while practicing with Yuki the previous night. For the first time since she'd started trying to practice with the others, she felt like she had significantly improved.

Admittedly, she still couldn't actually try it, yet, but she felt strangely more confident that she'd have better control over it. A few more practice sessions like that, and she was certain she'd be able to slide even better. For some reason, it felt more tiring than it had previously, almost as though her sliding left her hauling herself through significantly more reistance. She wondered briefly if she was gaining weight, then decided that probably wasn't it. At least, she hoped it wasn't - she couldn't afford to diet with as much as she felt her body needed to develop!

Even so, by the time Monday rolled around and she'd gotten the chance to practice again, she was eerily even more confident. Was it a side-effect of the anchor that Yuki had established? Was it helping her out in some way they'd just never tried before? She supposed it made a small degree of sense ... only when there were limits in place could she be more cognizant of what it was she was trying to do. Without the anchor she had merely flailed around; now that she could feel distinct limitations, she had a better understanding of what it was that she was trying to do.

She waited by a pillar in the train station for her sempai, a bit nervous when a tall second year boy with slicked-back hair approached her. "You're Michikyuu Kanae-chan, right?" he asked, giving her a grin, hands in his pockets.

"Y...yes," she managed timidly, nodding. The last time a male upperclassman aside from her sempai or Koizumi had tried to talk to her, it had become quite frightening...

"Hey," Yanagimoto protested, punching the boy's shoulder playfully as she emerged from the crowds departing another train, "what did I tell you about flirting with younger girls?" Kanae blinked for a moment, before she remembered Yanagimoto from a onetime visit to the SOS Brigade clubroom, while they were still having meetings during lunch.

"Ouch!" he protested, rubbing his shoulder and giving the girl a look of feigned hurt. "Why, Yanagimoto-hime, you wound me!" he cried. "To think so little of me..."

"Save it, Taniguchi-baka," she retorted, rolling her eyes, but unable to keep from grinning at his act. Her face suddenly flashed to an alarmed grimace. "Did ... we just do that horribly overly cute 'couple introduction' thing?"

"I don't know about _overly_ cute," Taniguchi replied, giving a somewhat rakish grin. "But I'll accept it for the purposes of 'couple'!"

Kanae tried not to giggle. She didn't know these students well, but that seemed friendly enough. They almost seemed like they were practicing a comedy sketch. Another unfamiliar boy emerged from the crowd, somewhat short, about the same height as Yanagimoto. "Good morning," he said to the pair. "You seem in very good spirits today, Taniguchi."

"Morning," Taniguchi returned. "Anyway, Kunikida, Yanagimoto-hime, this underclassman is Michikyuu Kanae-chan; she's the one that Kyon rescued from Ryuguu Ryo."

"Oh!" Yanagimoto exclaimed, eyes widening. "That's right; you're in the club with Kyon, aren't you? I didn't realize you were also the first year girl he had saved!"

"That's me," Kanae agreed, nodding her face red. Was that her reputation around the school? The girl her sempai had saved? Well, that did make sense... "Are you by chance ... Sempai's classmates?"

"You call Kyon 'Sempai'?" Kunikida asked, arching an eyebrow higher.

"Of course!" she exclaimed, nodding. "Because that's who he is! And 'Kyon' isn't his name."

"Lucky dog," Taniguchi mumbled. Yanagimoto absently stomped on the toes of one of his feet. "Ah! Hey! It's true, you know; Kyon is lucky! Not as lucky as me, but lucky!"

"That's more like it," the older girl allowed.

"You know you're the only one for me, Yanagimoto-hime!"

"Oh?" Haruhi's voice came, before she stepped around the pillar. She eyed Taniguchi warily. "Hey there, Kanae-chan. Is this stal- uh, student bothering you?"

Stiffening the moment she heard Haruhi's voice, Yanagimoto said, "I'm keeping him on a short leash." Forcing herself to meet the other girl's eyes, she managed to falteringly say, "S...so..."

Glancing across the boys, the brigade chief crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh-ho. Good morning, everyone... So, Yanagimoto, are you still upset about the rhythmic gymnastics club thing?"

Yanagimoto's face reddened. "Not so much, Suzumiya," she managed. "Your abilities serve your club better than they would mine." She elbowed Taniguchi in the ribs, adding, "Anyway, as you can see, I'm doing penance for my misdeeds."

"Don't go overboard," Haruhi added, giving a bright smile, rivaled only in luminosity by Tsuruya's eternal grin.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Taniguchi grumbled. "So harsh!"

"I'll make it up to you," Yanagimoto said, giving the boy a small smile and relaxing a tiny bit. "How about dinner at my place this Friday? At around seven?"

"Bold!" Haruhi remarked, dropping her hands to her hips as she took an appraising look at Yanagimoto.

"Hell, yeah!" Taniguchi cried eagerly, pumping one fist in the air. "Totally worth it!"

"Great!" the girl at his side cheered. "My father's dying to meet you!"

Taniguchi froze mid fist-pump, save for blinking. "Uh ... what?"

"Are you two rehearsing for a comedy sketch?" Kunikida asked, eyes narrowed and looking away in annoyance.

"I know, I thought the same thing!" Kanae said, giggling. "S...sorry, sorry - I shouldn't say things like that!"

"Hey, live life dramatically," Taniguchi replied, adjusting his tie, "if you got it ... flaunt it!"

"I'll pass up on the obvious one, for now," his girlfriend added. "I think we're alienating Kunikida-kun."

"It's hard not to be a bit melancholic," the shorter boy said with a wry grimace. "I suppose it's somewhat expected during spring, though, isn't it? That's what they say, anyway ... it's the springtime of youth and you'll only enjoy it once, so make the most of it." He shrugged, abruptly shaking his head and adding, "Well, nevermind me; I'll go on ahead." He forced a smile, bowing before trotting away from the station.

"Ah, he's got a point about getting to school, though," Taniguchi sighed, raising one hand in a semi-salute to Haruhi and Kanae. "Can't hang around forever."

"See you in class," Yanagimoto added as she bowed her farewell, before the pair walked away.

"Are we both waiting for Sempai?" Kanae asked Haruhi.

"I guess so," the older girl admitted, still grinning as she turned to watch another train arrive. "Hmm ... Kanae-chan, there's something I'd like to talk about with you after school."

"For the club?"

"Well, something like that," Haruhi allowed, as the boy they awaited stepped off the train and walked towards them. As he drew into hearing range, Haruhi added, "But Kyon, here, needs to study, because there's two tests this week, and he's got a ninety percent or better quota!"

"Awesome," he remarked dryly, nodding at the brigade chief. "Good morning, Haruhi, Kanae-chan."

"Good morning, Sempai!" Kanae returned brightly.

Haruhi snorted and hitched her bag higher on her shoulder. "Do you want to risk missing out on this weekend's activity?" she challenged.

"No," he acknowledged, as Haruhi and Kanae fell into step on either side of him, trooping up the hill together. "I'm looking forward to going to the beach, since it's really starting to heat up. A good idea for something borrowed from the anime we watched."

Haruhi looked like she was about to spout something out as a retort, but caught herself. Instead, she said, "You missed the show, but your friend Taniguchi seems to be dating Yanagimoto, now. They're a funny couple."

"He actually got a steady girlfriend?" the boy mused. "I knew they had a date ... but they seem to be lasting?"

"Stranger things have happened. To us, even!"

Sticking his hands into his coat pockets, her sempai sighed, nodding. "Well, I can't deny that," he admitted. "I guess it does explain why I haven't heard much out of him lately. Actually, come to think of it, I'm surprised Kunikida hasn't complained about it by now."

Kanae glanced to Haruhi in time to see the older girl glancing back at her, offering a knowing smirk.

* * *

At lunch, Kyon watched Haruhi bustle out of the classroom in her accustomed manner, but not before dropping an extra bento at his desk. His mother was at least up to her usual standard, but Haruhi's cooking was a pleasant bonus ... and spending all night training with Yuki to better understand her solution to him being able to jump thirty meters had been intense. He was cultivating an ability to ignore things, and set that ability on the previous night's training with a vengeance.

He had delicious food, and probably enough of it; for the time being, that was good enough. Kunikida moved a desk to sit next to him, commenting, "We haven't chatted in a while. How are you doing, Kyon?"

"Pretty good," Kyon allowed. "You?"

"Left to my own quite a bit, recently. I'm going to a cram school, now. I tested against Sasaki recently, as it turns out; I almost beat her when we compared scores." He nodded thoughtfully, setting down his bento. "I think I can get a better result than her next time, for certain."

Kyon raised an eyebrow and nodded back at his classmate, uncertain of how to really feel. For some reason, he thought he felt the slightest bit ... annoyed by it. He munched on the steamed vegetables from the bento Haruhi had made him, until he was interrupted by Tsuruya calling him out from the hallway. "Ya-hoo~! Kyon-kun~!" She waved one hand at him.

"Ah, sorry, I'll be back in a minute," he apologized, feeling very slightly guilty for abandoning his friend, but mostly just not patient enough to listen to the other boy complain. After all, Kunikida hadn't gotten shot the week before.

"Hey, Tsuruya-kun," he said, nodding in greeting as he stepped into the hallway. As usual, he was unable to keep from catching at least some of her infectious good cheer, and found himself smiling easily before she could lead him away from the doorway, where they could be overheard.

"Heya, Kyon-kun, you busy tonight?" she asked in a low voice. "I checked with Haru-nyan earliers, and she said she didn't mind letting us skip the club meetings to take care of some business. Since she was with us last time, I'd likes to invite Nagato-chi, too!"

"Yeah, I think my parents are a bit scared of your father," he said with a dry chuckle, spreading his hands in a shrug. "My father mentioned that I owed your father for the hospital stay, so, no complaints from me." Though, even if he did owe them, Tsuruya had paid him last week, just like she had every week since the first time he'd done work for her. He had decided he was better off not asking about that for the time being, though.

It also didn't hurt that he'd been incentivized by one of the most amazing happenings since he'd joined the SOS Brigade:

He hadn't been required to cover any brigade expenses from his own pocket in _weeks_.

He made a mental note that he really should try to find time to spend some of that money on something; without any better ideas, he'd been depositing it in the account his mother had made him set up.

"Did you ask Nagato, or do you think I should?" he wondered, realizing that he was distracting himself.

"Could you?" Tsuruya asked, flashing him a grin and clasping her hands together pleadingly. "You knows, I don't think she has a cell phone?"

"I think you're right," he agreed. Not that she probably couldn't just send him a message directly if she wanted to. "Anyway," he continued, glancing around to check for eavesdroppers, "what are we going to be doing, if you can give me a hint?"

"Formal meetings," she replied quickly. "Us, my father, and some of those fellows we've previously had trouble with. They want to apologize for last week's incident."

He nodded, actually a tiny bit surprised about that. Well, Tsuruya's father would be there, so hopefully he could get by with just following the large man's lead.

"Okay," he agreed, checking his watch. "Where should we meet up after school?"

"Shoe lockers," she said with a decisive nod, before waving. "See you there~!" she called out, skipping away with one last smile over her shoulder at him.

He smirked, turning away and going the other direction, to the club room. He knocked cautiously on the door, surprised when an unexpected yet familiar voice called, "Come in~!"

Cracking the door open cautiously, he peeked in to see Mikuru's older self, beaming him a bright smile from where she stood next to the computer. As seemed to be her policy when Mikuru's older self was around, Yuki wasn't anywhere in sight. Coughing politely, Kyon stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. "Um, hello, Asahina-san. I, er ... just came by to ask Nagato if she wanted to come with Tsuruya-kun and myself to another, er ... ninkyo dantai ... gathering. But, come to think of it, I'm guessing you actually already knew that," he added, cautiously smiling at the woman.

Mikuru giggled, her fingers laced together. She pushed her hands down, which had a _very_ interesting effect when her arms squeezed her chest, incidentally causing some buttons on her white button-up shirt to strain. Her leaning towards him accentuated the effects, pulling his gaze into it like a gravity well attracted matter. "Well, there _is_ something that needs our attention, but I'm actually here a bit early; I made an unreasonable request for a personal reason!" she answered.

"W...what's that?" he wondered. Despite how much trouble it was going to mean for him, he had a zero percent success rate resisting the woman if she tried to kiss him.

"You're still keeping a certain picture of me, right?" she asked, winking. "I'd love to see it for myself again~!"

"U...uh," he managed, feeling his face reddening. That picture had never been mentioned between himself and the younger Mikuru, outside of her e-mail to him. "Y...you didn't save a copy?" he asked.

She stuck her tongue out and mimed a blow to her head. "I ... lost my own copy," she admitted. "I could ask Tsu-chan, but I'd rather ask you; she might not like keeping me a secret from my younger self."

"R...right," he managed. So awkward... Trying not to think about it too hard, he pulled his shiny new cell phone slash PDA from his pocket. As Yuki said, it had learned, upgrading its OS a handful of times already in the day he owned it. The touchscreen read his thumbprint, and he nervously sorted through his pictures until reaching the folder with his most precious images. He froze, fingertip poised to open the directory.

The older Mikuru had probably not _intended_ to distract him, but in her amazingly seductively innocent way, had walked behind him to peek over his shoulder. Even if she was a tiny bit taller than her younger self, she was still shorter than him; the side of her face pressed against his shoulder, and one arm went around him, while amazing, pillowy softness was pressing into his back. "I'm liable to forget what I'm doing," he managed, his voice almost cracking.

Mikuru gave him what was probably meant to be a reassuring squeeze. "Let me see~!" she simpered. "I'd be sad if you didn't have it anymore!"

Swallowing, his mind fuzzy, Kyon opened the picture, glancing at her to try and determine her thoughts.

"Ah!" she gasped, blushing at the picture of her younger self nervously smiling at the camera in skimpy lingerie. "Hehe, I used to be so _cute_~!" She pressed herself against Kyon more tightly, sighing, before she released him and he regained some ability to think. He quickly hid the picture; after all, her older self was right _there_.

He was positive his face was glowing red. She merely looked very pleased with herself, and maybe the tiniest bit melancholy. Suddenly, she cocked her head slightly to one side. "Do you like that picture, Kyon-kun?" she asked.

"Er, yeah, of course," he mumbled. "It... I mean, I shouldn't have kept those other pictures in the first place, but letting me know that you didn't really mind so much, like this..." He shrugged. "So, aside from the obvious, it has some meaning to me."

She smiled warmly. "I'm glad for that, Kyon-kun." Shaking her head, she looked at the costume rack, now with the extra items that her younger self had started making. Reaching out, she let her fingertips trail across Kanae's 'stewardess' costume.

Still feeling a little dizzy from the unexpectedly ... soft yet firm contact, Kyon took a seat at the table and flipped through the PDA's menus until he found an appointment book. "Ah ... well, I don't mind talking with you, Asahina-san," he said, looking at her curiously. "What is it that brings you here, though?"

"Actually," Mikuru answered, giving him a bright smile, "it's not something for right now ... it's for later this evening. Something important has been left undone for quite some time, don't you think?"

"Back to that fateful Sunday?" he asked. "When ... this latest bit of strangeness happened?"

"That's right!" she said, clasping her hands together beneath her chin. "I'm glad you didn't forget!"

"I do try... I'm surprised you didn't leave a note for me in my shoe locker, like you used to, though."

"You're too much of a celebrity, these days," she said with a wink. "But, that's fine; I got to send you notes first!"

He wasn't really sure what to say to that, so managed a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of his head and looking away. Mikuru took the seat opposite him, humming thoughtfully.

"Oh, Kyon-kun," she said suddenly, giving him an incredibly wistful gaze. "You remember the advice I gave you, right?"

"'Seek happiness'?" he asked.

Her smile widened and she nodded happily. "That's right," she agreed. Her smile faded. "I wish I could spend more time with you, because... Ah, but, nevermind that for now. I'll find you later tonight, after your meeting."

"At least I know that will go well," he commented, smiling weakly at her as she rose from her seat.

"Oh?" she squeaked, looking alarmed. "I didn't mean to let anything slip! I don't want to risk changing things; really, I wanted to try coming to give you a little reassurance before-" She cut herself off and looked sharply away. "Um, um... So, I'll see you later tonight, Kyon-kun, okay?"

Her lovely, mature features had suddenly adopted a nearly panicked expression much more like her younger self. "Right, later tonight," he agreed, making a note on his PDA. "I don't suppose you know where Nagato is?"

"Huh? You said- Er, um, yes! She should be along shortly, so..." She shook her head, collecting herself. "Ah, nevermind that, Kyon-kun. Let me give you something nice, though, okay?"

He had the time it took her to walk around the table to prepare himself, finding himself rising to his feet involuntarily. She giggled, pausing just near him. "Oh, Kyon-kun ... I don't have a shouta complex, but for you, well..." He was so disarmed by the last comment, his resolve failed him, and she planted another one of those electrifying kisses on his lips, leaving him feeling lightheaded.

She pulled away from him, giggling again. "You're so cute~!" she whispered, giving him a hug. It had another, interestingly mind-blurring effect as her body slid next to his, her lips pursed near his head, her warm breath tickling his ear. "Take care, Kyon-kun."

Somehow, she had once again stunned him with her feminine wiles. One of these times - _one of these times_ - he was going to manage to get a word in edgewise. But something about the older Mikuru's... Well, it wasn't just her body (though, that didn't hurt), or the fact that she still acted enough like her younger self that he could recognize her (though, that didn't hurt, either), or the fact that she'd asked specifically to see a picture of her younger self practically naked (that last one had really thrown him for a loop). Something about how much better she seemed to know him, though...

When he finally came back to his senses, standing next to the table, Yuki was standing before him, gazing up curiously into his eyes.

"U...um," he managed, jerking himself to stand up straight, one hand going to the back of his neck reflexively. "Er... Hello, Nagato."

"A kiss," she remarked. "Asahina Mikuru's time divergent alternate appears to possess great skill at this."

"Y...yeah," he agreed, sighing. "Huh, I wonder how she got so good at it?" Though he realized that was a stupid question the moment he asked it. For all he knew, the younger Mikuru was just as good at it; he hadn't tried, so he wouldn't know. The secondary realization that he probably shouldn't casually discuss this with Yuki came up next.

He looked at her, worried he might have irritated her, but her expression hadn't changed much, save to look slightly ... amused? Was her sense of humor still developing? "That information is classified," she answered.

"R...right," he allowed, chuckling. Something _else_ he was better off not thinking about. "Um, anyway, sorry to bother you; I actually came to ask you if you would mind terribly coming with Tsuruya-kun and I for a meeting tonight. It has to do with those ... fellows we fought last time. Will you come with us?"

She nodded before she reached one hand up with slow deliberation, her fingers pinching the fabric of his lapel and tugging on it gently. He started, reminded of the timid nature of her alternate self ... was that ... maybe ... a real part of her?

"Am I ... cute?" she asked, her eyes unwavering as they fixed on his.

"Er, yeah, I think so," he agreed quickly, feeling his face warm up as he nodded vigorously. "Um... But why do you ask?" Maybe girls just liked to hear that from time to time...?

Her fingertips released his lapel and traced across his coat, to his sleeve, only stopping when she was touching his PDA. Her head tilted back slightly, and she suddenly looked very expectant. "D...do you want ... me to kiss you?" he asked, suddenly realizing what she might be after.

Again, her tiny nod.

Well, he thought, as long as Haruhi didn't choose _that_ moment to kick the door open... He leaned forward and kissed Yuki, marveling in the contact. He didn't really want to try and compare it directly to Mikuru's older self, and her kiss, but it was unavoidable. They were different, but he knew immediately that labeling one 'better' would be a mistake.

Where Mikuru's older self conveyed a strange, electrifying ... _something_ he couldn't quite name, Yuki's gentle kiss, waiting until he pressed against her to reciprocate... They were matched, and the part he knew was going to damn him to that special hell he was dreading was that he thought it was at the same level as Haruhi's own mutually awkward and somewhat rough, but genuine kiss.

Eventually, he managed to break the contact, his breath short. Yuki blinked up at him, her eyes warm, and he gave her a smile, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face. "Eight minutes remain before the next period," she noted, before he could speak. "Your lunch is waiting."

He staggered back a half step, eyes widening. He'd completely forgotten! He'd just abandoned Kunikida and his lunch to chat with Tsuruya, before ... distractions had come up. "Sorry!" he yelped, scrambling over his chair and out of the room.

* * *

The plan wasn't perfect, but it would get things done. Strangely, that felt true of a lot of her projects lately, though. For whatever reason, she felt that her ability to make her goals happen had just been _limited_ somehow. Well, that was fine, in the grand scheme of things. She couldn't help but think that meant lately everything she'd achieved had been genuinely _earned_, not just given to her because she wanted it.

She couldn't imagine that she'd make a good role model if her defining attribute was that she was just handed what she wanted.

So, even though Yuki and Tsuruya weren't going to be there, Haruhi was going to have a chance to talk to Kanae ... about Kyon. Though, when she stopped to think about it, things would probably be much easier for the smaller girl with fewer people around. She did seem to get nervous and embarrassed easily.

That all aside, she still felt entitled to a personal morale boost, especially since she hadn't gotten a minute alone with Kyon since the hospital. Even though she had walked home with him after school, there were really too many witnesses around...

She'd let Mikuru and Koizumi know that club was canceled for the day, and when Kyon finished putting his own things in his bag, she struck. Martial skill or not, she was able to seize his tie and give a sharp tug, spinning on one heel to charge to her favorite quiet corner of the school.

"Not again," he managed, prompting an amused titter from the surrounding classmates before he fell into step behind her, preventing the tie from becoming taut in her hands until she stopped, intentionally forcing him to a halt on the step below the final landing.

Their faces were level, so before he could say anything else, she tugged sharply on his tie, leaning close to him. "I didn't get a chance to do this since you were in the hospital," she announced, pulling him close. She'd been aiming for a tender kiss, but her haste left her feeling a bit awkward as she clumsily mashed her lips against his.

He pulled the slightest distance away from her and then abruptly kissed her back. She had the strangest feeling that, for whatever reason, he was _much_ better at it than she was. When the kiss finally broke, she was embarrassed to be leaning against him heavily, almost panting for breath. Well, that was better than most of her dreams of kissing him, that much was certain. Plus, she had to admit, the idea of sneaking around, doing such a thing at school... It was a bit of a cliche, but the prospect of possibly being caught was kind of exciting.

He was straining for breath, too, until she remembered to release his tie. Maybe she shouldn't do that so much, she realized. While he adjusted his tie, she pulled her handkerchief from her pocket and hurriedly wiped her lips. "S...so," she managed, her face warm, and still feeling lightheaded, "um..."

"Forgot what you were going to say?" he asked smugly, smirking at her.

She stared at him, her mouth dropping open in surprise at the realization that she _had_, before she abruptly remembered. "Don't take that superior attitude!" she protested. "Really! You can only stun me for a few rounds, at best!"

"You know, sometimes you can be really cute," he remarked.

Why did he have to make this all so difficult, part of her wanted to despair, while the rest of her wanted to glomp onto him and see if the next kiss would be just as-

She coughed, trying to shoot him a sharp look, completely ruined by her blush. "Sometimes you can be kind of cute yourself," she muttered. "A...anyway, we both have important things to take care of today, but..." She took a deep breath and forced herself to meet his eyes. "I just wanted to ... let you know that I was really worried when you got hurt. And, um, that I care about you, so..."

She steeled himself for his snarky retort, but in response, after shifting his feet, he cupped her cheek in one hand and gave her a small, earnest smile. "Thank you, Haruhi," he said with grave solemnity. "I don't know what I've done to deserve it, but I appreciate that. And you know that I care about you, too."

Obviously she _did_ know, but an occasional reminder went a long way. "Good," she managed, barely more than a breath. More loudly, raising a hand to trace her fingertips across Kyon's, she added, "Just ... make sure you care about the rest of ... um ... the brigade, too. It seems they're the ones who need your help more than I do, really."

"I can do that," he agreed, lowering his hand back to his side.

She hesitated, realizing she could clarify... When she thought about it, though, maybe it would be too much pressure for Kyon. She just needed to make sure that he didn't fall for her so hard that he forgot about the others. Perhaps at some point she could ask him when he'd gotten so good at kissing...

"A...anyway, Tsuruya-san is waiting for you," she said, nervously smoothing out her skirt. "You've got a bunch of nifty power-ups, so I expect a dramatic report afterwards! You'd better take good care of her and Yuki-chan - and you will be in _so_ much trouble if you get hurt! I'm warning, you, don't you _dare_!"

He chuckled, saluting her before dashing down the stairs. She took an additional minute to fan her face before shaking her head and marching towards the clubroom, where Kanae would be waiting. She reached the clubhouse corridor in time to see Kanae standing before the door, the president of the computer research society standing opposite her, chatting about something.

As she came into range, she caught him explaining, "...which we hope will beat the previous year's game in popularity. Anyway, these days it seems your club president has some sway with the student council, so if you could, put in a good word for us, and see if we can get a good location for our booth?"

Kanae's blink at the club president suggested that she followed about half of what he had said. The slider gave him a hesitant nod, smiling uncertainly. "Um, hello, Suzumiya-san," she said, brightening and waving to Haruhi as she padded up behind the computer club president. "I think that ... um ... shoot, what's your name again?"

Looking only mildly affronted, the computer club president smiled, stepping to one side and adjusting the tie of his non-uniform suit. "My name is Ya-" The rest was cut off with the resounding crash of a member of the calligraphy club accidentally dropping a double armload of easels across the floor, where they clattered noisily until the president was finished.

Much to her embarrassment, Haruhi couldn't remember his name, either, now that Kanae had brought it up. Rather than address the issue, she decided to step around it, asking, "So, what's this you're trying for?"

"Ah, it's not important," the man sighed, running one hand through his hair. "Just making conversation. I won't even be here for this year's cultural festival; classes for college will begin soon, so..." He shrugged, offering an awkward smile.

"I get it," Haruhi allowed, giving him a firm nod. "Well, your underlings _are_ beholden to the SOS Brigade, since we beat them in that fight; I guess with you gone, I'm somewhat obligated to look after them, aren't I? Alright, Prez, I'll see what I can do. Just make sure that your minions know that we're looking out for them!"

The man looked at her askance, raising one eyebrow, then shook his head. "Very well," he agreed. "I'll let you get to ... your business, then." Chuckling to himself, he nodded at Kanae before heading into his own clubroom.

"What's going on today, Suzumiya-san?" Kanae asked, opening the door to the clubroom, then blinking when she saw it was empty. "Where's everyone else...?"

"Kyon, Yuki-chan, and Tsuruya-san are on a mission," she said, trying to sound offhanded. She couldn't keep the edge of pride from her voice, though; it was awesome to be able to say that and have it be the truth. Sure, she could have _claimed_ that any time she sent Kyon out to do her bidding it was a mission for the brigade, but actually fighting legitimate bad guys...

"Oh... What about Koizumi-san and Asahina-san?" Kanae asked curiously, setting her bag on the table and pulling out the sketchbook she always seemed to be doodling on.

Closing the door, Haruhi contemplated soundproofing the brigade room. Doing it the traditional way, with insulating foam or the like would be expensive, Kyon would doubtlessly complain that it broke school rules, and it would end up looking pretty ugly. Add in the fact that it wouldn't really help much with the door anyway... But even Kyon would probably agree that using her powers - with Yuki's help - would let them discuss things without so much risk of being overheard.

Even if the computer research society was a secondary branch of her own club, they weren't part of the critical inner circle.

Damn, she realized, she was spacing again! Why was Kyon such a good kisser? She needed to find that out at some point ... somehow... "I sent them away," Haruhi said, turning around to face Kanae, who was already absorbed in drawing.

"Hmm?" Kanae looked up from her sketchbook and blinked in confusion. "But, why?" she asked.

"I told you I wanted to talk to you this morning, remember?" she asked, taking Kyon's usual seat, which happened to be directly across from the slider.

"Oh, right! I just thought ... it would be a club thing," Kanae replied, ducking her head slightly in embarrassment.

"Well, it's not really about the club - it's about you and Kyon."

"S...Sempai?" Kanae asked worriedly, flipping her sketchbook shut.

Something else to investigate, Haruhi mused. What did the slider draw, anyway? Was she any good at it? Deciding that was a matter for another time, she folded her hands together, setting them on the table before her. "I need to ask you some questions to confirm my suspicions," she explained, "so, I'm sorry for that, but trust me when I say that my goal is to help make you happy."

Kanae looked puzzled. "This is about ... the anchor keeping me here right now?" she asked cautiously. "Um, w...well, at first I was really afraid, but it seems that thanks to that, I'm actually getting a lot of _really_ good practice."

"I'm glad to hear that, but no... Anyway, I have a suspicion, here. Kanae-chan, you really like Kyon, don't you?"

The little girl blushed darkly with wide eyes. Haruhi judged her to be at nearly Mikuru's full moe capacity, even though she had an entirely different type of appeal. She was tempted to drag the slider across the table and hug her - but she restrained herself. She'd consoled Kanae after their last dramatic discussion, after all. "Um, Sempai is ... really dependable," Kanae managed, smiling weakly. "S...so, yes, of course!"

Haruhi leaned forward, raising her eyebrows. "You know what I mean by 'like', right?" she asked. "This isn't your innocent, 'do you think he's a good friend' question. This is the serious, 'would you date him if you could' question."

Kanae's mouth dropped open, and she frantically waved both hands in front of her, her face turning positively crimson. "N...no, I'm not trying to take Sempai away from you! I know he's yours!"

"Don't try to hide it," Haruhi sighed, raising one hand to rest her cheek on her palm. Did she really present such a terrifying visage? In all those other worlds, was Kanae always confronted with a jealous, self-centered Haruhi? She hoped the slider was just overcautious and paranoid, until she considered the thought, and what it implied.

Ugh ... she decided she was better off ignoring that and focusing on other things. "Look," she said sternly, "I don't really doubt my ability to judge most people, and it seems to me you've hinted that you really like Kyon - a lot. Now, you're not in any trouble if you do like him, but you've got to admit it to yourself, first."

"U...um... Are you going to make me ... like Asahina-san ... try?" Kanae asked, looking worried.

"I hope I don't have to get too much better at this speech," Haruhi mused to herself, trying not to chuckle. Kanae needed to be reassured, not unsettled. "Okay, listen, there may be a way, if you want to try and really make this place your home, even if only temporarily."

Kanae gaped, then looked away, her face still glowing. "Um... Well, even if I could ... just temporarily..." After taking a breath to steel herself, she blurted out, "The world where Sempai was dating me was my favorite!"

Suddenly, Haruhi was glad that she'd dragged Kyon off to a distant corner of the school for that kiss before the discussion. Then again ... how badly must it have hurt for Kanae to run from the boy she cared for most, believing it was the only way to save him from her enemies?

"E...even if it's only happened one time in all of the worlds I've been to," Kanae managed, bowing her head and staring at the table before her. "Y...you almost always have him, so..."

"Feels too neat and unearned," Haruhi judged. "Anyway, maybe this time will be the time that sticks, right?"

"I don't understand," Kanae admitted, smiling apologetically.

"What if Kyon can date more than one person?" Haruhi posed. "What if, by being very clever - Kyon is a bit slow to catch these things, you know - a few girls who all liked Kyon and each other well enough to share him decided to do just that?"

"B...but," Kanae sputtered, shaking her head in disbelief. "I... If that was a way for me to, um, be with Sempai..."

"It _is_!" Haruhi insisted. "Now, remember - Kyon doesn't know this part yet, so don't let this slip to him, or it will be a penalty! Anyway, as I learned from a very wise shrine maiden in Hinamizawa..."

* * *

Though she tried to hide it, Tsuruya was nervous about meeting members of the Sumiyoshi-rengo for their apology. She wore the same smile she almost always used, and sat at Kyon's side in the back of the limousine headed towards the meeting site. It was a warehouse owned by her father, not far from the harbor; the location had been chosen at the last possible moment, to prevent their enemies from preparing a trap.

They could have chosen a less neutral location, like her father's tower, or any of his other establishments downtown, but the seeming impartiality of the setting was meant to ensure that any good-faith apology that was given was received the same way. They had changed for the meeting, Yuki once again in her 'delinquent mode' outfit by her own request (which made sense; she wasn't a member of the Tsuruya's syndicate), Kyon in the standard dark blue suit and his greatcoat, and Tsuruya herself in her traditional formal kimono.

She'd had enough time to explain how the meeting was supposed to go, and then had sat silently by Kyon's side while watching the first disc of the Trope-tan anime, since he had mentioned he was unfamiliar with it. She knew that time could have been spent more productively, even just doing homework, or maybe trying to engage Yuki in a discussion about poetry.

Even better, since she had permission from Haruhi, she could have tried to explain to Kyon that she liked him - she had a vast library of anime with suggestions as to how a confession should go. She wasn't terribly confident in them, though. It seemed the real world would be more complicated than that, somehow. Yuki was on the same page, naturally, so it shouldn't have been a problem...

But the best she managed was to lean against him after the first episode. It was the curse of her upbringing, she supposed... She was from a wealthy family, had been trained in the family business, and was raised to do all the proper cultured things she should: memorize poetry, learn classic calligraphy, maintain a positive disposition to ensure that those around her were cheered by her...

She really didn't know much about making friends, though. Luckily, when she had first met Asahina Mikuru, the time traveler (though, Tsuruya hadn't known _that_ at the time) was just as clueless, and didn't realize that Tsuruya was stumbling through their awkward introduction, and eventual study sessions. Embarrassingly, Mikuru had adapted very quickly, fitting in with the other students except for her striking appearance ... but thankfully, she had still wanted to be friends with Tsuruya.

And when she stopped to think about it, she owed Mikuru _again_ for introducing her to Haruhi's club. Without that, she wouldn't have had Haruhi and the rest of the brigade as friends - and she wouldn't have had Kyon to rescue her from being overwhelmed. Not just once, but three times already ... and while it wasn't quite a rescue, if it weren't for him, she never would have been able to secure the alliance with the Sonozaki-gumi in Hinamizawa, either.

Those thoughts in her head, she said nothing, just enjoying what closeness she had, and the fact that Kyon - at least - didn't seem to mind. It wouldn't have hurt if he'd given some positive response to that picture she'd sent him a while ago, though... That would have been nice.

She was roused from her apathetic inattention when Kyon shifted, and she realized she was leaning on him again in the back of the limousine. But he wasn't trying to push her away; instead he was leaning forward, peering out the windows as the vehicle slowed to a halt. "Is it here?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, more cheerily than she really felt. The driver opened her door to let her out, and she stepped onto the street and looked around. Kyon slipped out next to her, scanning the surroundings warily, and Yuki moved to his side, turning to gaze at something in the shadows and fixing her vision there.

They had waited until after sunset, and in the quiet road between dark warehouses, she could see her father's limousine, as well. The man himself was standing near the edge of the pool of light shed by an overhead lamp, the glowing tip of his cigar bobbing about as he relayed instructions to a small group of his retainers. Kasai and Mori were with him, more clearly illuminated, and though the woman looked very uncomfortable, Kasai was wearing his neutral 'ready for a fight' expression.

Other than occasional streetlights to illuminate the routes between warehouses, the area seemed abandoned. When Tsuruya looked in the direction that Yuki was staring, she saw nothing but an old van, looking abandoned with one tire missing, propped up on cinder blocks. Kyon shifted his shoulders, flicking his greatcoat flat from where it had gotten wrinkled in the car, then double-checking the Tsuruya organization pin on his collar.

"Is thats warm?" she asked, wondering if he could see her face in the dark.

"A bit," he admitted. "But it's cooler here, close to the sea, so it's not too bad."

Yuki pursed her lips and turned back to study Kyon.

"Alright," Tsuruya said, shaking her head. "We should go wait with my father."

He nodded, moving around so that Yuki was on one side of her, and he was on the other. She wondered briefly if any of his training had covered proper bodyguard practices, or if he were just intuitive. Either way, her nervousness was soothed by his calm demeanor.

She stopped a few steps from her father as he finished giving orders, and his men bowed before melting into the darkness. He puffed on his cigar, then flicked the glowing red tip completely off, stamping it out before speaking. "Daughter, Kyon-kun, and..." He squinted at Yuki. "Hum. We haven't met; who's this one?"

Tsuruya giggled guiltily. "This is Nagato Yuki," she introduced the impassive girl. "Um, she's Kyon-kun's subordinate." A minor deception ... but technically true! She was his subordinate in the brigade, right?

"Oh?" Tsuruya's father mused, eyeing the small figure in the darkness. "Accountant?"

Yuki blinked once, then said, "If required."

"Er, Nagato is ... our," Kyon began, before he paused thoughtfully for a moment, then said settled on, "wakagashira." Tsuruya felt her smile widen a tiny bit. The rank of 'first lieutenant' was almost equal to the rank she had given Kyon, and was logically the next role she should have filled.

Yuki nodded silently.

Tsuruya's father smiled back, teeth gleaming in the dimness of the shadow. "I won't ever says that it's bad to have women in your group," he said reassuringly. "You are, after all, my heir! So, Nagato-kun, I trust Kyon-kun and my daughter's judgment. I senses that great power hides within that tiny figure!" He broke into booming laughter, echoing off the nearby warehouse fronts, Tsuruya and Kyon joining in, though Tsuruya knew that in Kyon's case it was because of how right her father was, without really knowing the half of it.

Mori pursed her lips and looked vaguely amused herself, but said nothing, only Kasai and Yuki maintaining stoic, unflinching demeanors.

"Thank you," Yuki allowed, once the laughter had stopped.

A pair of headlights beamed from one of the roads between two distant headlights, a compact vehicle slowly rolling into sight before stopping, a short distance from the pair of parked limousines. Tsuruya couldn't help but tense. Kyon either sensed it, or was already on the alert himself, shifting forward a handful of steps so that he blocked a clear shot towards her ... if their enemies were that bold.

Yuki stood loosely between Tsuruya and her father. Mori closed her eyes and took a breath, her expression shifting in a heartbeat to a no-nonsense business woman with an unsmiling expression. Kasai tilted his head first to one side, and then the other, cracking it twice, loudly.

The smaller car's headlights shut off, and the doors opened, a quartet of members of the Sumiyoshi-rengo emerging. Tsuruya couldn't really make out the model or color in the lighting, but she noted that Fujiya Masao himself had been driving. The man shifted his shoulders and led his small group to the opposite side of the pool of light from Tsuruya's father.

Stopping right on the edge of the shadow, Iyouji to one side, his two enforcers behind them, Masao first stood perfectly straight, and then bowed. Politely, though it still sounded like he was speaking through clenched teeth, he began, "Fujiya Masao of the Sumiyoshi-rengo greets the Tsuruya-tachi of the Yamaguchi-gumi."

"Hum," Tsuruya's father responded, taking a moment to make a show of lighting a new cigar. The tip glowed bright red when he drew on it, then puffed a trio of smoke rings into the light. "Sos ... for tonight, let us drop the formalities due to the severity of this situation."

Masao nodded, barely visible in the darkness. "As you wish," he allowed. "In that case, I am here to apologize for the indiscretion of one we no longer consider a member of our branch."

"Watanabe Daichi is no longer considered a part of the Fujiya-tachi?" Mori asked. That would have been a breach of protocol, Tsuruya knew, but her father had already called the formalities off.

Masao took a step further into the light, peering across the meters between the groups to see her better. In response, Mori stepped into the light herself, giving him an unnerving smile.

Iyouji allowed a squeak of alarm to escape from where he was standing, and Tsuruya couldn't blame him. Coughing slightly, Masao looked away, clarifying, "Watanabe Daichi has acted against the better interests of the Fujiya-tachi. I no longer wish to have anything to do with him."

"Howevers," Tsuruya said softly, knowing her voice carried well anyway, "he remains a member of the Sumiyoshi-rengo?"

"As they say, that's a matter beyond me," Masao replied, shrugging. "In that regard, while Watanabe and myself are both members of the Sumiyoshi-rengo, what he's done doesn't represent the Fujiya-tachi. We are, in truth, petty criminals, at best. As you can probably already guess, gun smuggling is not something that my group touches. Too high risk; we're more comfortable operating below the NPA radar. While I don't intend to presume, our operations should not typically conflict with your own."

That much was true. The Tsuruya-tachi tended to deal with higher levels of crime on the whole, which was the main reason two different groups operated in the same city. It wasn't that any part of the Yamaguchi-gumi was too weak to oust the Sumiyoshi-rengo, as much as it wasn't worth the bother. From what Tsuruya herself knew, the lower level antics served to occupy the police, and generally made the Tsuruya-tachi look better in comparison.

Her father wasn't about to let anything slip, though. For all of Masao's speech, there was no reason to spit out something incriminating. "However that goes," he rumbled, "before your apology, I have a question."

"If I can answer such honorably," Masao allowed.

Another brightening of the cigar's cherry, and a ring of smoke behind Mori, briefly giving her an eerie halo of smoke before it passed over her head and dissipated. "You know where these guns came from," her father pronounced. "I am curious to knows that as well? Strangely ... I haven't heard of any smuggling operations of that scale within our own city. And, really, consecutives serial numbers..."

Masao stiffened, then shook his head. "I can't answer that," he said, looking away. "I hope it's enough that you have our apology, and the understanding it wasn't intentional on our part. Even though we regret this incident, and the trouble between our organizations, I cannot be expected to betray my brothers."

Tsuruya's father snorted, almost laughing. "Fair," he allowed. "I'd think less of you if you betrayed your superiors so easily! Anyways ... that's my questions. On to your apology, then."

Masao's expression flickered briefly, a scowl crossing his features before he schooled it and cleared his throat. "Thank you for your graciousness in hearing us out, Tsuruya-sama."

"It's not me, though," the man rumbled. "Thanks my daughter."

"And in turn," she added, pleased that her voice didn't shake at all, "it was because of respect for Kyon-kun and Kasai." That last part was hastily tacked on, she admitted ... but it _was_ disrespectful to the larger man to accept a formal apology for Kyon being shot while dismissing the week and a half Kasai had spent in a hospital.

"In that case," Masao said, wincing, "it becomes sadly clear that as an oyabun, I am only equal in rank to Kowa-Keigo Kyon and Kowa-Keigo Kasai."

At her side, Kyon barely stifled a snort, and a glimmer of amusement flickered across Kasai's usually implacable face, too. She wasn't certain if it was because of the alliteration, or the formalized 'terrifying guardian' title that the two had earned ... a respectful title and a nickname at the same time? Then again, the Sumiyoshi-rengo had no idea what his actual name was.

"So, Kowa-Keigo of the Haru-tachi, I apologize. The incident was never intended by myself or my organization, save one individual we no longer call brother," Masao managed, following with the stiffly formal ninety degree bow.

"I hold no further grudge," Kasai said politely, nodding. "Ultimately, blood paid for blood, and Tsuruya-san was protected throughout."

"I also hold no further grudge," Kyon added, taking his cue from the larger man. "As politely as such can be said, I hope our paths do not cross again."

"Well spoken," Masao said, dourly, adjusting his suit jacket as he straightened. "If we are done, then...?"

"Done," Tsuruya's father agreed. The four members of the Sumiyoshi-rengo slunk back to their car, and it started up, turning around and driving away with the quiet crunch of loose gravel before speeding out of sight.

"Well," the large man mused, cutting his cigar short and stowing the stub in his jacket. "That went well enough. Kyon-kun, you and your family are coming to a formal dinners with me and my daughter on Thursday. I'll see you there; don't get shot again before then."

"I will do my best, Tsuruya-sama," Kyon allowed, bowing. Tsuruya's father chuckled, striding to his car without any further words. Mori and Kasai moved with him, as a number of other dark-suited members of her father's personal group melted from the shadows, bowing to her wordlessly.

"Come on, Kyon-kun, Nagato-chi," Tsuruya called, leading the pair to her own limousine. Once they were inside, and her driver was on the way back home, she let herself relax slightly, wishing she could lean against Kyon again, like when they were watching the anime earlier.

"That went really, really smoothly. Kind of surprising, really. You alright?" he asked, looking at her with a small, concerned smile.

"Yeah," she managed. "I was just nervous..." It suddenly occurred to her that once, Kyon had done more than let her lean against him. "Will you put your arm around me again?"

He started slightly, and seemed about to speak ... but then shrugged. "You were there for me," he agreed, putting one arm around her shoulders, just like he had the night they had invaded Masao's headquarters. He gave her a slight, reassuring squeeze, and she felt herself grinning. "The least I can do is be there for you, too."

She giggled, then asked, "Promise?"

"Of course!" he said, somewhat indignantly. "Even if you weren't my friend, Haruhi would be furious if I didn't!"

"Yes," Yuki agreed from Kyon's other side, tipping her hat back and blinking.

"Anyway, I, for one, am just glad this whole thing is over," he said resolutely.

"Mmm, want to stay with me tonight?" Tsuruya asked coyly, after mustering her courage.

"Uh ... I ... have an errand to attend," he admitted, looking abashed. "I'm supposed to be going back in time tonight."

"Too bad~! But I guess that's a good things; all the loose ends wrapped up!" And it wasn't like she could really complain about what time she got to spend with his arm around her shoulder.

He nodded his agreement.


	26. Chapter 25

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Initial Conflict Arc II

Chapter Twenty Five: Sequences

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"File K:3453.3.1/2011.4.17"_

_"I probably raised more questions than answers. Maybe that's for the best, though? An inquisitive mind is a prepared mind, and that's desirable ... I think... But, saying that, I have the impression that he understands the situation better than I do, ultimately. Why would that be?"_

_"[CLASSIFIED]" - Peraea Mons T.E.S.A. Dataplume_

* * *

From the safety of her borrowed office, Akasaka Miyuki studied the growing stacks of paperwork she'd collected. Her operatives - handpicked NPA agents, naturally, since she wasn't certain how far the police corruption went - had done well. It wasn't much of a lead, and she'd really hoped it would lead directly to Kyon more quickly, so she could see how everything had tied together...

But instead, she'd put a tail on the Tamaru brothers. They had split up, but Yutaka had gone to an outdoor cafe downtown to meet a woman, where there was too much noise to try and overhear. That woman was an interesting anomaly, as well. Some time about four years in the past, she had abruptly quit her job and begun to travel. Her trail had become increasingly sporadic as time went on, and she got better at covering her tracks.

Not that files on her didn't exist. Sonou Mori, a graduate of Kyoto University, then working as an intern at a law firm in Kyoto before her sudden departure into the unknown. There weren't any open cases on her, surprisingly, but that behavior stuck out more than enough for Miyuki, especially when she was meeting with one of the officers that Miyuki was _certain_ was corrupt.

So a tail had been put on her, as well. Mori's driver, a still-unidentified older gentleman, was able to lose the tail, making the effort somewhat moot - until watchers trying to observe the Tsuruya family caught a glimpse of her joining the family head and some of his advisors on the way to a clandestine meeting.

From the Tamaru brothers, to Mori, to the Tsuruya family head - the chain was clear enough. Miyuki wasn't satisfied with the idea of exposing it yet, though. It was just too needlessly complex; the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi were not stupid, they wouldn't set up extra steps in a chain of command if they didn't need to. And they wouldn't allow something as obvious as bribery to link _directly_ to a family head. Some convenient underling would meet directly with the corrupt officers for the payoffs, leaving the patriarch's hands ostensibly clean.

Even without her direct instructions, the field agents thought that Mori and the Tsuruya patriarch together were worth monitoring. Though it came with a melodramatic account of the agent in question belly-crawling beneath an abandoned van to get a good angle for the shotgun microphone and camera, their efforts were rewarded. Aside from the grainy, almost impossible to see video, there was incredibly clear audio.

And even then, there was a single very good shot of Mori stepping into a pool of light, so that much was confirmed.

The audio was significantly less incriminating than she would have liked ... but it did point out that 'Kyon' was there, and named another associate, the previously unknown 'Nagato Yuki'.

Still... Given her dual agendas of exposing the gun smuggling operation and investigating police corruption, all of her evidence at the moment helped the latter more than the former.

Although ... if she had this Fujiya Masao character arrested, he'd admitted he _did_ know who the supplier of the weapons was. Another branch of the Sumiyoshi-rengo, but if he could be brought in on other pretenses, that information might let him plea-bargain his way out. It would be very difficult to persuade him to turn against his organization, but it would be possible. If she arranged for the Tamaru brothers to make the arrest, that might work even better.

There was the nagging possibility that this could spark violent conflict between the Sumiyoshi-rengo and the Yamaguchi-gumi, however. Normally, she wouldn't really be concerned about boryokudan groups fighting one-another, but there were, well, basically _children_ involved. It wouldn't do to end up getting Kyon injured or worse before she could find out what strange conspiracy he was involved in.

Her fingertips drummed the stack of papers she was using as a mouse pad thoughtfully. She couldn't really afford to reveal what she learned. If it got back to the Tamaru brothers, they would undoubtedly inform Mori - and once they were aware that Miyuki was trying to find them, they would become much more cautious.

Solving the gun smuggling operation was still going to be the best option, because then she could at least make it look like that was the only concern of her investigation. Straightening, she decided she had the answer.

It would take time to set up, but all she really needed was for Fujiya Masao or his underlings to make a mistake. And that, she was confident, would not take long. Since he was already in custody, she decided that she would start with Watanabe Daichi. And while the Tamaru brothers were busy trying to expose the gun smuggling operation, her NPA operatives would double-check their recent investigative records. They were, after all, the same officers who responded to Kyon's first ... altercation with Yamane Jun.

She smiled softly. "If it were _easy_, it wouldn't really be fun, now, would it?" she mused.

* * *

After changing back into his school uniform, as he didn't think to bring a spare change of clothes, Kyon left Tsuruya and Yuki at the palatial estate, confident that the time traveler he was seeking would know where to find him. Sure enough, a block and a half away, wandering in the general direction of his own home, he heard the cautious footsteps of Mikuru's older self approaching from a side-street. He stopped beneath a streetlight and nodded at her wordlessly.

In response, she gave him an incredibly bright smile, waving for him to follow her. Still thinking of the day he'd had so far, he rummaged through his pockets until he found the incredibly worn note he'd sent himself originally. "I don't think I've ever put anything off as long as this," he mused.

"Perhaps summer vacation homework?" Mikuru asked, still smiling.

"I suppose," he sighed, shaking his head. "I need to write myself the original note I'll be leaving with Haruhi." He had blank paper in his schoolbag, but the envelope and sticker would be different matters.

Mikuru nodded, gesturing down the street, where a corner market glowed in the late evening darkness.

"Of course," he allowed, smirking. She followed him quietly as he stepped into the store, finding an envelope of the proper size, and a package of stickers with one of the dour looking cats that he vaguely remembered from opening the original note. He could give the extra stickers to his sister.

The clerk mumbled through the exchange, his eyes constantly going to the woman at Kyon's side. Kyon was mildly tempted to grumble about it, but let it slide; if she hadn't worked so hard on acclimating him to her presence, he'd be pretty stunned, too.

After getting everything, he hastily scrawled the same notes to his past self that he had received, and sealed it up in the envelope, putting everything extra into his schoolbag. "Right," he said, nodding. "Now ... back to that Sunday?"

Mikuru checked her watch and nodded. "If you don't mind?" she asked, reaching a hand out to him.

He glanced around - they were alone on the street again - then took her hand, closing his eyes. He felt that same disconcerting sensation, and when he opened his eyes, it was bright daylight, the pair of them standing in a park. A heartbeat later, a pair of children burst through a pair of hedges in their game of tag, oblivious to the older pair.

Fighting back his instinct to check the sun's position in the sky, Kyon turned his attention to his wristwatch. "Okay," he said, frowning. "By my notes ... we're about two and a half hours early."

"Our past selves are speaking with Ha- Suzumiya-san right now," Mikuru agreed. "I thought it might be nice to chat for a bit. Or, if you haven't eaten yet, perhaps we have time for that? I'd love to treat you, somewhere..." She giggled, shrugging apologetically. "But I haven't any money, right now."

Thinking back to that long ago present day, Kyon narrowed his eyes. "You wanted your younger self to avoid the cafe we usually go to, so that you'd know where you could go without running into her. That's why she was spaced out ... you were giving her instructions to avoid it - right?" he asked.

Mikuru blushed and looked away. "I couldn't have known that when I was her," she said, sounding apologetic. "But, as my younger self, I _did_ get the instructions to avoid our usual cafe. I still don't really know the why, but I gave the same instructions I received; if we don't go, then it becomes an entirely frivolous order. I'll never know if it was important or not."

He frowned, mulling over the situation. While Mikuru's younger self insisted (and Haruhi agreed) that he was 'good at time travel', he would be astounded if Mikuru's older self didn't have a significantly improved understanding of it. "That may be true," he allowed. "Now I'm trying to figure out where the instruction originated from. What caused you to send that message back?"

"Actually," she allowed, giggling, "I haven't yet. Even though it's been received, I decided I wanted to see what happened to make me send the instruction before I sent it. I worry about the effect preceding the cause."

"I guess," he sighed. "Well, let's go, then..."

"Okay!" she said brightly, falling into step beside him. "Is something bothering you?"

"Just... It seems to me that, despite it all, you have a very linear view of time," he admitted. "Or maybe I just have a poor understanding, so it seems that way."

"Well, even with the ability to move back and forth through concurrent time planes-" She cut herself off and looked amused. "Actually, Kyon-kun, tell me ... how do you view time, if not in a linear fashion?"

"I try not to think about it too hard, really," he said absently, scanning through his notes to himself before pocketing the worn paper. "I mean, for the most part, it's just kind of a ... I don't know ... a great ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey ... stuff." He shrugged. "It works, right? For all the credit your younger self gives me on 'understanding' this..." He trailed off again, realizing that for whatever reason, Mikuru looked pale and was wobbling slightly. "Ah, Asahina-san? Sorry - was that too much? I don't mean to disrespect what you've learned, or anything-"

"N...no, no," she said, forcing a smile, though she still seemed partially dazed. "That, um, was a very profound thing you just said."

He wasn't sure that was true, but decided to leave well enough alone. "Well, the cafe, then?" he asked.

"Y...yes," she agreed. "Um. You know... Ah, I shouldn't say anything else... You're so clever, I might give away something I shouldn't!"

He scratched the back of his neck and chuckled. "You're trying to flatter me," he accused, grinning.

"Not hard enough, it seems," she returned.

He was about to say something in reply as they crossed the street, approaching the cafe near the train station, when a familiar voice called out, "Is that Kyon?"

Looking up from Mikuru, he blinked, shaken to see someone he had been trying very hard not to think about at all.

* * *

While she wasn't one who would consider herself given to melancholy, even Sasaki could admit that life frequently became dull. She didn't let the lack of interesting things slow her down; where the events of the world tended towards the static and immutable, there were still interesting people. Take, for instance her new friends.

She'd only met them recently, and they all seemed to have ulterior motives, but she doubted they meant ill, in any case, regardless of behavior.

First was the bubbly and cheerful Kyouko, though the girl was prone to occasional, surprisingly bitter mood swings. There was a riddle there, and Sasaki was good at learning people. She couldn't read them instantly, but she was analytical, so once she gathered enough information on someone, she could deduce almost everything about them. In the meantime, while waiting to learn enough to understand Kyouko, the other girl was generally friendly, managing to steer clear of most of her angry episodes, or quell them quickly when they arose.

Then there was Suou Kuyou, who spoke very rarely. Her expression rarely changed at all, except - eerily - to mimic Kyouko or Sasaki herself. Obviously she must be intelligent, and probably fairly well off, as she went to Kouyouen academy. Very interesting, and a bigger mystery, but also a more difficult one to learn, as rarely as she communicated.

Finally there was - well, he was insisting he use the alias 'Fujiwara' for the time being. That was odd, too ... she wondered what it said about her that her friends were such strange people, but they were interesting, and considering the known bounds of the world, it was worth investigating. They all had their own stories - bits of nonsense that they said, she assumed to amuse her. Implausible bits of nothing, like Fujiwara's traveling through time, or Kyouko's insistence that Sasaki was a positive influence on reality as a whole.

She knew better than that; she was a positive influence only on people she met and spent time with. Given enough time, she was certain she could help all of her friends - but, really, that was the limit of her positive influence.

Take one of her earliest friends - Kyon, since his own name just seemed too noble for him. He was a clever but lazy daydreamer when they first met. They ended up attending the same cram school and walking together enough that they naturally began to chat. She wished they'd stayed in closer contact once he went on to high school, but that was fine. In the time she knew him he'd slowly changed from an overly energetic fan of espers, aliens - shonen manga stuff, really. But he'd finally learned to give up on that and become more introspective and thoughtful about the surrounding world.

She did worry a bit that things between them had not ended as neatly as, perhaps, they should have... It did not escape her notice what specifically prompted him to quiet down and think about things more, when she looked back...

For a few weeks running, as they talked, he would start the discussion by bringing up yet another impossible thing. Almost always they were plot devices or major powers from characters of the manga he was reading. She had happily deconstructed everything - super human strength, improbably sharp swords, time travel ... the whole list. It was quite fun, and he didn't seem to mind that she had the last word in every discussion.

Which was for the best, really, since she realized most people would become annoyed with constant defeat. He had been quiet for a while, a few days, actually, since his last ditch suggestion about the existence of alternate realities. She conceded she couldn't prove that they didn't exist, but challenged him to provide proof that they did. After a while, he'd dropped it, mulling something else over.

That was when she was absolutely certain he was getting his ideas from manga. He sat quietly in class, his chin propped up with one hand as he rested his elbow on the desk and stared slightly away from her, blankly towards the window. "Setting aside the particulars of gimmicks or the like," he said, almost a sigh, "what about the core premise of a story? There's always the concept that 'with enough will, I can overcome anything', but even that derives from a desire to do something in particular. Maybe it's friendship, or maybe... Well, say what you will about anything else, but what the enduring ideal of love conquering all?"

She'd laughed softly, and cheerfully deconstructed that, too.

And then he hadn't brought anything else up for her to talk about to him anymore, and not long after that, cram school was over, so they didn't spend quite as much time together. Sure, he still listened when she spoke, and he didn't take any measures to avoid her in the slightest. But she wasn't ignorant ... she could read between the lines. Or, more honestly, she couldn't read him, but she'd learned him well enough to deduce what had happened. It would have been impossible to miss the fact that he listened to her, and looked at her, even when she wasn't talking ... but he said nothing, unless she spoke first.

Yet ... by the time she'd found a way to put things into words and try to talk to him again, it was too late. Middle school had ended, and he'd vanished. They weren't going to the same school, either. He'd chosen Kitago, even after he'd asked which school she was going to. So one day in March she called his home, and his younger sister cheerfully told her that he was out seeing a movie with another girl, someone called 'Miyokichi'.

And that was that.

She wouldn't repeat that same mistake and carelessly drive away her new, also interesting friends. Didn't want to deal with more weeks of troubled nights and lost sleep. It bothered her especially that she couldn't find a logical reason for it ... not one that wasn't so condescending to Kyon that she could admit she wasn't being honest to herself, anyway. Something about that still bothered her, and as little as she wanted to admit it, made her feel guilty. Why could she learn other people so well, and still not understand herself, sometimes?

Today, however, fortune smiled upon her. Fujiwara, stepping outside of his usual attitude of 'arrogantly aloof' gruffly insisted that they had to go to the cafe. Kyouko gave him a flat-eyed stare and said he was going to pay for their meals. After grumbling and checking his pockets, the supposed time traveler agreed.

As they were walking down the street, her eyes caught a familiar figure in an unfamiliar coat. The weather seemed too warm for the garment, in her mind, and he was wearing his school uniform beneath it on a weekend, which was somewhat interesting, but the important thing was the fact that the figure was none other than the interesting person she had just been thinking of. "Is that Kyon?" she called out to him, smiling brightly and waving one hand. "It's me, Sasaki!"

"Huh," Fujiwara snorted. "No dolls this time, but-" He cut off abruptly, giving a strange look at the other boy.

Kyon froze on hearing her voice, and Sasaki wondered what it was that made him look on-guard. He wasn't extremely expressive, but he was undoubtedly wary, and she hadn't seen that look on him in a long while... At his side, an extremely attractive young woman in a dark miniskirt and white blouse raised one hand to her mouth, her eyes wide and round with shock. Sasaki closed the distance until she was only a few meters away, Kyouko at her side, and Kuyou behind her. Fujiwara was further to one side, one hand in his pocket.

"Oh, this is convenient," Kyouko remarked, crossing her arms over her chest. "None of those other people around."

Sasaki didn't really know what Kyouko had against Kyon's other friends ... except to think that, maybe, Kyouko had something of a crush on that Itsuki boy. He was pretty enough, but... Well, her opinion on love had already been written out in large letters.

"Sasaki," Kyon allowed, inclining his head a short distance. "I did not expect to run into you, here."

She beamed a smile at him, slightly amused to see the young woman - older than Kyon, though - slide back a step and look on the verge of hiding behind him for cover. "Well, we do come here from time to time," Sasaki said, gesturing to the nearby cafe. "It's conveniently located to the train station! So, who's your friend?" The more she thought about it, the more familiar the older woman seemed. Like she had seen her - or someone _very_ like her - before.

"So, Asahina Mikuru," Fujiwara said, grinning. "Still a slave to your own machinations?"

That was just nonsense, Sasaki decided. Asahina Mikuru was younger, but also one of Kyon's friends. This woman must be a sister - or maybe her mother, with an incredible familial resemblance. Such things happened, after all... Still, she had a hard time seeing what the boy's issue was with this woman. How did they really know one-another, anyway?

"Yes, well," Kyon said dryly, his eyes flicking across Sasaki's friends in turn. She saw anger for Fujiwara, disgust for Kyouko, and wariness for Kuyou. For herself, strangely, she wasn't sure what he felt... What had her friends done to engender such a response from Kyon? Even when he had been excitable, he wasn't given to bearing grudges or getting angry.

"That's ... not any of your business," the woman finally said. "You know well enough what I have to do."

"So you believe," Fujiwara retorted. "I know better."

"Um ... not to be rude, but I don't particularly like being completely excluded from the conversation," Sasaki noted. "If you two have something to discuss, Asahina-san, Fujiwara-kun, then maybe you wouldn't mind if the rest of us went somewhere to talk...?"

"No, no thank you," Asahina (it couldn't really be Mikuru) said quickly, shaking her head and looking at Fujiwara nervously.

Fujiwara spat a curse and glanced around. "Well, you're the wrong one, anyway. In that case," he said, "since the brat and your dolls are missing, I'll go take care of something else ... 'Kyon'. We will meet again."

Turning on his heel and marching away, Fujiwara departed. Sasaki frowned ... that was a bit extreme for him. They were absolutely going to have words about that later. Kyouko sighed, shaking her head. "I suppose I shouldn't think that he's infallible... He said he was certain that Kyon would be with that other friend of yours - what's his name, again?"

"Well, you sure seem to be trying to keep close tabs on me," Kyon remarked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sasaki, forgive me for saying this, but I sometimes wonder at your taste in friends. I still haven't forgotten your last prank, Tachibana."

"I- T...that was an accident," Kyouko grumped, her face reddening. "I was mislead!"

"By the same person you just admitted you shouldn't think was infallible?" Kyon asked.

Despite the situation, Sasaki couldn't help but smile. He'd learned his debating tactics from her, after all. "That all aside," she said, before tensions could escalate, "I'm not clear on what this prank was."

"Just a kidnapping, with unknown intent. Say, what was that chemical that you used, anyway? Was it chloroform? I always wondered where people would get such things."

That wasn't something to joke around with!

"It was ether," Kyouko mumbled, looking away. "From a hospital."

Despite herself, Sasaki raised one hand to her mouth and stared at Kyouko in consternation. "Y...you're serious about that?" she asked. "You ... really tried to kidnap Asahina-san's sister?"

"That is ... classified," the woman decided after a moment, fidgeting nervously with her bracelet.

Shifting her shoulders uncomfortably, Kyouko nodded. "I was talked into it by..." She looked up abruptly and gave Kyon a very hard stare. "I was talked into it, okay? It wasn't... I regret what was done, and I wish I hadn't; really, if that hadn't happened, we might be able to be friends, and there's ... there's quite a lot I'd like to talk to you about!"

Kyon looked distant for a moment, considering something, then finally said, "It's not my place to forgive you for what happened. I still have issues with 'Fujiwara', whatever his name really is. You can use the excuse that he goaded you into it, but that doesn't change the fact that you _did_ it. Even so, let us table that discussion for now. We can talk about this the next time we meet, but now is not the best time for me. Can we leave it at that?"

Sasaki felt that was reasonable enough ... especially if this nonsense about Kyouko trying to kidnap one of Kyon's friends was true! No wonder he seemed to dislike Fujiwara and Kyouko so much. "Yes," Kyouko quickly agreed. Too quickly, in Sasaki's mind ... it seemed almost desperate. Too much, too fast ... she needed time to study Kyouko further and find out what exactly was going on.

"I had no idea," Sasaki said, apologetically. "Ah, I'm sorry, Kyon. I didn't expect that things could turn out quite like this?"

He waved a hand, shaking his head. "Well, things between us used to be much more casual," he sighed, "and ... I don't have any issues with you, Sasaki."

"Ah ... if it's not too much, could we maybe still spend some time together?" she asked cautiously. "We used to be such good friends - it would be good to talk!"

"I don't think I'm up for that today," he sighed. Asahina nodded quickly from his side, giving a weak, apologetic smile.

"Kyon, busy?" Sasaki teased, smiling.

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding. "Let's see ... I have to have a conversation with past instances of several people, rescue an heiress from twelve boryokudan thugs, arrange for an alien artifact to be delivered, and ... hum, tomorrow is Tuesday, so I really should study for that math test, too." The woman at his side stiffened, for some reason, giving him a very sharp look and gasping slightly.

Sasaki giggled at his obvious evasion. Him wanting to avoid her friends for the moment really _was_ understandable. "That's fine, but at some point in the future, then?"

"Well, sure," he allowed.

She was about to wave farewell when Kuyou stepped around her, gliding in smooth motions, somehow seeming as though she was passing through a great deal of resistance at the same time. Her long hair hung behind her in a cloak, and she tilted her head slightly to one side, pronouncing, "You _ me here."

Kyon looked at her curiously, and Asahina gasped quietly. Kyouko looked mildly interested, but not very impressed. "I don't follow?" he asked cautiously.

"Um, sometimes it seems she's not much for words," Sasaki admitted.

Stopping close enough to reach out and touch Kyon, Kuyou straightened up and peered into his face. Her height was short enough that Sasaki could still see the top half of his face over her head. "Beautiful eyes," Kuyou remarked.

"Um, thanks," Kyon managed uncomfortably, face reddening slightly. "I think. Say, are you affiliated with the... That is, how do you relate to the..."

He hesitated, and the woman behind him seized one of his arms, shaking her head quickly. "K...Kyon-kun," she said warily, "you must be _careful_."

"Even so," he said, frowning. "Alright, then. Um, Suou-san, what is your relation to Nagato?"

Kuyou leaned her head to one side again, and despite herself, Sasaki took a few steps to the side to see the short girl's face. Even though her face was completely impassive, her eyes wide, Sasaki had the impression that she was deep in contemplation. "_ thought to matter."

Kyon's brow furrowed in concentration. Kuyou stared intently. "I am _ to you," she said. Seemingly satisfied with what she had conveyed, though her expression had not changed a single iota, she straightened up again, then blinked languidly, so slowly that Sasaki blinked twice in the same amount of time. "We are not _."

"I can't honestly say I understand all of that," Kyon said hesitantly, giving the girl an uncertain, cautious smile, "but ... for whatever reason, I don't feel malicious intent from you, Suou-san."

Instantly, Kuyou adopted a smile so identical that Sasaki had to dubiously admit that she was impressed. Still, she was nothing, if not logical. "You know, Kyon," she said, ignoring a brief chain of illogical thoughts through the back of her head, "I think that Kuyou-chan has a crush on you!"

Asahina giggled, hiding her face in her hands. Kyouko snorted. Kuyou merely kept smiling the same way, even when Kyon shifted expression to give Sasaki a dubious look. "Anyway," he said, shaking his head, "I'm afraid I've got some errands to run ... so, take care, Suou-san, Sasaki, Tachibana."

"Thanks for the benefit of the doubt," Tachibana mumbled.

Though she still looked nervous, when Asahina stopped giggling, she gave a nod of her own. Sasaki couldn't help but think that the encounter could have gone better ... even with Kyon joking as much as he had, he seemed to be taking it seriously. Were his comments deliberate to try and appear less agitated than he had been?

Well ... she'd give him space for a while. Perhaps in a few days she would call, and make a small joke of her own. He pretended he was a time traveler, so she could ask if he remembered her.

He nodded again, sticking his hands into his pockets and walking away with Asahina, who glanced back over her shoulder nervously periodically.

Kuyou and Kyouko fell into step beside her, with Kyon and Asahina walking the other way. "Should we try and find Fujiwara?" Sasaki asked.

"I want to beat the free meal that guy owes us out of him, now," Kyouko grumbled. "Bah, making me look so bad in front of Kyon... Say, you like him, right?"

"I think he's very interesting," Sasaki replied. "We're good friends."

"Right," Kyouko said, nodding. "So, since we're friends, too, it's bad for he and I to be on bad terms."

"Aha, so, you like him too, then?" Sasaki asked, trying not to laugh at her friend. "My, my... He certainly seems to have a way with girls!" Though, she would have thought he was dating that Haruhi character that her friends got worked up about, the last time she'd seen him previously. Something about that bothered her...

She decided she'd put it off figuring that out until she could solve more of the mysteries behind her friends.

Kyouko made a strange noise in response, looking as staggered as if she'd been punched. "W...wha...? No, no, nothing like that!" she protested, shaking her head. "Well... I suppose I would have more influence with him if that were the case, but that doesn't seem respectable."

"How exactly did Fujiwara convince you to get caught up in something as devious as ... well ... kidnapping?" Sasaki asked. As well as to wonder how someone with Kyouko's frame could pull it off. Asahina Mikuru was a bit larger, and she'd expect that girl to be able to fight free of her friend, if it came down to it. "Really, this is quite interesting, so I'd like to know more!" To say nothing of the fact that, if it was Fujiwara's idea, she'd really expect an explanation for that, too!

She glanced back to Kuyou, but the dark-haired girl had already sunk back into her state of seeming indifference to the outside world. One mystery at a time ... and Kyouko let her ignore that nagging thought in the back of her head.

* * *

"Oh, boy," Kyon sighed, rubbing his forehead with one hand and looking around. "Um, I don't mean to sound cheap, but how about going to get some fast food? I'd like to avoid being overheard by waitresses or something."

"Yes," Mikuru agreed, nodding, not meeting his eyes. "Um, I'm terribly sorry ... I didn't know that it would work out that way - that we'd meet Sasaki."

"I think I get it," he said glibly, angling towards the WcDonalds down the street, Mikuru trailing behind him, sticking very close. "It's more fun to live in the present than go to the past ... but when we must, we must. Though, I suppose it might be fun to time travel if you could do it without obligations or requirements, just to see things no one else from your time has seen."

"Yes," she said, offering a pained smile. "That would be nicer."

They didn't speak further as he opened the door for her, gesturing her into the restaurant, except to order. After taking their trays to a corner table with no one nearby to overhear, they ate quietly. Kyon only finished about half of his meal, remembering that he had a fight coming up... Expanded appetite or not, he didn't want a full stomach heading into that.

Mikuru likewise didn't seem able to finish what she had ordered, just doodling on her sandwich wrapper with ketchup, using a french fry stylus.

"I'm confused about one thing, here," he said, frowning.

She looked up, blinking at him and dropping the sliver of potato. "What's that?" she asked. "If I can help you, I'd like to..."

He nodded, understanding that if the undesirable 'classified information' came up, she couldn't answer his questions at all. "Thanks for that, then," he allowed. "But, later today, you're going to talk to my past self and tell him that the event is not predetermined. Looking back at it now, it seems to me that it actually is."

"So you say," she countered with a smile, much of her apprehensive demeanor vanishing. "However, from my perspective, that's not so. It's _possible_ that it's predetermined, but it's not absolute. I do recall that my past self became unconscious briefly ... but that's not the first time it happened, so it doesn't seem suspicious to my past self. That's, ah, though this is a bit embarassing... That unassuming naivete is part of what made me a good candidate. I could interfere with my own past and not think too much of it, so I wouldn't have to worry very much about paradoxes, as long as we never meet."

"A paradox could still exist, but you'd just not be aware of it," he objected, frowning.

She shrugged, smile widening. "And that's really the most important part. If I'm not aware of a paradox, and neither is the T- Ah... That is, neither are the other people from my time, then I can affect a minor change to the past that doesn't alter the known present."

He pondered that. It made a certain degree of sense ... but he frequently was entirely aware of what his future self would be doing. Hell, once he'd even talked to his past self as his future self. In a roundabout way, Mikuru was saying he wasn't naive, but then, wouldn't that logically suggest he'd be a bad time traveler? Maybe it had to do with how _far_ from the future she had come, and it was inherently more dangerous for them...

It suddenly struck him, something Yuki had commented on not that long ago. "Nagato mentioned that my temporal entanglement kept the IDSE from interfering with me," he said. "So that means ... at least right now ... somehow, I'm actually still important to them. That means that this paradox issue is a problem for them, if they do anything to me?"

"Exactly right!" she said, nodding. "Now, since it's a question of perspective, to clarify further, predetermined events aren't simply things that you know in advance will happen. If those things change, your awareness of them would change, too. So, inconsequential things could change easily - Yuki-chan could tell you any number of things that happened during that endless August that were different, but had no influence on things. So, predetermined events are things that are required to happen to make the future that you are in come about, in addition to events that seem trivial but you know should pass."

He thought about it for a minute, tapping one finger on the table and taking a sip of his soda.

But then ... that meant that even though she didn't realize it, Mikuru might be wrong. Then it occurred to him that perhaps it was predetermined that whatever car crash his past self had heard before that first kiss from Mikuru was something he didn't get involved in. In fact, her kiss might have been intended to make sure that his past self _didn't_ do something.

It was really just too much to think about, he decided. "In that case, since it's not predetermined, precisely, what are you planning on doing?" he asked.

"Well," she said, touching a fingertip to her lips thoughtfully. "I'd like to speak with your past self. Probably from your perspective, this seems a bit paradoxical and predetermined ... but my younger self remembers speaking with you. So, it would be necessary for you to assume the place of your past self in my past self's memory. It should be good practice for you!"

He nodded doubtfully, still thinking he was best off not worrying about it further. With a time traveler, why had such awkward oddity happened? Shouldn't things have gone more smoothly? He glanced down at himself, frowning at a sudden realization. He was wearing his school uniform and the greatcoat that Mikuru's younger self hadn't made for him, yet ... those things would have stuck out. He was sure she would have noticed that.

He had wordlessly followed her out of the restaurant, and towards where he thought their past selves would be conversing on a park bench. "This isn't what I was wearing when I met your past self," he commented, frowning.

"What?" Mikuru asked, blinking in surprise before entering the park. After a moment she smiled, shaking her head. "Oh, that's right. Why don't you," she made a vague gesture with one hand, "just use the stealth function that Nagato added?"

"Oh, yeah, that old thing," he replied, rolling his eyes mentally. "Now, how did that work again?"

"The controls for it are on your phone?" she asked, giggling. "Really ... did you forget, already?"

"You know me," he said apologetically, shrugging, and flipping through functions on his PDA. Why on earth would his phone have the ability to control his coat? Well ... it _was_ data from a being like Yuki or Asakura, so it must be possible... He blinked when he found a program in the utilities folder labeled, obviously enough, 'stealth function'. Opening it revealed a short list of options. "Not delinquent-mode," he said, trying not to laugh at the entry, "or invisible, or 'current' ... umm..." The final option was 'scan' so he chose that, stopping in the bushes with Mikuru in the park.

After a moment of fumbling, he pointed the phone cautiously at his past self and Mikuru as they approached the bench. His PDA chirped and displayed a high quality rendering of Mikuru's outfit. He blanched and canceled back to the scan menu, while Mikuru's older self stifled her laughter at his side. A second attempt scanned his past self successfully, and then he thumbed through the menu and chose 'activate'.

Disappointingly, there was no physical sensation to go along with the change. He could _see_ that he appeared to be wearing the same clothes as his past self, which was for the best, but he didn't feel cloth readjust itself. Even though it was invisible, he was still wearing the warm greatcoat. He shrugged, giving Mikuru a lopsided grin.

She winked at him, then looked intently at her younger self, making a curious gesture with her left hand - like she was tapping an invisible control panel. Her right hand pointed a finger squarely at her younger self, and then she closed one eye. As though some invisible instant-acting stun-dart had been fired, Mikuru's younger self abruptly leaned against his past self ... the lucky bastard.

"We'll meet up after this," she promised him, nodding.

"Just keep my past self from any loud car crashes," he told her.

She gave him a quizzical look, just as his past self irritatedly called out, "Asahina-san?"

He winced, ducking behind a tree making a mental note to try and be more polite than his past self was. Well, even if his past self _was_ a bit incompetent, he meant well ... and he'd had one _hell_ of a day so far. At least the lucky bastard would be getting a kiss from the older Mikuru for his trouble.

Banishing that thought, he waited until Mikuru led his past self away, then climbed out of the bushes and sat on the bench next to Mikuru, brushing leaves and dirt from his pants legs. "Asahina-san?" he asked her cautiously, tapping her shoulder.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she shook her head, rubbing at her cheek. "W...what?" she managed, blinking and looking around. "Um... D...did I doze off?"

He shrugged, giving Mikuru a weak smile. Looking back ... the older Mikuru had insisted that the conversation she had with him wasn't predetermined. That didn't seem to be precisely the case, but he supposed from her perspective, one of the conversations was predetermined, and one wasn't ... and they disagreed on which was which due to the shuffling order of events.

"What's wrong, Kyon-kun?" Mikuru asked, drawing into herself. "You look troubled!"

In any case ... he couldn't blame the younger Mikuru for things she hadn't done yet, and almost absolutely didn't intend to happen. "Just thinking about the nature of predetermination," he answered, trying to give her a reassuring smile. "I have to admit, I am getting a bit tied of all this time travel."

She gave him a quizzical look, then shook her head. "Oh, well... Yes. Predetermination is a difficult thing, though," she said. "It's not quite the same, but effectively, I'm predetermined to do absolutely nothing..." She smiled sadly. "I can observe, though."

"You do more than nothing," he countered absently. "And I don't mean that in the manner of the observer effect, where observation causes changes. Or was that Heisenberg's uncertainty principle? Anyway, I mean that you absolutely leave an impression on your surroundings - on the people around you." He wondered... Why had both Mikuru's current and older self told him he was gifted at understanding the complexities of time travel, if he was so lost trying to sort the situation out?

"The... Uh, I'm familiar with those, Kyon-kun, but... I don't remember them being covered in first year?" Mikuru remarked cautiously from his side, her eyes large.

"Sorry," he sighed. "I'm not good at physics. Anyway, leaving all of that aside, I do mean what I said."

"T...that I ... make an impression?" Mikuru asked him.

"You should ask me about it some other time," he said, remembering that she would bring it up later. "But believe me, you absolutely do. Anyway ... when we were with Koizumi, it looked like there was something else you wanted to say?"

"T...there is," she allowed, frowning. "I don't... Um, I'm not certain what this means, but a message came through? It was ... 'the seed of discord is the root of agitation'. But, I don't really understand that... Is it a current proverb, or something that I just haven't heard of?"

"Seed of discord," he realized aloud. That was the smirking bastard, without a doubt, if the message was for him. He doubted very much it was advice for sorting things out with the time lines at the moment. But the root of agitation, that would mean...

He suppressed a nervous shudder, shaking his head. "I think I understand," he said, giving a weak smile. "Knowing just enough is for the best. Ah, it's nothing to trouble yourself with, Asahina-san. Anyway, we should probably head our separate ways before it gets dark. Haruhi should be finishing her discussion with Nagato soon..."

"R...right," she agreed, glancing towards Nagato's apartment building. She gave a weak smile to Kyon. "Um ... I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Absolutely," he affirmed. "Take care, Asahina-san ... and thanks for taking the time to talk to me."

Her smile intensified, and she gave him a cheerful nod. "I'd do that any time! You take care too, Kyon-kun."

He waved at her, until she turned and walked away. Scrambling for his PDA, he switched his disguise to 'invisible', noticing that he could still see himself. Hopefully other people couldn't, or he was going to cause a lot of problems... He broke into an all-out run, growling at the realization that he didn't have any clue where Haruhi lived.

All of this annoying setup ... so much dancing around the issues ... how had events come to this? It did no good to just think about it, though. As he charged down the street, he caught a glimpse of what he was looking for. The same green minivan... Either the smirking bastard had a soft spot for the vehicle, or he was just working on an amazingly limited budget.

It was speeding down the street opposite him, some meters distant. Desperately, he flung himself into motion, activating the armored skinsuit in his watch and the reinforcement that Yuki had added to meet Haruhi's demands. Even though the gap was fifteen meters wide, he closed it almost instantly, barely managing to catch the roof of the van, and causing the vehicle to rock alarmingly. The tires skidded beneath him, while he tried to focus on absolutely anything except how crazy the action was.

The vehicle recovered from his momentum and sped up, running a red light and screaming through the intersection a meter or two ahead of the cross-traffic. He stared ahead, gritting his teeth when he saw the red light at the next intersection - and the figure of Haruhi, in the middle of the crosswalk.

Without time to consider things like causality or predetermination, he slammed both hands onto the roof of the van, rolling over and sliding down the front.

Yuki hadn't given him a device that could boost his jumping, as he had expected - at least, not directly. Instead, she had given him something that could actually manipulate gravity. By increasing or decreasing the effects of gravity on himself, he could jump much farther, or from immense heights. It was complex to use, but in conjunction with the shields (much harder to use, in fact) in the greatcoat, he could actually modify the effects of gravity on other objects.

Giving the van the strongest possible gravitational pull to its left side as 'down' as he could, Kyon simultaneously activated the shield on the greatcoat, praying that he didn't severely injure himself with such a stupid stunt as his feet touched the ground.

* * *

Her head still overflowing with everything she had heard that day, Haruhi walked home. The light had turned green, and she was halfway across the intersection before she realized that a van was bearing down on her. It was less than five meters away - just entering her peripheral vision. She had just enough time to know, to really _know_ that she had no chance of jumping to safety, and wish that she would somehow make it-

But then, quite abruptly, in a strange surge of light and color, so quickly she almost didn't have time to absorb the details...

Kyon appeared before her, his feet stationary on the street just outside the crosswalk, his hands on the front of the van. There was a crackling field of some electricity-like force around him for the barest moment, and then the van suddenly _slid_ laterally, skidding around the pair of them in a strange arc before it spun sharply, nearly overturning before it careened off a car waiting at the light. The force of the skid made the tires smoke and squeal as though someone had slammed on their brakes. Even though it was just a glancing blow, the abrupt silencing of the tire's screech caused the crunch of shattering glass to echo loudly.

She gaped as the driver of the vehicle improbably regained control and sped down the street, swerving and clipping a streetlight as it over corrected, but swiftly escaping from view. Well, that driver, whoever it was, might have gotten away so quickly she hadn't even made out the color of the vehicle ... but Kyon was still there! His attention was on the vanishing minivan, so she seized a double-handful of his very awesome looking greatcoat's lapels and yanked him closer to her, slightly off balance. "_How_ did you _do_ that?!" she demanded, eyes wide with excitement. "What the hell _happened_!?"

"Classified," he snapped, actually starting to chase after the van before she wrenched him back to face her. There was no way she was going to let him run away now! The angry glare so rarely saw him display shifted to belated confusion and surprise. "Wait. You can see me?"

She stared at him even more intently for a moment, then pointedly looked at both of the hands currently clutching his coat. "I certainly don't have echolocation!" she retorted. "Now come on! Tell me what the hell is going on here! When did you _get_ these powers!?"

He worked his jaw for a minute, irritably, then jerked his head towards the side of the street. "The light's changed," he grumbled.

Not releasing him, she hauled him to the side of the intersection. "Well?" she asked expectantly.

"If you don't mind," he said, in the typically mild Kyon-voice she had grown used to, "I need to ask you an important favor."

"What's that?" she asked excitedly. "Some adventure?"

"I need you to deliver a message to my shoe locker tomorrow morning," he said. "But it's important that you don't contact me until then. You have to be _subtle_. Understood?"

"Okay," she acquiesced, narrowing her eyes. "That's strange, but what's this message?"

"I could probably reach into my coat and get it if you'd let go," he replied.

Pursing her lips, she nodded, releasing him. "I've got my eyes on you," she warned him. "So don't try anything sneaky!"

"I'm in the club, Haruhi, I'm not going anywhere," he said flatly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an envelope. "Now, don't open this, okay?"

She tried to snatch it, but it slipped from his fingers and spun away. "Ah!" she cried, leaping for it and snatching it from the air- Too late, she realized his ruse. Even though she caught the letter, he stepped away and vanished into the air, his clothing and skin seeming to melt colorlessly into absolutely nothing.

"I am _so_ opening your letter," she grumbled, tearing the envelope's seal and eagerly pulling out the sheet of paper within. "'No, she can't'," she read. She frowned, then read on to the next line. "'Believe in yourself.' What the... 'Training is the key'? What the hell is this supposed to mean!?"

She stuffed the letter back into the envelope, shaking her head. No question about it - she'd tackle Kyon in the morning on his way to school and get answers from him. _Beat_ them out of him, if required! For a moment, she was tempted to call him and demand an explanation on the spot... Fighting off the desire, she shook her head.

He could have enough leeway until tomorrow morning. For the moment, all of the bystanders were ignoring her, concerned more with the damaged vehicle and the runaway van. Well, maybe that was for the best...

* * *

After re-engaging the 'stealth' function, Kyon shivered, unnerved by the sudden, wracking cold that ran through him. Evidently he'd overdrawn the strange weapon's energy reserve... He really needed to name the darn thing... It also seemed to power his shielding and gravity manipulation toys, and probably the invisibility function, as well.

There would be time to think about it later.

In the meantime, he remembered which street he was on when he heard the crash as his past self, so ran towards it as quickly as he could, pulling the greatcoat tight around him as he went. Thankfully, either due to the heat of the afternoon in general, or because of the insulating properties of the coat, he found himself quickly warming.

He skidded to a halt as he rounded a corner in time to see Mikuru's older self jogging down the street in the opposite direction, and his past self staring at nothing like a slack-jawed idiot in the aftermath of her kiss. Lucky bastard indeed... Stumbling through things, enjoying a light make-out session with the older Mikuru while he had to run around and pick up the slack...

Shaking his head, he put on more speed, swiftly catching up with the woman, just as she ducked into an alley and hid behind a trash bin. He trotted to a stop, breathing quietly and shivering slightly. Even though he was warming up, he'd still left the stealth mode on, and that seemed to take power. "Oh ... oh, dear," the woman fretted, looking around. "Where...?"

Checking the PDA, he disabled his stealth field, meaning to flip through the other applications - how many were there, really? - when he was caught off guard by Mikuru's quiet cheer, suddenly grabbing him in a hug. "What...?" he managed.

"You're cold, right?" she asked, holding him tightly. "That thing you have ... it gets energy from heat, doesn't it?"

He nodded. Not that he really thought she would do much to warm him up, but then ... it was Mikuru's adult form, pressed tightly against him. He could hardly complain about it. Though...

"I do have to ask something," he managed, suddenly cutting off when the woman released him with one arm, to press her fingertip to his lips.

"After everything I've said, and how much you've learned about time travel," she said, leaning her head against his shoulder and turning her face away from him, "I've learned a lot from you, too. So ... in some ways, because of everything that you taught me, or will teach me, I've got the courage to break the rules. It makes things a bit confusing, doesn't it? I really wasn't supposed to go back and talk to you, that day almost a year ago when you first met me in this form... I told you, I had to make unreasonable requests, right?"

He nodded slightly, Mikuru's fingertip still touching his lips.

"So ... in a roundabout way, you and I, together, even though I still stumble a little bit, are forging towards a brighter future. One that isn't predetermined to you, that doesn't damage the future I come from. If you understand what I said earlier ... you have the power to change me. Not my past self, so directly ... but your influence ends up helping me become the person I am.

"I could _tell_ you everything, try to _make_ it predetermined... I could say things were better or worse then they truly will be, and try to trick you into changing things for me. Once, I did - sort of - tell you about the goals of the people I work for. Instead, though, this time I'll do what Yuki-chan did. I'll tell you nothing, even if you _would_ believe me.

"But I'm not trying to keep you in the dark because I want to manipulate you ... I'm telling you as little as possible because I _believe_ in you. I have absolute confidence that if I don't limit you, you will achieve something wonderful. And maybe, just in small, selfish bits ... I might lead you towards something that I think we both would like... So, does that satisfy you?"

She broke from the partial embrace and smiled at him hopefully.

"W...well," he managed, scratching the back of his head. So much to think about... "I appreciate that you trust me," he said cautiously. "But this is all contradicting what you told me earlier. I ... would like to be able to trust you back, but it's getting difficult when you distract me from important questions with, um... Well, it's an effective attack, I'll admit - but even that's just more confusing."

She looked up at him apprehensively. "What's wrong?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

"You told me before that you gave me authority over your younger self because it would lead to some important discovery," he pointed out. "But now you're saying it's because you trust me?"

"That was one of those little selfish bits," she said, surprisingly meekly, considering that she was older than him. "Um... For the first part, it's true that you will demonstrate something very important to us. However, even though I can't prove it yet, my suspicion is that this only becomes possible _because_ I trust you. The other, more selfish part is ... even if the discovery could come from elsewhere, as long as I give you that authority, the Entity won't act directly against you."

That ... did make a certain degree of sense.

"Then, I just have one last thing that still confuses me," he allowed. "Um... I really don't want to complain, because it's quite nice, er... I mean, I really enjoy..." He felt his face warming up. Well, he'd overcome the heat loss from earlier, that much was certain. He also knew his next words were going to cement his route to that special hell. "It's overwhelmingly nice when you kiss me," he managed, "but that's not something I've ever done with your younger self."

"That's the other selfish thing," she managed, smiling and ducking her head as a very cute blush suffused her face. "I could tell you why, but... Well, I have faith in you, and I don't think you need spoilers, really." Then her smile deepened, and she gave him a coy look. "But, as far as those little selfish tokens of my affection go ... would you like another?"

Yep, they were probably constructing a special express elevator to that special hell right then. "Well," he managed nervously. "Um..."

"You're just too _cute_!" she exclaimed pressing her fists together beneath her chin.

"Uh," he said, shaking his head quickly, "a...anyway, I've got to rescue Tsuruya, and evidently something I do really impresses Mori. W...we should probably take care of that."

"Ah ... well, I'm not involved in those things," she said apologetically. "And there are some things I should take care of here, too. Let's see ... meet me back at our bench once you're done with your other errands?"

"Sure," he agreed, nodding. "The one by Nagato's apartment?"

"Right!" she said enthusiastically. "I'll give you a prize when you get there."

"Oh, boy," he said, managing a smile. Well, even if he feigned otherwise, he actually wasn't going to mind another kiss... The bewildering rush and tingle was a welcome escape from everything else he'd had to think about so far. And he didn't really know where Tsuruya was, when he rescued her ... he made a mental note to gather better information the next time he was told what his future self would be doing.

Or, would that go against what Mikuru had suggested? On second thought, that was too much trouble to try and figure out. As she waved and trotted down the alley's other exit, he decided that he was better off just trying to understand time travel on his own terms. Forget about whatever vague things she or some other manipulative person or agency from the future felt were important, and just do his best.

Jogging down the street in the other direction, he pulled his PDA out again, flipping through the stealth menu (which had moved itself to be more easily accessible, instead of deeply nested in a maze of directories), and was pleased to note that there was even a little panel of 'recently scanned' disguises. "Okay, Skynet," he said grudgingly, "as long as we avoid stab-happiness, I could probably get very used to this." He saved it and punched 'casual' in for a name when prompted, then pocketed the thing again.

Now, if he was Tsuruya, before she trusted him enough to let him in on her investigation, where would he be...? Somehow, the idea of getting into a fight with twelve thugs was starting to appeal to him. A little mindless violence would be a nice break from the headaches he had suffered so far.

"Oh, no," he realized aloud with a groan, turning a corner and heading towards a more industrial section of the city. "I'm actually starting to get into this..." He wasn't sure how, but he was vaguely certain that it was Haruhi's fault.

A glance at the sky showed the sun very low on the horizon, frequently vanishing behind buildings as he jogged aimlessly. A group of pedestrians quickly shuffling away, a few of them glancing over their shoulders as they emerged from a side-street suggested that he had found what he was looking for. Easier to ignore the problem than to do something about it, huh?

He picked up his pace, rounding the corner and ducking, tapping into his gravity control to leap _around_ an elderly woman that he almost bowled over. A half a block ahead of him, he could see Kasai going down beneath a barrage of punches, bravely trying to keep eight assailants away from Tsuruya by himself. For her part, Tsuruya was struggling to fend off three more with her trusty stun gun, while a final burly member of the Sumiyoshi-rengo barked commands at the others and cradled his broken arm with his good one.

Biting back his anger at seeing a friend assaulted, he forced himself to keep his cool, remembering only at the last second to pull his pin off and pocket it. Tsuruya seeing that he already wore a symbol of allegiance to her family would raise some very awkward questions.


	27. Chapter 26

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Initial Conflict Arc III

Chapter Twenty Six: Introductions

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Two: The Showy Entrance"_

_"Don't underestimate it! The dramatic, dynamic, explosive entrance - if you can pull it off - may actually allow you to avoid combat. It could also make you look really silly if you flub it. Find a smooth blend of action to showmanship, dependant on the situation. Flying kicks are all well and good, but sometimes, a straight punch is really dynamic enough."_

_"The Last Resort: Violence and You" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

She hadn't been hit, yet, but her bodyguard was overwhelmed already, and she could only hope to keep the encroaching thugs at bay for so long. And in her mind, they were just thugs, not truly respectable yakuza. Though she didn't want to abandon him, her self-preservation led her to step away from Kasai, backed into a wall so she could only be approached from the front-

Which gave her a view of one of the most absurdly unexpected things she had seen in a long while.

The street was largely abandoned, bystanders quickly streaming away and pretending that nothing was happening. Even before the violence that scattered the few pedestrians, it wasn't a commercial or residential district. The entire block behind her was a continuous metal wall, the exterior of a large workshop. A gap in the city's skyline let her see the last fleeting glimpses of the setting sun.

And from that fading light, charging like a professional athlete, was that same 'Kyon' she once told had the same scent as herself. He was wearing a very nice looking greatcoat, flared and cut to offer complete mobility; the lower portions of it streamed behind him like an action hero's cape as he shot forward, feet-first, and kicked one of the thugs beating Kasai.

The man she thought might be a member of the Sumiyoshi-rengo flew a handful of meters into a metal signpost reading 'no parking' with a resounding metallic thud, while Kyon adjusted from his reduced momentum and landed crouched low, instantly leg-sweeping two more of the men before popping to his feet. "Hey!" he barked out, dodging effortlessly as the thugs working on Kasai abandoned him to focus on the boy. "Twelve on two hardly seems fair! You think you're respectable businessmen?"

The thugs backed off for a moment, rallying themselves. Tsuruya found herself thankfully ignored - for the best, since she had been so distracted she wasn't properly defending herself. She wanted to giggle at Kyon for the oddity of the situation - that and the fact that beneath the coat he was still wearing his school uniform on a Sunday.

The man who had slammed into the post lay on the sidewalk, and the one who Kasai had already injured sneered at Kyon. "You've bought yourself ten seconds, and a one-way ticket to a world of hurt, kid," he growled. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

After a moment of hesitation, slipping between stances before settling into a Jeet-kun-do non-stance, he gave the injured thug an unfriendly stare. "Today, I'm a defender of justice, and that girl's guardian," he replied, indicating Tsuruya. She felt her heart skip a beat at the sudden protectiveness of a classmate and casual friend she realized she didn't know _nearly_ well enough. "Cliche though it may sound ... from this point on if you want to get to her, or him, you go through _me_."

The ten remaining capable fighters didn't wait for the injured leader's cry of, "Take him down!" to charge. Rather than waiting defensively, Kyon skipped a step backwards - straight into one of the men who had circled behind him to take him from the back. He turned with his movement, slipping between the man's reaching hands and ramming the larger figure's sternum with his shoulder. His own hands rose, seizing the extended arm as the thug folded - to Tsuruya's eyes in luridly slow motion - around the body-blow.

In the span of a heartbeat, the man was thrown so hard that Tsuruya was positive his arm was dislocated even before he crossed Kyon's body and slammed into two of his friends, knocking the trio down. Kyon appeared to fall over in the same direction with the force of his blow, but actually used his momentum to deliver a punishing blow to a fourth man, just to the inside of his knee.

Somehow pulling himself back to a low, crouching position, the boy backed up a trio of steps, blocking a series of fierce punches from three more attackers as they swarmed. They spread out to try and circle around him, while Tsuruya herself snapped out of her daze and had the presence of mind to turn her stun gun on one of the two men who had been knocked prone, but weren't yet unconscious. The other frantically rolled away, and she lost track of Kyon for a minute, scrambling to evade the other thug as he snapped a kick at her.

A heartbeat later, a sweep kick from behind to the inside of _his_ knee sent him to the ground, and she looked up to see that Kyon had demolished another pair of thugs, reducing their forces to four capable men, and the already injured man with the broken arm.

The remaining quartet gaped nervously, painfully aware of the fact that Kyon betrayed no sign of injury, himself. "I'm going to give you a chance to be reasonable," he declared. "You can give up now and acknowledge your defeat, or if your pride insists, I can knock you all out. What's it going to be?"

The man with the broken arm grimaced as he released it to dangle awkwardly, and reached into his coat to pull out a knife. "You don't know who you're messing with," he spat.

"Oh, wow, the fight went bad, so you pulled out a knife!" Kyon exclaimed in sarcastic awe. "What a brilliant and wholly original tactic!"

He sighed and hung his head as the knife-wielding thug had the courtesy to look mildly embarrassed.

Kyon waved a hand to dismiss his previous comment. "I know who I'm messing with better than you know yourselves," the boy countered. "Today's enemy may be begging for forgiveness tomorrow over a complicated misunderstanding - mark my words." Then they both charged simultaneously.

To Tsuruya's surprise, Kyon vaulted again, clearing the thug's height with what looked like casual ease, landing behind him and snap-kicking one of the other four thugs in the chin. That thug flipped backwards, landing on the sidewalk near his companions before Kyon spun in the same motion, sweeping the knife-wielder's legs out from under him.

It was insanely one-sided ... he was just so much _faster_ than them! The three remaining men rushed together, but Kyon ignored them, hopping over the knife-wielder's body and landing with one foot atop the man's hand. He still had the knife clenched there, pressed forcefully against the sidewalk and unable to move it as he squealed in pain. "Violence begets violence," Kyon said regretfully, "and as I have heard, escalation is an ugly game."

"Aniki!" one of the remaining three protested. "Let him go, you bastard!"

"Or what?" Kyon asked, doubtfully.

"Get him!" the knife-wielder howled. "Get him!"

Screaming wordless battle cries, the three charged. Kyon sighed, moving forward, incidentally putting more weight on the hand holding the knife. Tsuruya couldn't help but wince at the sound; the knife-wielder passed out from the pain almost instantly. Not that his hand was in ideal condition to hold a knife anymore, anyway.

In mere moments Kyon was engaging the three in combat. He blocked a kick from the foremost thug, shrugged off a body-blow as he seized the extended leg, and then hurled the first man at his friends. While the last two were pinned, scrambling to get up, he finished them off with efficient straight punches, shaking his head.

"K...Kyon-kun..." she managed, awed. The entire thing had taken less than five minutes from the time he showed up. He nodded at her, giving a pained smile as he knelt to inspect Kasai.

She shook off her daze, frowning, and dashing to the bodyguard's side ... he had taken quite a beating, after all. "I'll call a cab," Kyon said, pulling a phone from his pocket and tapping a few buttons. He gave instructions to an agency or service, while she focused on Kasai's injuries. He was bruised beyond belief, but still clinging to consciousness, too worn to sit up.

He managed a weak smile, even with a bloodied, split lip. "Sorry," he coughed, trying to shift himself around.

Kyon moved to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, holding him still. "Stay down, soldier," he advised. "You've seen enough action."

The man heaved a large sigh and relaxed, and Kyon hung up the phone. "A cab should be here in a minute," he advised the bodyguard, before turning his attention to Tsuruya. "Now, I'm sorry about the timing of this, but I was actually looking for you to ask a favor."

She stared, her mouth falling open as she suppressed the urge to giggle. "I...is that all?" she asked. "What favor?"

"A while back I told you where to dig to find some of your family's treasures," he said, shrugging. "Ah, you remember that metal object?"

"Yes! You need it?" She didn't know what it was, outside of her joking with Kyon that it had to be left by either time travelers or aliens. "What for?"

"It's going to be important," he agreed, nodding. "At four fifty five tomorrow, in the club room." The cab he had called for pulled up at that moment, the driver looking alarmed as the two teens managed to get Kasai in before climbing in after - the pile of unconscious or wisely feigning yakuza thugs prevented any questions. Really, it was remarkable that the cab driver had even _stopped_, given that...

Tsuruya ordered the driver to proceed to the nearest hospital, and then she paid him while Kyon helped the injured man into the emergency room. A few minutes later, when Kasai was carted off by a cadre of doctors, the pair of them stood outside on a small patch of lawn near the hospital entrance. "Anyway," Kyon said, thrusting his hands into his greatcoat pockets, "regardless of why I was looking for you - what's going on that you get attacked by those fellows?"

Her face colored slightly. If she could convince Kyon to agree to keep it secret, she might be able to tell him, but this was her trial, after all...

"Hey," he said, frowning at her expression. "Tsuruya-ku-" He cut himself off with a cough. "Um, Tsuruya-san, we're at least friends, I'd like to think."

She smiled warmly at him; obviously, he wanted to be familiar with her, but was afraid of offending her. He worried too much, though... After that save, she owed him enough that she really wouldn't have minded at all. Still, regardless of her ability to admit it to herself, Haruhi really liked the boy. No sense giving her the wrong impression!

"It's not that I enjoy fighting, because I'd rather talk things out almost any day - but if that's what it takes, then ... well, that's what it takes," he said, shrugging. "And I'm not trying to sell your own abilities short, but I think I could help you, if it came down to it. If it makes you feel better, at least accept my help in exchange for lending us that object, huh?"

"I...if you can promise me you won't tell anyone else about my investigation," she said, nodding slowly. "And, even then, I can't take you from Haru-nyan-"

"For that object, Haruhi already gives her permission," he said, nodding back. "And, Tsuruya-san, I can promise you I won't tell anyone else until you agree it's time to let them know."

Feeling strangely buoyed with confidence considering the state her bodyguard was in, she nodded. "Okies! So..."

* * *

After Tsuruya excitedly filled Kyon in on the investigation he already knew they would complete, he nodded solemnly, and assured her that he'd do his best to help her out. He felt a little bad about deceiving her, and not being able to clarify that he was traveling in time, but took some solace in the fact that he admitted it to her before ever traveling back.

That still didn't leave him with a good idea of where he was supposed to go to interfere with the Organization meeting that Koizumi had mentioned he arrived during. One that he did ... something ... to impress Mori during, no less. And at this point, naturally, Tsuruya wouldn't - or shouldn't, at least - know about those things either.

So once he bade farewell, and he saw a pair of what he now knew were members of her father's criminal organization (ironically, people who would call him 'Aniki' later), he left to the only location he could think of. He just had to hope that the meeting he'd attended with Tsuruya's father and Mori was the same place she would choose to go before becoming more openly involved with the family.

As tempting as it was to call a taxi, he thought he'd be better off practicing with the gravity manipulation enhancements Yuki had given him. He had to admit, the raised polished metal ridges in the skinsuit looked pretty impressive, too. So a few blocks away from the hospital, he tried a vertical leap, managing to land atop a ten meter tall warehouse roof. Further adjusting his weight to near nothingness, he sped across the rooftop in almost complete silence, absolutely certain that if he were careless the industrial metal roof would ring like a beaten drum.

Was this how it was for Yuki to move, he wondered? Her casual ease at manipulating the thing that he was fumbling with so intense she didn't realize it? He could remember her riding on his bike, seeming to weigh nothing. Perhaps, she really _had_ weighed nothing. Her silent, ghostlike footsteps... It would explain a lot, he thought, trying very hard not to consider the - as per Haruhi's demand - thirty meter gap between the roof of his current warehouse and the next.

He flung himself forward, ready to shield his face with his hands and scream in terror should he start to plummet, like any proper physics-fearing mortal.

Instead, he found himself soaring through the cooling night air, gliding almost weightlessly between the gap, lighting on the roof in a run.

An excited echo of the joy he imagined from years ago reading his shonen manga ran through him, and he barely restrained the urge to whoop with uncharacteristic glee. It was just like his favorite martial arts manga, he realized, grinning fiercely, anyway.

He was legitimately _roof-hopping_.

And even though he knew he should be the responsible one, and it was all due to borrowed powers and skills - both from Yuki - it was _fun_. Sure, it was a bit scary, watching the streets pass meters below him, soaring in impossibly long seeming graceful arcs ... but the amazing sense of freedom was undeniable. After all, who else would he run into that was springing from rooftop to rooftop through the night silently, the way he was?

He kept his head at least enough to make sure he was headed towards the same warehouse he recalled from meeting with the Sumiyoshi-rengo, once attempting a stylish flip that almost threw him off the side of the gutter he was running along (and then he was doubly grateful for the lack of witnesses). Two buildings away from his target, was surprised to see a figure crouched near a skylight.

Well ... that was suspicious enough.

He continued moving, all but silent in the deep quiet of the industrial district at night, taking special care to land even more softly than he had previously. A glance at the street below revealed a number of cars, including a dark taxi that might have been Arakawa's car ... and there in the distance, halfway down the street was the abandoned van he vaguely remembered would still be there a month from that time.

Slowing his wild pace to a walking speed, he reduced his weight to almost nothing, approaching the figure cautiously. It was probably a man, crouched low with his back turned to Kyon ... but it was difficult to make out in the dark. Some sentry, maybe?

Or ... some spy, perhaps? Despite whatever else she said, Koizumi had warned that Kyouko represented a rival organization with different ideals and goals. Spying between two secretive agencies seemed entirely possible, though he thought that doing it from the rooftop was either incredibly brave, or not terribly sensible.

Personally, he would have opted to hide in or beneath the abandoned van ... if the vantage there was good enough. At a distance of five meters, he stopped, trying to sort out the man's intentions. It _was_ a man, or a very mannish woman with short hair, a dark headband, black shirt and pants, and a pair of headphones linked to a handheld device projecting through a broken pane of the skylight's many square panels.

From the distance he was at, he could _just_ hear the sounds of voices from below ... Koizumi protesting something he couldn't quite make out. He checked his phone quickly, realizing it was the time Koizumi had mentioned he made his appearance - seven forty. Now, what on earth had been the 'dramatic' entrance that Koizumi had said he made?

As he pondered that, he realized the illumination of the PDA's bright screen had betrayed his presence to the man he crept up on.

* * *

Koizumi was not having a good day. He'd meant what he'd told Kyon - that he would stand by the other boy's side against the Organization, if it came to it. He didn't intend to betray his word, and he didn't want to say he regretted it, precisely... But he absolutely was not enjoying the way events were playing out at just that moment.

Mori and Arakawa stood not far away from him, side by side, Arakawa remaining uninvolved and pensive, and Mori struggling between berating him, and defending him from the other significant Organization members present.

And these people, all seven of them, were higher ranking members that Koizumi hadn't met before. The Organization wasn't massive, as far as Koizumi understood it, so that meant that the bulk of critical personnel were in one location.

Such a thing wouldn't be risked for no reason, and was only justified in this instance because of the severity of what had gone on. Koizumi had honestly explained everything that Kyon had done, his voice echoing back jarringly in the expanses of the warehouse. Except for a handful of abandoned boxes, and a great wealth of litter scattered around the walls, the room was entirely empty.

The assembled Organization members all stood roughly beneath one of the building's skylights, and had listened attentively as he spoke, his voice the only sound except for occasional creaks overhead as the aged metal construction settled. A man Koizumi didn't know, and had never met before, growled after listening to his explanation and demanded to know where Koizumi stood with the Organization.

Swallowing, Koizumi held his ground. "I swore that I would try to aid my friends, as that felt to me the best way to earn the trust of Kyon. He is the most influential person on the being we observe, regardless of what we wish to call her, or consider her," he stated levelly.

The unknown man stood tall, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at Koizumi contemptuously. He was handsome, well groomed, and wore an exceedingly immaculate dark blue suit. He had the manner of speech and bearing of a politician, even though the esper couldn't remember having seen him anywhere before. He hoped desperately that the man was just a member of the Organization, not an actual esper.

Surely anyone else with a link to Haruhi would have more sympathy for his situation.

"So, let me get this straight," the politician said, uncrossing his arms and running one hand across his hair, slicking it back neatly in one smooth motion. "You're saying that you're selling us out based on something as immaterial as trust for someone who influences a being we can't even agree on a classification for. You're claiming you'll be loyal to him because you 'promised' him, for something as transient as 'friendship'. Itsuki, we are an _organization_. We have oaths, ranks, agreements, and we follow our _agendas_.

"Your friend crossed a line, and is now personally responsible for _intentionally_ riling up the most _dangerous_ beings we are even aware of, outside of the unclassifiable herself. Can you, for just one moment, offer a single _iota_ of _anything_ that demonstrates your trust in this unknown - who you and your friends have seen fit to deny us even knowing the proper _name_ of - is well placed?

"Can you prove, or even strongly _imply_ that he is looking out for the better interests of you, let alone the world we all swore to protect?"

Koizumi swallowed. Words were his forte, and discussion was where he shone. Sure, he had powers in closed space, and he was an esper ... but those wouldn't solve real-world problems, so he used reason wherever possible. But how could he argue against this man without coming across as a petulant child? How could he defend _Kyon's_ actions as reasonable and well considered?

Maybe he couldn't... And maybe it was the saddest, most cliche thing ever, but all he could say was, "I chose to trust Kyon because none of us can influence Suzumiya-san the way he can. More importantly, Suzumiya-san doesn't trust anyone else the way she trusts _him_. Some of you believe that she is a being like a god - if she trusts him, why shouldn't we?"

At the conclusion of his weak, but well intentioned argument, the skylight overhead suddenly exploded, spraying broken glass and bits of wood down in a shower - sort of. Everyone scrambled away as a curtain of glimmering fragments spun down through the air, flipping over as slowly as drifting feathers. A figure in a sturdy coat fell through the pieces of broken skylight, impossibly moving much faster, landing in a crouch, as though a human could casually withstand a ten meter drop.

While he was retreating with the others, Koizumi froze, recognizing Kyon's face, but not able to understand how he'd arrived in such a manner, or why he was carrying a struggling man beneath one arm. Ignoring the man he was carrying for the moment, Kyon looked up, still crouching, and raised his free hand, clenching his fist as the scattering bits of glass and metal frame suddenly rushed together in a point over his head, compacting into a rough sphere, then falling at the proper rate.

The mass crashed to the ground, making the right sounds, but not sending further shards anywhere, as Kyon unclenched his fist. "Don't mind me dropping in," he said, eyeing the politician-like figure, raising one eyebrow.

"K...Kyon!" Mori barked, recognizing him as well, though she looked just as stunned as Koizumi felt. "What's the meaning of this!?"

Kyon looked distracted, giving her a dismayed stare. "I really expected you to call me 'Sir'," he observed, before blinking and shaking his head. "Nevermind that," he snapped, hefting the still struggling figure he held beneath one arm. "I found this guy on your roof, eavesdropping. Is he one of yours?"

Arakawa recovered his senses first, and swiftly strode to Kyon's side, staring at the eavesdropper. "He is not one of ours," the older man declared, frowning. "This is highly disconcerting."

"Well, he's all yours _now_," Kyon decided, dropping the man unceremoniously.

The dark clothed figure tried to scurry away, but Arakawa easily captured him, then put him in a choke-hold until he stopped resisting. "This is problematic," the old man said, looking around the assembled Organization members. He was about to continue, but Kyon cut him off.

"I'm only here to throw my support in for Koizumi. I'm not going to go into details, since I don't really mean to interfere with your ... business." He turned his full attention to the politician-like figure, giving a very sharp look to the man. Raising a fist, and causing the suited man to flinch back several steps, he warned, "But if you're trying to threaten Koizumi, right now he's your only shot at communicating with the SOS Brigade. If you don't agree to him acting as a liaison, then you're entirely out of the loop."

"S...Sir," Mori managed, very stiffly. "Respectfully, I'd still like to know the meaning of this!"

Kyon spread his arms in a shrug, explaining, "I'll tell you this much. Within two weeks, the creation of closed space will be entirely under control. Let's call that a trial period. It will be at its worst next..."

Kyon paused, squinting his eyes and turning them towards the ceiling as though to remember something as he pulled his greatcoat tight around himself - though, the esper had a hard time seeing how Kyon could be truly _cold_ in such weather.

"Wednesday will be the peak," Kyon said decisively. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to meet with Koizumi and Mori-san to discuss some things about closed space at that point. Anyway, I didn't mean to disrupt your meeting, so I'll be heading out now."

Turning his attention to Koizumi and leaning close, the boy very quietly added, "Don't mention this too much. I really mean that. You'll understand soon enough."

Having delivered his cryptic missive, Kyon gazed up at the hole in the ceiling where the skylight was, and with a single inhuman leap, vanished through it.

Though he wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, Koizumi adjusted his coat and put on his usual smile, turning to the man who was arguing against him. "I believe my point has been significantly punctuated," he said.

"If you're a liaison, you're no longer fully a part of us," the man shakily spat. "Arakawa, get him out of here. Mori, let's get some answers out of our spy."

Arakawa bit back a retort and shook his head sharply, motioning Koizumi to follow him to the warehouse entrance. Once they were outside, both sighed explosively, and Koizumi took solace in the fact that the old man was shaking slightly, though not nearly as much as he was. "H...how did he do that?" he managed, shooting the boy a sharp, alarmed look. "I thought he was a perfectly normal person!"

"W...well ... we did ask a TFEI," Koizumi said, shivering nervously. "It's possible ... they lied to us?"

"I don't think that Mori appreciates being caught that badly off guard," the older man managed, shaking his head. "That such power lurks within him... Koizumi, you're braver than I thought, being a liaison to ... that group. Every one of them is dangerous, you know."

"Except," Koizumi said, his false smile becoming genuine, "they are my allies. I did say I would be loyal to them."

Arakawa's eyebrows rose as he studied the esper in the pool of light beneath the lamp outside of the warehouse before he nodded. "Let's get you home," he decided, moving to his car.

* * *

After roof-hopping a few blocks away, Kyon found a place to huddle up and wait to warm up. While that was happening, he checked his PDA, suspecting that there was a utility to monitor stored power somewhere. There was, displaying a neat overall percentage, and a total remaining. It was slowly charging, even giving a timer for how long it would take - several hours. Still...

The gravity manipulation _seemed_ more efficient than the shields, to him, given the massive drain earlier to deflect the van. He decided he'd wait until ten percent power, up from the current six, then head back to Mikuru. Maybe if he kept practicing with the gravity control, he'd be able to be more efficient at it. Controlling the debris from the shattered window while also making sure he landed without hurting himself - or the spy - had been _much_ harder than he had expected.

That, of course, was ignoring his own behavior in the process. That should match up, though, he thought. He couldn't think of anything he'd forgotten in that hectic week, and was suddenly very grateful for the notes he had taken whenever other people had _mentioned_ the antics he'd finally caught up with. There were still some unresolved issues, but he was certain he'd taken care of the current day...

One horrifyingly busy day.

He couldn't _wait_ to get home and crawl into bed. After wrapping the coat around himself tightly, until he warmed up and the percentage reached ten, he rose and resumed roof-hopping at a more sedate pace, unable to deny the thrill of acting out like that. As unreasonable as it was ... it wasn't like anyone could _see_ him.

Fighting the strong temptation to try and land on top of the lamppost near the bench he was going to meet the older Mikuru at, he dropped to street level a block and a half away in a quiet alley and walked at a more reasonable pace. Even better, he'd only burnt off two percent of the battery's capacity, suggesting that roof-hopping was easy on the reserves.

That was good to know.

There was no sign of Mikuru about immediately, though he wondered if she might be hiding in the bushes... Deciding it wasn't worth worrying about too much, he took a seat on the bench and knuckled back a yawn, glancing around expectantly. She didn't take long to arrive, walking up the street from the opposite direction that he had. She was smiling brightly as she looked at him, and unbidden, the thought of the promised 'prize' returned to him.

It was the same thing he had told himself he was best off not trying to think about too hard, but...

It also wasn't like being kissed by the adult Mikuru was in any way unpleasant. In fact, given the opportunity... Yeah, he could admit to himself that he'd occasionally imagined kissing - or more - with the woman. And, yes, there was that _one_ remarkably vivid dream, where both Mikuru's older self and younger had-

He coughed, shaking his head to banish the thoughts and rising to his feet. "Asahina-san," he greeted her, nodding.

"Did everything go well for you, Kyon-kun?" she replied, clasping her hands together behind her back.

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding. "Ah ... I'm glad that's over with, though."

Mikuru looked suddenly slightly wistful. "I should probably take you home," she agreed. "Um... Yes, a block or so outside of your house. Are you ready?"

He nodded, closing his eyes and reaching a hand out. She moved around it, grabbing him in a hug as that disconcerting sense of displacement struck again. While he was positive he was getting better at handling the time and space transportation effects, he doubted there was any way on earth to train resistance to a Mikuru-hug.

She released him - slightly - then stunned him as his eyes opened with another of those dazzling kisses.

Her amused giggle stuck with him long after she left. "I need a counter-attack," he sighed. "Or something."

Looking around, he found himself on the street a block from his own home. It was still dark out, so he checked his watch, pleased to see that he'd only lost ten minutes of relative time since heading out from Tsuruya's. He thrust his hands into his pocket and whistled to himself, marching towards the front door of his family home.

* * *

She knew that Kyon would be in trouble as soon as dinner ended, and he hadn't gotten home yet. He didn't call, either, which in her experience was guaranteeing that their mother would be upset. How could he forget to call when he had a cell phone?

Still...

Dinner was quiet, with their mother silently working up her anger, and their father wisely sheltering behind the newspaper. Not long after dinner was finished and Nonoko was ordered to wash the dishes (which she couldn't do without a step stool), the household's uneasy silence was broken by Kyon opening the door.

Hands still covered with soapy water, she dashed from her station at the sink to the front door, eager to see her brother. Naturally, their mother was there first, fixing him with a sharp glare. "Where have you been?" she demanded, hands on her hips. "Out this late without calling, on a school night?"

"I just left Tsuruya-kun's place a little late," Kyon countered, frowning as he took off his heavy coat and draped it over one arm.

Neither she or her brother missed the way that their mother paused at mention of Tsuruya's name. Her anger seeming to vanish, the woman asked, "What were you doing with Tsuruya?"

"There was a ... meeting with another family that her family does business with," Kyon explained. "Her father asked me to show up, too, because ... well, you know." He glanced over and gestured vaguely at his father.

"Well," Nonoko's father spat out, suddenly on-the-spot. "Y...yes, see, Tsuruya-chan is already including Kyon as part of her family, isn't that wonderful?"

Nonoko felt a bit jealous about that ... why couldn't _she_ be included yet? In fact, during the winter vacation, wasn't she the one that had gotten to spend the most time with the green-haired girl in the snow?

Kyon nodded, spreading his hands in a 'can't be helped' shrug. "Anyway," he added, glancing at his wristwatch, "I've got a math test tomorrow, so I should probably study."

"Call next time," their mother insisted, her anger replaced with mild irritability. "It's good for you that you're getting along with Tsuruya-chan... But don't forget!"

"Got it," Kyon agreed, hitching his school bag onto his shoulder and plodding towards the stairs. "I just lost track of time a little."

She thought that was a terrible excuse, since he had both a watch and a phone, but evidently their mother believed it. She nodded, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning. Their father quietly slipped backwards out of the hall into the kitchen.

Deciding that they might be on to something, she returned to the sink to finish washing dishes. The greater question here was ... how had Tsuruya's name become a magic word that defused their mother's temper? There _had_ to be something behind that.

And all things considered, her big brother probably really didn't know, either.

Maybe if she were careful, she could find out for him...? Pleased with that thought, she hummed to herself and returning to the job of scrubbing dishes. Her father strode into the room with only a backwards glance at the hall before helping her dry them.

While she worked on the wok her mother had cooked with, she asked, "Why is it especially good for Kyon-kun to be close to Tsuru-nee-san's family?"

Her father nearly dropped the plate he was drying, and gave her a sidelong look. "Noticed that, did you?" the man asked glibly, giving her a weak smile.

She nodded almost as vigorously as she was scrubbing. "Kyon-kun's been spending a lot of time with Tsuru-nee-san, lately!" She bit her tongue before she could spill the part about Kyon's job saving the world. Instead, she said, "Tsuru-nee-san is fun!"

"I'm glad you like her," her father agreed, moving on to the next dish and sighing. "Well, this Thursday, our families are going to meet up and discuss the future ... and maybe talk about Kyon and Tsuruya-chan spending a lot more time together."

"Haru-nee-san might not like that," she opined. "If Kyon-kun spends all his time with Tsuru-nee-san, won't she be left all alone?"

"They can still be friends," her father said. "Er... I mean, Tsuruya-chan is friends with ... what's this girl's name, then? Haru...?"

"Haruhi," she replied, pleased that she remembered the full name. "You haven't really met her, though. She's the one that fixed up Kyon!" And also the one that led to her brother being as popular as she already knew he could be ... but Haruhi tried to include her in things, so she didn't blame the older girl for taking her brother away - not really.

"Fixed up Kyon?" her father asked, chuckling. "When did he get broken down?"

"In middle school," she said absently. "He lost his smile for a really long time. Didn't you notice? But it doesn't matter - Haru-nee-san made him find it again!"

Her father didn't say anything for a while, just drying the dishes. Finally, he asked, "Say, do you think that Kyon likes this Haruhi girl, though?"

"Sure," she agreed, looking at her father and giggling. "He likes all of his friends! Like Mikuru-nee-chan, Yuki-nee-chan, Kanae-chan, and Koizumi-san!"

"Ah ... yeah," he replied, chuckling. "Of course. Well, nevermind that. As soon as these dishes are done, I'm going to see if I can find any heirlooms for Kyon."

"Why does he need an heirloom?" she asked, unplugging the sink and washing her hands off.

"Just a little something to remind him of our family legacy," the man replied, shrugging. "I mean... The Tsuruya family has a much more storied legacy, but I worry that Kyon might be forgetting his own family." He gave her a grin and tweaked her nose, which caused her to shriek in laughter involuntarily as he left a coating of soap bubbles there. "Plus, if I don't, and Kyon loses the family name, it'll be up to you to carry our legacy and family name on!"

"That's silly," she protested, wiping the soap from her face. "How would Kyon lose his name?"

"Well, probably best not to worry about it for now," the man advised. "I'm sure we've got some time to spare."

She nodded thoughtfully, wondering if anything she had heard was worth relaying to her brother.

* * *

After meeting with Kyon at the train station (which meant she also ran into Taniguchi and Yanagimoto), Haruhi grilled him on math questions the entire walk to the class. To his credit, he actually had studied for the test the night before, though he looked far too tired, in her mind. "Trouble sleeping?" she asked, as they passed through the school gates.

"Yesterday was just busy," he said, shaking his head. "And by 'yesterday' I mean 'Sunday several weeks ago'."

She raised an eyebrow. "Finally took care of that group that was bugging Tsuruya?" she asked.

"Yeah ... been putting it off long enough, really." He stifled a yawn. "Anyway, that ended up being a good deal of work."

"So, what was this warrior philosopher bit she was talking about, anyway? That was some time ago, but it should be fresh for you, right?"

He blinked thoughtfully, pausing at the shoe locker to switch shoes. "Actually," he allowed, "I think I get that. Probably she just wasn't used to hearing me speak much, since I'd hardly ever seen her at that point except with either you or Asahina-san. I mostly ended up quoting things I realize now I heard from her earlier." He shrugged, glancing at her sidelong and checking that no one was immediately nearby. "I'm pretty sure the part where I broke the hand of the guy with the knife was the real attention-getter."

To her amusement, just as soon as he looked away from the edge of the shoe lockers, a familiar looking first-year boy stepped into view, his face turning ashen as he made a squeaking noise and bolted away at top speed. Kyon stared after the boy in consternation for a moment, then shrugged. "It's weird," he commented, before Haruhi could even ask. "Every time I say something that I wouldn't want overheard, and a few other times... I don't know who that kid is, but he always runs into hearing range just as I say something really off-color. He probably thinks I'm some horrific yakuza thug, or something."

Haruhi snorted, elbowing him in the ribs with a grin. "As opposed to the respectable criminal that you are," she teased quietly. "Club room - we've got more time for you to study before class starts."

"Highly respectable," Kyon agreed, nodding solemnly before hiding another yawn. "So respectable, I don't even know what I'm supposed to be doing most of the time!"

"Well, setting that aside - just in terms of things that the students in this school _know_ of, you _did_ dangle someone out of a window by one ankle," she noted.

"I was provoked," he retorted, grimacing. "He may not have been in his right mind, but Yamane _did_ try and shove Tsuruya out the window."

"That's true," she admitted, feeling her face color. "I may not say things too often, but I guess you probably wouldn't mind hearing them anyway... So, um, if you say that looking out for my friends is my greatest strength..." She hesitated as they topped the stairs leading into the club building. Not the ideal location for what she wanted to say, but she could let that pass. It was a real place, and she would remember it every time she passed through the stairs on the way to and from the clubroom. More real than the half-dreams she recalled before Kyon had given her a _genuine_ kiss, at any rate.

He stopped, seeing where she had paused and turning to look at her, one eyebrow raised questioningly. "Yeah?" he asked.

Taking a breath, she managed, "If it's my strength at all, it's one I got from watching you. I just wish ... you hadn't had to try and protect _me_ so much ... back then."

"Protect you?" he asked, blinking. "When?"

"Y...you wouldn't let me make worse mistakes," she managed. "When I ... went too far. You probably just meant to protect Mikuru-chan when I was being... W...well, nevermind that. What I mean to say is, you kept me from going so far that I could have lost my most precious friends. It wasn't until after those incidents, that I started realizing that friends were precious, and not ... like toys or pets."

Her face was solid red, so flushed her skin felt tight and awkward. Why was it so hard to admit when she'd done things wrong?

"So," she said again, "um, I think you lead by example ... and if I were being honest with myself, you would _always_ have been the vice commander..." At her limit, she shrugged, then walked stiffly to the club door and opened it. There were more words, but she couldn't spit them out, not without a boost on par with the last time she had dragged Kyon off to a distant corner of the school (tempting though that was, he _did_ need to study).

Aside from which, did more matter? He liked her, she liked him ... and it wouldn't kill either of them to say something nice, once in a while.

"People often say things like, 'never change'," Kyon finally said, when he found his own voice, standing just inside the entrance to the club room. "They don't mean that, because people do change ... and all the time. Especially now, at our age. But even saying that, I think if you take it to mean someone's strong points, no matter how they change around those points, I can see where they're coming from. In that regard, Haruhi, you may not give yourself much credit.

"You can say you owe me, but all I did was show you the path; you walked it yourself. I didn't make any friends for you ... I just showed you that's what we could be."

Oh, no ... she felt like a shoujou anime character. She literally felt warmer from the inside out. If she didn't get Kyon back on the subject of math questions, she was liable to pin him with a leaping tackle, and then the both of them would be _seriously_ late for class. If his studying weren't a priority... Why couldn't she have had the presence of mind to arrange for Kanae or Mikuru, one of the cute, innocent types to be present to dissuade her!?

Heck, even Koizumi would pour water on those coals.

Seizing control of the situation, Haruhi tossed a short stack of math flashcards to the table a bit more forcefully than she had intended. "And a little help from your aunt," she admitted, her blush finally fading. "By the way - your aunt is really, really cool! We should go visit her again some time!"

"Probably this summer," Kyon said absently. "Um ... I'll see about getting in touch with Uncle Keiichi, but there's not really a lot in the way of guest lodging in Hinamizawa. Pretty much the only hotels are in Okinomiya. Aunt Shion _might_ be willing to put everyone up, but it's better not to assume."

"Before that," Haruhi said, frowning. "Your birthday is on that local holiday they have, right? Watanagashi? I think we should go for that!"

He shrugged, looking skeptical. "Maybe," he allowed. "But it's a long way to travel for a one-night festival ... we'd absolutely have to miss a day of school."

"Speaking of school," Haruhi responded, picking up the stack of flashcards after she sat down, "let's make sure you hit your quota of ninety or better!"

* * *

After a grueling math test, leaving Kyon wrestling uncomfortably with the difficulty of the test as compared to his recent activities... Really, as Keiichi had suggested long ago, even with his mother's ultimatum, he just wasn't worried about his academics. He supposed it meant he had faith in Haruhi's ability to tutor...

That blind, professor-looking kid ought to be grateful. Then again, Kyon realized, he was going to grow up to invent time travel, or something along those lines.

Once he was free of class and the club assembled, Kyon looked forward to beating Koizumi in ... something. Whatever the esper chose to lose at. Strange that he just had no luck... Haruhi dashed ahead of him to the club room, berating him for not running in the hallway. As if on cue, Okabe had popped out of the class room, a sharp, disapproving look daring the boy to run.

Shaking his head, Kyon strode to the club room at a sedate pace, still reaching it before Mikuru or Tsuruya and Kanae. That naturally meant he had to leave the room so that someone could dress up (he supposed he should be grateful it wasn't him). While Kyon was waiting in the hall with a still hot cup of tea, Koizumi walked up the hallway, in quiet discussion with his cell phone.

Curious, but not enough to try and eavesdrop, Kyon raised an eyebrow and studied the depths of his half-drunk teacup. A floating tea stem bobbed directly upright before him. He blinked at it, eyebrow rising even further.

"How auspicious," Koizumi remarked, glancing at the floating stem. "That's supposed to be good luck, you know."

"So I've heard," Kyon agreed, just before the door was suddenly wrenched open. "Ta-dah!" Haruhi cheered, gesturing at Tsuruya, who bounced out of her own accord, just as excited.

Not bounced, really ... flounced, in a flaring dark red skirt that stopped just above her knees, with black lace trim that extended further. She wore a sash of the same red shade, with a huge red bow puffed out behind her. Her blouse matched the theme of the other major articles, frilled with matching lace. Her sleeves were trailing further spills of lace, and a smaller black bow at her throat billowed with a third bow, seemingly connected to the bonnet. Dark lacey gloves and stockings completed the ensamble.

His jaw dropped as she struck a pose, just as staggered as her daring Lum cosplay. How hard had Mikuru worked to finish that so quickly? "That's amazing," he managed. "Um, wow."

"Take a picture!" Tsuruya insisted, running to put one arm around Mikuru's shoulder and grin at Kyon, striking another pose. "Me and the artists together!"

Haruhi was way ahead of her, naturally. Shaking his head, Kyon stepped into the club room with Koizumi - members of the other clubs were peeking out of their rooms already at the commotion.

"Oh," Haruhi said suddenly, giving Kyon a serious stare. "I think we should soundproof this room."

"That's a smooth conversational shift," he opined, pulling his PDA out and snapping several pictures of Tsuruya in different poses around Mikuru, while the time traveler's blush slowly deepened. "I could see getting the materials ... but installing it would be a pain. I'm sure the school would be against it, too. I really think it would be worth more trouble than it's worth."

She gave him a hooded stare. "Yuki-chan, I want to make this room soundproof," she said.

Not looking up from her book, the quiet girl said, "Program loaded."

He pursed his lips and lowered his PDA, giving Haruhi a thoughtful look. Actually, that didn't sound so unreasonable... "Yeah, okay," he agreed. "That sounds like a good idea. I didn't know you meant it that way, though."

Yuki raised her gaze to meet his, before giving a minute nod. A heartbeat later, she blinked and turned to Haruhi, raising a hand aimlessly, waving it limply in the air as she commented, "Quiet." A sheen of blue light expanded from above her, illuminating the interior of the room for a long breath before fading. Her attention returned to her book as her hand drifted back to her side.

Haruhi pursed her lips, while Tsuruya, Kanae, and Mikuru simultaneously cooed, looking around for remaining hints of the blue and silver glow. Kyon eyed Haruhi and wondered if Yuki's belated gesture and light effect were in response to the brigade chief's demand that things look flashier. "Better," she grudgingly allowed. "That's a bit better, Yuki-chan. But, we're going to have to teach you to put real heart into it!"

Yuki flipped to the next page of her book in response.

"Right," Kyon said, shaking his head and turning his attention back to Tsuruya. "Um, I have to admit, you really look impressive in that costume," he said, admiring the lacy flounces again. Her cheerful demeanor and energetic movements didn't really add to the Gothic Lolita feeling, but it still looked amazing.

"Though, now I want to see Yuki-chan in a similar costume," Haruhi remarked, crossing her arms over her chest and looking between Tsuruya and Yuki thoughtfully. The heiress obligingly released Mikuru and swooped over to Yuki, repeating most of her poses for Haruhi's trigger-happy camera finger. Well, he thought, storage space was cheap ... Haruhi certainly would have a lot of pictures to remember the brigade by.

"I think I'd like to see that, too," Kanae admitted, hiding most of her face behind her sketchbook, peeking at Yuki cautiously, her eternally luminescent blush underscoring her wide smile.

"I must admit," Koizumi allowed, pulling a strategy game from the closet, setting it between Kyon and himself, "Asahina-san's skill with the needle and thread is quite impressive."

"I...it wasn't that much," Mikuru said lamely, still blushing slightly herself. "I mean... I'm glad to use my skills for something! And if it isn't too boastful ... I think that does look good on Tsuruya-san."

Tsuruya stuck her tongue out at Mikuru. "Tsuruya," she corrected. "We were close enough once that you'd call me Tsuruya all the time, not just when the club wasn't around."

"Ah, well, that..." Mikuru giggled in embarrassment. "R...right. Um, but, Suzumiya-san, I don't have a problem making another for Yuki-chan. If I did, though, Yuki-chan, would you want to wear one?"

While Kyon considered the fact that Mikuru was calling the other girl 'Yuki-chan', Yuki slowly looked up and turned her attention to Mikuru before giving a single, solemn nod and turning her attention back to her book.

"That settles it," Haruhi decided, nodding. "Of course, I think Yuki-chan will want a different color scheme."

"Okies, Mikuru-chan!" Tsuruya declared. "Tonight we buy all the extras cloth, ribbon, and lace you needs!"

"Right," the time traveler agreed absently, already furiously designing away on her own sketchbook. Sitting next to her, Kanae cautiously peeked at her work before comparing it to her sketches, then hurriedly flipping the page and starting a new drawing. "Hum ... Yuki-chan ... new design..."

"We've lost her," Haruhi said, shrugging. "We'll get Mikuru-chan back later. Hmm, maybe we should change her job title to chief of mascot services? It seems she's becoming management, now."

Kyon and Koizumi finished setting up the board for their strategy game, though Kyon was still flipping through the rules. There was something else he still wanted to do, come to think of it. "Say, Nagato," he remarked, prompting her to look up at him expectantly. "Are you busy tonight?" Her head shook once in negation, her eyes locked on him expectantly. "So ... I wanted to know if you would come with me for a bit this evening - Haruhi, maybe you'd like to come, too?"

Surely if Haruhi was invited, she wouldn't think it was anything it shouldn't be...? To his surprise, the brigade chief didn't looked annoyed by the suggestion, like he'd somehow expected. "What's this?" she asked, simultaneous to Yuki's nod of acknowledgement.

"A surprise," he said, unable to keep a tiny trace of smug satisfaction from his voice.

She raised an eyebrow as she studied him and allowed a dubious nod. "This should be interesting," she allowed.

"Okies, since you're going as a team, Kanae-chan, want to come with Mikuru-chan and I shopping for cloth and stuffs?" Tsuruya asked, flouncing to the youngest girl's side and flashing her a bright, toothy smile. "Maybe we'll get ideas for later costumes~! Oh, and we can bring Koizumi-kun along and have him carry things~!"

"Y...yes, that sounds fun!" she agreed hurriedly, for some reason blushing even more brightly as she snapped her sketchbook shut.

"Glad to be of service," Koizumi managed with a weak smile.

"Also, while Mikuru and Kanae discuss costumes, I wanted to talk about work with you, Koizumi-kun."

Kyon noticed the way Koizumi perked up at that. "Ah? Well, naturally, then," he said smoothly.

Something else for Kyon to consider... It wasn't intentional, but the esper was being left by the wayside more often than not ... something would have to be done about that.

* * *

After club activities had ended, as she was requested, Yuki closed her book and rose, turning her attention to her primary protection target, the one who those around her typically called 'Kyon'. It wasn't his name, but she had learned to correlate that nickname with his identity, still taking pains to acknowledge the difference between the two regardless.

Suzumiya Haruhi moved ahead of her, pushing the boy out so that Tsuruya would have relative privacy to change. Considering that none of the data of Tsuruya in undress would be unique or new to Kyon, given a bath that had been shared, she didn't really understand the necessity. Then again, she had taken that bath as well, and some strange urge towards modesty still made itself known around him ... a side effect of the memetic link with Haruhi?

Something to consider later. She followed behind the pair quietly, wondering about her specific assignment. She had no practical experience with relationships, let alone polyamorous relationships. Admittedly, she did have theoretical knowledge, thanks to observations of the extended family in Hinamizawa.

Even though, she was unclear if going somewhere with the brigade chief and vice commander constituted standard brigade activity, or some sort of relationship-based event. And if it was an event, how would priority be determined?

She presumed that she would be fine if she merely maintained her observational stance and followed silently.

Before they reached the shoe lockers, Haruhi turned to the boy and asked, "What's this all about, anyway?"

"I wanted to do something for Nagato," Kyon answered, shrugging. "That and the fact that Tsuruya's been paying me for my job ... well. You know. But I couldn't do that without Nagato's help, so I wanted to get her something."

Haruhi's eyebrows rose. "I guess that makes sense," she allowed, frowning. Then she shrugged, "And she did get you that PDA, even if you did have to do a side-quest for it..."

"Skynet?" he asked absently, changing his shoes. Yuki moved away, to her own shoe locker, but could still hear the pair.

"You seriously call it that?" Haruhi asked, sounding half amused and half disgusted. "Really?"

"Well, aloud ... I didn't give it a name when I use it," he admitted.

"Lemme see it!"

"You can try," Kyon said, a little smugly.

"Oh, wow, so it only works for you, huh? How's that set up?"

Finished changing shoes, Yuki circled around the bank of lockers expectantly. He was nodding, tugging on his last outdoor shoe as Haruhi grumbled and poked at the screen of his new PDA. The data structure within the phone did not recognize Haruhi as an administrator, so denied her access.

"Fingerprints," he finally said, holding a hand out expectantly.

Haruhi turned away from him, still jabbing at the phone. "Now I have to see what he's hiding! Yuki-chan, help me get into this thing!" Haruhi demanded, thrusting the phone towards Yuki with one hand as her other seized Kyon's tie when he tried to reach for it.

She blinked slowly, the phone in her hands as Kyon and Haruhi wrestled lightly, Kyon mostly held at bay as Haruhi weaved back and forth, preventing him from having clean access. A small change notified the resident data that while Kyon was the administrator, Haruhi was an authorized user. "Done," she acknowledged.

"Now keep Kyon off me for a minute!" Haruhi barked, leaping away from him and snatching the phone in one smooth motion.

The boy broke free, moving to dash after her - but Yuki moved first, deducing that stepping inside Kyon's guard and hugging him tightly would immobilize him effectively.

She was right, as he instantly froze. Her back turned as she flipped through functions, Haruhi grumbled, "Why are Kyon's files still locked out? Oh, nevermind ... here, it lets me rename it. 'Kyon's PDA'. Done! So obvious, really..." She turned around, blinking languorously as she saw Yuki hugging onto Kyon tightly, the boy immobilized and reddening as the few students leaving the school at that moment paused to stare.

"Er, er, good work," Haruhi managed belatedly. "Um, more emotion next time, Yuki, and then we'll have that sequel down solidly!"

"Good," Yuki allowed.

"That means you can let go!"

"Understood."

"That means _let go_!"

Reluctantly, and trying to reassure herself that she'd done it just to restrain him - as per Haruhi's request - Yuki released Kyon, who stammered wordlessly, unable to form a coherent argument before clearing his throat with a loud fake cough. "I was ... practicing," she said, turning her gaze to Haruhi. For her part, the girl looked mildly embarassed and annoyed, but at the same time she also seemed faintly amused.

Something else to consider.

"Um," Kyon managed. "S...so, a...anyway, let's go shopping, huh?"


	28. Chapter 27

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Initial Conflict Arc IV

Chapter Twenty Seven: Legacies

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Title: Connected"_

_"Undetected routes  
"Bridging the distance between  
"You, and you, and I"_

_"Snow, Verses: A Compilation" - Committed to record: 2011.5.18_

* * *

The two most important beings in Yuki's life walked just ahead of her, the girl leaning closer to the boy than her social monitor suggested was proper. Then again, she frequently ignored that whenever she had privacy with him.

It was difficult - bordering on impossible - to define why. She knew a very, very small part of it was due to the memetic link she shared with Suzumiya Haruhi. Haruhi's own basic humanity 'leaked' across their connection, imprinting faint values of itself on Yuki. Inevitable, considering that Haruhi was effectively manufacturing or altering data to sustain Yuki, and it was a compromise she embraced, given it not only allowed her to survive, but also allowed her to slowly, with painfully tiny steps, actually grow outside of the confines of the structure the IDSE had given her.

Slowly, bit by bit, as she watched her rigid definitions get chipped away by those tiny intimacies... The way Kyon smiled, or the way she felt when they were alone, and they kissed... To another degree, that same sensation occurred again when Asahina Mikuru embraced her in the hospital. Loneliness she never attempted to acknowledge was slowly worn away, in the manner of stone and rushing water.

Did the two of them really know what they had achieved? Haruhi had said that Kyon was naturally oblivious, but that was fine. Could he have devised something so cunning unaware? Was he just _lucky_? Or was it Haruhi's doing, really?

She could spend quite a while mulling it over, but before she could try, Haruhi turned back to look at her, then seized her elbow and hauled her forward. Light on her feet, Yuki allowed herself to be tugged along weightlessly, until she was walking even with Kyon and Haruhi.

"I don't mind that you choose to be in the background during most club events," Haruhi said sternly, shooting her a sharp look, "but this is just the three of us, and Kyon invited you out, so don't exclude yourself!"

She nodded slightly, unsure what that part really meant. While it was effective, and she'd enjoyed it, she was absolutely under the impression that it had bothered Haruhi. So hugging the boy here would likely not be appropriate.

Likewise, as much fun as it was, kissing was probably out. What else was there to include herself in?

"Shame, Kyon," Haruhi chastised, turning her gaze to Kyon and putting one arm about Yuki's shoulders as they walked. "You're supposed to be the one who notices Yuki-chan, and you ignore her trailing behind us?"

"Isn't this the fault of the person who grabbed my wrist and hauled me down the street?" he protested, quirking one eyebrow higher.

"Then, don't be such a slowpoke!"

"So, it's _my_ fault for getting dragged... If I told you where we were going, you never would have stopped, either."

Haruhi sniffed, raising her nose. "Yuki and I could both keep up," she remarked. "Your penalty is for not noticing that she chose not to!"

Kyon nodded absently and pulled his PDA from his pocket. "Five and a half weeks," he remarked. "I do believe that is an all-time record for not having the brigade chief penalize me."

Haruhi's face colored faintly. "I've been going easy on you," she said with a sniff. "But then I heard you mention that Tsuruya-san's _paying_ you for the work you do for her, so that means you have money!"

Kyon narrowed his eyes, studying Haruhi. "This may be a bit of a long shot," he said slowly, "but is it possible that you invoke penalties because you can't save your allowance at all?"

Yuki noted with interest that Haruhi's face suffused almost instantly bright red. "If you got it, spend it," she muttered. "Saving is so _boring_!"

"Yeah, okay," Kyon allowed, sighing. "I'll bite. What's the penalty this time?"

"I'll think of something," Haruhi mumbled.

Kyon chuckled, shaking his head. "Sure," he agreed. "Just keep in mind, even if it bores you, I would like to save a little money."

"Maybe I should see about getting official funding," Haruhi mused, releasing Yuki. "Through Mori-san, or Tsuruya-san... Ooh, or maybe, we could finally do in the Student Council! Yeah! There's probably some money there!"

"We're transitioning from an after school club to a for-profit organization?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well!" Haruhi started excitedly, before trailing off and looking thoughtfully skyward. "Actually," she said in a calmer tone, frowning slightly, "I guess I don't like the idea of that, at all. I mean, money would be convenient to have ... that's why everyone loves to spend money, right?"

"By that logic, one year of funding all brigade cafe activities should have made me incredibly happy."

Yuki noted the sharp look that Haruhi shot Kyon as they rounded the corner, turning away from the train station and towards a shopping district. "Are you saying you aren't?" Haruhi challenged.

Kyon paused his walk, and Yuki stopped moving as well, turning to watch him curiously. Haruhi walked on a handful of steps before she caught on and turned to face him with her hands on her hips, raising her eyebrows expectantly.

"No," Kyon admitted, shaking his head, "I'm not saying that at all." He shrugged and started walking again. "And it's not like you didn't tell me that whatever I'd do with my money would just be a waste."

"Well, not exactly," Haruhi countered, falling into step beside him, "it's just, more manga that you've already read? I'm all for following new series and getting new ideas ... I just got the idea that you'd read boring things! I'm always looking for new and interesting stories, too. Not just manga, of course. I just don't have the patience to get stuck reading a long series, if I can help it.

"I don't watch anime that have a second season unless they're really well recommended," she continued, waggling a finger authoritatively. "Light novels with more than ten books are a hassle, and real novels that are more than a trilogy for that matter, too! Movies are okay, but should be in trilogies at best, as well. Too much is too much ... I get enough of my real life to not want to devote countless hours to escapism - at least, not solely to a single story!

"It's not like I hate longer stories," she allowed, her tirade almost complete as she looked away, her face coloring. "But I picked up Mahou Sensei Negima a few years back because I like the artist's other stories... How was I to know he wanted to make a series that rivaled the original Dragon Ball manga in length! Arg... What a time sink!"

During the tirade, while he seemed focused on Haruhi words, Yuki caught the small glance that the boy gave her. Even though she feared she could never truly _know_ what he meant without stating things clearly, she was certain that he was amused, at the very least. "I see," he said, when Haruhi finished. "So, you got caught up in a popular manga, and don't like the idea of it happening to me?"

"Well, smaller, more interesting stories are the key," Haruhi protested. "It's about variety of experiences, more than anything else! And ... well, I like Negima, but if I'd known it would be so long, I probably would have put it off until it was complete, then gotten all of the finished volumes and read it that way... The waiting is a real annoyance, too, you know?"

"What do you think, Nagato?" he asked, turning to look at her instead of Haruhi as they paused again, this time before a manga and magazine shop. A small crowd of shoppers was flowing constantly throughout the district, a handful of other students from their school perusing the window display of a nearby bakery, or glancing in the window they had stopped from.

"Matters of opinion differ according to perspective," she answered without hesitation.

"No, no," Haruhi protested, frowning. "Well, I mean ... yeah, but that's obvious. What's your opinion, Yuki-chan? Is it better to read a lot of short stories, or one longer one?"

"In either case," she answered, taking a moment to consider, "the primary motivating factor is depth of immersion."

Haruhi blinked at that, looking confused. Kyon raised both of his eyebrows. "So, you're saying that you don't care about a story's length, as long as it moves you?" he suggested.

As always, he understood her better than she understood him. She gave a tiny nod to him, while Haruhi began to pout.

"Like Nagato said, though, everyone's different," Kyon said with a shrug. "But, since we're _here_, let's grab some manga anyway? I want to see if they've got the final volume of Yakitate! Japan, and I'm guessing your Negima is my penalty...?"

"Fine," Haruhi managed, her pout fading as her cheeks colored slightly. "If it's the last volume, lend me your manga once you're done with it!"

"I think it breaks your volume length rule," Kyon teased, opening the door and holding it for both of them.

"If I can read it all at once it doesn't matter," she countered. "Yuki-chan, what are you interested in?"

While she had read a significant volume of tomes, she preferred the density of compacted words. She'd never actually read any graphic novels at all. The most she could think of was light novels, of which she had read a few, with their occasional illustrations. Uncertain how to proceed, she approached a stand and picked up the first manga she saw.

Haruhi immediately burst into laughter, before clapping one hand over her mouth. At her side, Kyon looked like he was trying to suppress a smirk of his own. She studied the title, 'Ghost in the Shell'. "Is this not appropriate?" she asked. The more graphical medium made extracting data from the front illustration difficult.

In addition to the cover being the least adequate part of the book to judge the contents by, according to contemporary human adages, she knew that thematically, elements were redone specifically to catch the eye or try and sell the contents as a product to an unwary consumer. The cover of the book she had picked up had a very curvy woman who appeared to have lost the flesh on various parts of her body, revealing a rudimentary cybernetic understructure. The rest of her body was wrapped in a skin-tight suit of some unknown purpose, while she sat atop a spider-shaped mechanical tank-like construct.

Presumably, the story was about this character, and possibly her mechanical spider. Was there some cue she had missed that was more amusing to the others?

"If that's what you'd like, that's fine," Kyon said, shaking his head. "I haven't read that one, but I've heard it's good."

Yuki nodded slightly, satisfied she had picked something. After she had some time to try and pick meaning from the pictures, instead of the more direct words she had previously stuck with, she could decide if the pictures provided a different level of immersion.

"Anyway, I've also got 'AI Love You', which is by the author who writes Negima," Haruhi commented, still grinning. "I think that you'll _really_ like that!"

She nodded acceptance, noting that Kyon's attention had already wandered across the store. "Found it," he said in satisfaction, a few aisles over. When she approached, she noticed that the covers of the volumes in this area tended towards young male figures in athletic poses or about to enter combat ... or more often, what was presumably the main cast all stuck together as if posing for a camera. The volume he held had what was presumably the protagonist, smiling widely, though she was unable to determine the figure's gender. Most likely a girl, given the pink headband, apron, and basket of baked goods.

"Me, too," Haruhi added, grabbing three volumes of her own. "Hmm, is that really all you want, Yuki-chan?"

"It is not yet known if I appreciate this medium," she answered. She could read it before it was paid for, of course, but she'd learned that store owners seemed not to appreciate that very much. That was why it was such a pleasant discovery when Kyon had introduced her to the library. That space was specifically set aside for culturally appropriate reading, and ostensibly, was free to all to use as much as they desired. Once Kyon had gotten her a library card, at least.

Haruhi looked at Yuki thoughtfully, then immediately turned her attention to Kyon, raising both eyebrows expectantly.

"What?" he asked, faintly annoyed as he moved to stand behind a small cluster of boys in the same school uniform as him, eagerly discussing the latest volume of their own manga. "What's that look about?"

"You know Yuki-chan best," she said with a sigh, shaking her head.

Yuki thought that was an interesting observation. Still, at least among their own club, she was right. Even then, Yuki wondered how much Kyon really understood of her. While she couldn't quantify it, she felt strangely assured that it was enough.

"Well, I think you shouldn't talk about her like she's not here," Kyon said mildly. "If you want to try and know Nagato better, maybe you should just spend some time listening and watching her, instead of saying what you think she means."

Yuki blinked, wondering if it would be appropriate to nod. Haruhi squinted at him, then sighed and turned her full focus on Yuki. "Well, if you can figure it out, I'll try, too," she agreed.

A few minutes later, Kyon paid for their manga, rolling his eyes at the total as Haruhi spotted and demanded an entire stack of Trope-tan manga, "For the club! Kanae-chan and Tsuruya-san love this, right?"

"I should point out," Kyon said, hefting the bag with all of the purchases in it, "that I haven't even gotten to do what I set out to do, here."

"What is that, anyway?" Haruhi asked. "You wanted to get Yuki-chan something, right? The manga doesn't count?"

"Not when you get more than her," Kyon retorted, smirking. "But, no." He gestured to a shop a few doors over, where Yuki could see multiple gleaming rows of handheld communication devices. "I know it's not much, Nagato, but you've done so much for us lately, that you have to at least let me make this one tiny gesture, even if it is kind of useless."

She was uncertain how to react, but didn't miss the way that Haruhi's eyebrows shot upwards, and her mouth dropped open slightly. Really, it seemed as though Haruhi was somehow jealous that she hadn't thought of the idea, first... From a technical standpoint, he was right to think that it didn't mean much to her. She had a home phone, and wasn't away from it often, except in instances where she was with the others.

Somehow, though... Somehow, even though it was a silly piece of technology that she could emulate without effort... As a symbol it still posessed meaning. Even despite that, she found herself asking, "Why?"

"I just thought ... if you ever wanted to call me- Or Haruhi, or anyone else from the brigade..." He shrugged, gesturing in when an eager clerk opened and held the door for the group, welcoming them with a wide grin.

As a token from _him_, she would treasure it, regardless of function. Technically, she could afford to buy it herself. While the IDSE could have sabotaged her finances, she could repair them just as easily ... so money wasn't likely to be an issue, except where it was suspicious. So, she decided she would accept the token, but purchase it herself. He didn't have the power to fabricate currency, after all.

As she opened her mouth to explain this to him, he didn't even look at her, instead leaning down to peer at one of the display models. "And I won't take 'no' for an answer, this time," he said absently. "If I can't get it for you, I feel like I haven't done anything to make it a gift."

She closed her mouth, nodding acceptance gravely. He noticed, even without looking. Haruhi stared intently, nodding slowly herself.

"I'm starting to get Yuki-chan watching," she remarked, crossing her arms over her chest. "And move away from there, Yuki-chan! I see you reaching for the cheapest phone in the place! Get something nice - something meaningful, or else you reduce the value of Kyon's gift!" If anything, the clerk haunting the trio managed to smile even more widely.

She paused, nodding again, retracting the hand she had only begun to raise. While she thought from an objective standpoint that being predictable could reveal any number of weak points for an enemy to attack ... somehow it was reassuring to be _known_. And while the sensation and enjoyment of it from him had been a constant since she had first been taken to the library, from Haruhi it was strangely refreshing.

First him, then recently Mikuru, and now Haruhi... This was the very thing that the IDSE had determined would cause her to become unreliable. Except, when she analyzed the situation, she couldn't find herself agreeing with her former... She realized with faint surprise that she wasn't even certain how to define the relationship she had with the IDSE. The nearest contemporary human analogue would be slavery - which didn't adequately express it. But 'family' wasn't good enough, either.

Such things weren't precisely blind spots in the entity's outlook ... it had the data of everything that a human could experience in terms of relationship, but no way to directly experience it. In fact, she and the others like her had been created specifically to bridge that gap ... though, there was evidence to suggest that she and the others like her may in fact have been intended as insulative measures to protect the entity from memetic contamination.

After all, in the entity's judgment, _she_ was contaminated with the data that she was supposed to observe, not participate in. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to consider it contamination, herself, despite the difficulty she had in expressing her changes. So, if he wanted her to have a trinket as a symbol of their connection, a communication device sufficed on several levels.

As she slowly surveyed the store, it occured to her that frequently, girls her own apparent age also used their phones as status symbols, frequently adding small charms or decorations for individuality. Was that, just as much as the fact that it was a symbol of communication part of why he had wanted to get her one of the devices?

Now which one was she supposed to choose? He perused the models, looking without really appearing interested. Haruhi was studying _her_. So ... something from him...?

* * *

"I'm home," Kyon announced tiredly. Not that he had endured anything particularly exhausting, except for the math test. And considering that, he was still vaguely certain he might have enjoyed fighting against a dozen boryokudan soldiers more than math tests. Having to do both ... actually wasn't as bad as he had feared. But he wasn't immune to getting tired, even if he _did_ suspect that before her memory gambit, Haruhi had given him more energy when he woke up in the mornings.

Still, in retrospect, having to worry about both school and the abnormal side of his life - the business of supernatural and secret organizations... The manga weren't entirely accurate when it came down to living the experiences. Strangely, it felt like less of a burden than most of his shounen heroes made it seem, and he felt he spent significantly more time actually doing school-related things than otherwise.

"Welcome back!" his little sister cheered, launching into him like a cannon-ball. He smirked at the way his coat's passive shielding reduced her projectile momentum to nothing more than an energetic hug - evidently without her noticing. "Dad's got something _amazing_ going on in the kitchen!"

He shrugged, tousling her hair and removing his coat to drape over one arm before stepping into the kitchen. His mother wasn't in sight, probably out grabbing groceries. His father had spread his newspapers all across the table, along with an incredibly battered collection of archaic odds and ends, some of which seemed vaguely familiar.

"Welcome home, Kyon," his father said absently, peering very closely at...

Kyon blinked slowly, not sure he believed his eyes. There were old, tarnished coins in that pile. Bits of what may once have been distinguished samurai armor, various pieces of decoration featuring unrecognizable kanji, obscured with a combination of age and caked-on grime... But in the center, unmistakable despite the fact that most of it had corroded into a lump of rust that suggested the function it once held...

"Is that a sword?" he managed, unable to turn the incredulous look he intended to at his father.

"It hasn't aged as well as I hoped," his father sighed. "I thought that this was a relic of your great grandfather, from the war... Well, it seems it was actually much older than that. I couldn't really guess how old, though."

In considerably better condition than the sword was a small brass hammer, which Kyon absently picked up and turned over. There was a pin in the head of the hammer, which he unscrewed. "Well, traditionally," he said, setting the pin against the peg in the sword's handle, "there's a maker's mark on the blade's tang, inside the hilt."

"Well, yes, but- Say, what are you doing?"

Kyon shrugged, hefting the hammer to test its weight. "This is a mekugi," he explained, nodding at the peg on the hilt while his sister watched raptly. "It's the peg that runs through both the tsuka - the hilt - and the tang - the base of the blade inside the hilt. I have to say, though, this equipment looks much, much newer than the sword itself." One solid whack against the peg dislodged it. "Now that the mekugi is loose, we can pull the hilt off..." With a small grunt of exertion, he was able to convince the hilt and the tang to part, probably for the first time in decades.

"And there we have it," he said in satisfaction, putting the pin back into the top of the hammer and setting it down.

"S...so I see," his father agreed, leaning close to examine it. "Huh. Can you remove the tsuba as well?"

"Yeah," Kyon agreed, carefully pulling the aged components off the weathered sword until the hand guard was loose. "Hmm, this is a different metal," he commented, sliding the piece across the tang and then holding it up to examine it. "I think it's brass."

"Well, this tsuba could give us some background on our clan, you know. This sword has probably been in our family longer than I realized!" his father remarked, plucking the grimy disc from Kyon's hands to peer at it curiously.

Shrugging, Kyon leaned forward to squint at the maker's mark on the blade itself. At his side, his little sister stared at the artifacts with wide-eyed wonder, her fingertips just clinging to the edge of the table. "I can't read that kanji," he finally admitted, shaking his head and turning a curious glance at his father.

"I'm not the one who's suddenly proficient in classic sword maintenance," his father replied, studying the unfamiliar kanji anyway. "Huh ... well, we'll need a scholar for that- Say, Kyon, when did you learn this much about swords, anyway?"

He felt his face color. It probably wouldn't do to explain that it was incidental knowledge to go with the swordsmanship he'd learned at Haruhi's request. "Well, you know," he said lamely, shrugging. "That club I'm in ... we do a lot of practice things."

His father accepted this with a dubious nod. "I can't make out many details on this," he added, indicating the tsuba. "It looks very ornate, but the oxidation is so severe, it's almost black... I bet if we could find someone who knew what they were doing, this could be restored."

Not the blade, Kyon knew instantly. The tang might have legible markings and be in good condition, but the rest of the sword was a rusted, ruined mess, unlikely to be of worth to most collectors. The tsuba might be more reparable, and that would be the more important part, ultimately, if it gave a key to their heritage.

"Tsuruya-kun might know someone," he said, thinking about it. "I can make a copy of the marks on the tang, and see what she makes of the tsuba?"

The man hesitated, then nodded, giving a weak smile. "I guess it's too much to hope for that it would be done before our meeting on Thursday," he allowed, sighing. "Still, a little token of our legacy is a nice thing, isn't it?"

"I suppose," Kyon said, shrugging. He picked up the remnants of the hilt. "This tsuka is really well made ... for the sword to be rusted almost through, but the wood to not have rotted at all?"

"Well, the wrappings didn't fare too well," his father remarked, shuffling everything into a large and much abused cardboard box. "It's possible that they protected the hilt beneath them. Which may be just as well; since the tang is preserved, so is the maker's mark."

Nodding absently, Kyon copied the maker's mark onto a piece of notebook paper, then wrapped both the paper and the tsuba in his handkerchief and stuck stuck them in his coat pocket. Just as they finished clearing the table off, balling up the newspaper, now full of rusty cast off grit and oil from who-knew-what, they heard the sound of the front door opening.

Kyon's father wordlessly hefted the box and dashed towards the back door, bee-lining to the storage shed, leaving his children to finish disposing of the rest of the evidence.

"I'm home!" their mother called.

"Mom!" Kyon's sister exclaimed excitedly, launching herself towards the entryway to run interference. He hurriedly stuffed the trash into the waste bin, then realized that he would also need to take the trash out...

He had just finished replacing the trash bag when his mother stepped into the kitchen, giving him a rare, approving smile to see him in the middle of household chores. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour," she told him. "Once you finish your chores, make sure you're done with your homework."

"Got it," he agreed, hefting the sealed trash bag and marching to the outside waste bin.

His father was standing in the backyard, still, staring at the sky thoughtfully as he puffed on a cigarette. "Oh, da- Uh, shoot, I mean," he remarked, frowning at Kyon. "I was going to do that."

"Lost your excuse to sneak out and grab a smoke without mom noticing?" Kyon asked, smirking at his father.

The man gave him a hooded stare before taking one last drag on his cigarette and stubbing it out. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her," the man said resolutely, pulling a pack of breath mints from his pocket.

"You can say that again," Kyon agreed, shaking his head. When he stepped back into the kitchen, his sister was at his mother's side, standing atop the stepping stool and washing the vegetables for the evening meal. Since neither her nor their mother noticed him, he decided to wordlessly climb the stairs.

More homework. "Ninety or better," he mumbled, dropping his coat onto his bed and turning to his schoolbag. "Ugh."

* * *

Except for the all-important math test being handed back (though, in Kyon's case, all tests were so important), Haruhi judged the day of lessons to be as boring as ever. Still, by focusing on them, she defeated them quickly. She'd gotten a ninety seven on her test, lower than usual, but Kyon had gotten a ninety six, so she wasn't much bothered. Three of her points for twenty one of his? A seven to one conversion rate was quite solid.

Kanae eagerly volunteered for mascot duty, and as much as Haruhi liked seeing Tsuruya in her elegant crimson dress, she also thought Kanae was adorable in her own outfit. After the girl had changed and the boys were allowed entry to the room again, Kanae flawlessly carried her duties out, the epitome of moe. "Yep, police woman's costume, next," Haruhi affirmed. "Your ludicrously cute features with outfits demanding authority are the perfect combination!"

"Okay," Mikuru mumbled, still busily sketching in her book, pausing occasionally stare at the ceiling, contemplating some intricacy of the amazing sewing knowledge she had collected before quickly jotting down a series of small notes, numbers, and exceptionally detailed diagrams. Haruhi had once had a passing interest in sewing, but Mikuru had elevated it to a form of _science_ with Yuki's help, and Haruhi couldn't name half of the things that Mikuru had planned without taking time to concentrate on the last sewing book she had read.

Kyon, Tsuruya, and Koizumi were already clustered around a board game, and Yuki was slowly tapping at the keys of her laptop - not reading the manga she had picked out the previous afternoon. Haruhi glanced at the other girl briefly, wondering what she was writing, then turned her attention to her list of required supplies for the weekend beach trip.

Kanae quietly set a hot cup of coffee on the edge of the desk, carefully carrying a tray with hot drinks for the others at the table over. "Anything interesting or unusual lately?" Haruhi asked, glancing up from the monitor to scan across the table. After serving drinks, Kanae sat next to Mikuru and began to work on her sketchbook.

"Not for me," the slider volunteered, shaking her head.

"How about you, Koizumi, Tsuruya-san? You headed out to discuss something yesterday, didn't you?" she pressed, curious.

"That's right," Koizumi agreed, sighing and tipping over his game piece as Kyon moved something across the board. "Well, it was just Organization business... Tsuruya-san and myself end up working as liaisons for..." He paused, glancing towards the door and shrugging with a broad smile. "I suppose this is soundproofed, now. But we each work to express our interests as our current cohesive group to the two sides of the new organization that is being formed."

"It's a lot of boring paperworks, actually," Tsuruya commented, throwing the dice and grinning as her game piece crossed the finish line first. "Organization charts, defining communications channels - and background checks."

Haruhi frowned. She supposed it made sense, but organized criminals and a secret conspiracy joining forces ... a bureaucratic nightmare? Just as well she got to ignore it. Doing paperwork for Kyon was pain enough! "I wish it were more exciting," she opined.

"I'm happier with the slow days, myself," Koizumi remarked, shaking his head slightly with an apologetic smile.

Nodding thoughtfully as Kyon collected the game pieces and prepared for another round, Haruhi realized that it was the first time she'd heard the esper declare an opinion contrary to hers without Kyon endorsing it first. She hid an internal smile ... that much better if Koizumi decided to stand on his own and be supportive, but his own person, not just a mindless yes-man.

"Since you're the one dealing with those slow days, good for you," she acknowledged. "How many can play this game?"

"Four," Kyon answered. Kanae's expectant smile fell, as she looked wordlessly between Haruhi, Tsuruya, and Koizumi.

"I'll sit out," Koizumi volunteered. "I did lose last round, after all."

"No, no, I'll sit out," Tsuruya insisted, rising to her feet and stretching. "Here you go, Haru-nyan~!"

While Haruhi looked over the rules, Kyon dealt out the game's tokens. "Say, Tsuruya-kun, there was something in my coat I wanted to ask you about," he said, glancing up as he passed Kanae her cards.

"Sure thing!" she giggled, going to where Kyon had hung his coat on the costume rack. "I gots it!"

"Er, yeah," he acknowledged, as she held the garment out for him. "Thanks ... I was going to get that, though."

"I needed to stretch, anyway," the tall girl insisted, while he stood up and rummaged inside the coat. "What's this about, then? Another alien artifact?"

"No," he said, pulling out a few objects in succession, grimacing when they weren't what he was looking for. A small spiral-bound notebook with a pen clipped to it that Haruhi decided she would investigate later, his old cell phone, his math test, his new phone, and finally, a cloth-wrapped bundle. "Of course, the heaviest thing would be at the bottom," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, my father found that last night, and we were wondering about the legacy ... I didn't know who else to ask, but I know you have contact with people who run labs and could probably figure this out, so..."

Tsuruya accepted it solemnly, eyes gleaming with excitement, and carried it to the seat opposite Mikuru, while Haruhi let herself be completely distracted from the game manual to watch. The object inside the bundle was a piece of a sword - the hand guard. Beneath it was a carefully traced copy of some arcane kanji that she didn't recognize.

"Ooooh," the heiress cooed, moving the metal disk to one side and staring at the paper in astonishment. "I knows this name!"

"Game paused on account of ancestral heirloom weapon," Haruhi declared, turning her attention to Kyon. "Why didn't you say you had such a thing!?"

"I had no idea!" Kyon protested. "It suddenly showed up last night..." He trailed off and squinted. "Well, no ... in retrospect I think I remember seeing it in the pile of things that we got from my grandfather... I didn't know what it was then - and I still don't!"

Haruhi raised her eyebrows doubtfully. "You are actively trying to pretend you don't hear the call," she judged, shaking her head. "Tsuruya-san, what do you make of it?"

"Hmm!" Tsuruya mused, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I can't actually read the entire thing ... it looks like there's a prayer on it, too. But I do knows that name! Three of the swords in my family home have the same name on them! So, Kyon-kun, our ancestors used the same sword smith!"

"That's ... kind of neat," Kyon allowed, nodding. "Do you know anything else?"

"I'll find out," Tsuruya promised eagerly, carefully re-wrapping the tsuba and note, then stowing them in her schoolbag.

"Good that you're keeping yourself busy, Kyon," Haruhi judged. Then again... It also occurred to her that Kyon could easily have asked herself or Yuki to find out what the lineage of the heirloom was. She'd need Kyon's permission, but Yuki wouldn't.

Of course, Kyon did complain about relying on Yuki too much, and she was starting to see his point... She, naturally, would like Kyon to rely on herself _more_, but at the moment that mostly came down on Yuki, anyway. So for the time being, that was out. "Did you finish reading your manga last night, Yuki-chan?" she asked, turning her attention to the game board as Kyon resumed setting out pieces.

"Yes," she answered quietly, tapping another key.

"Well, what did you think of it?"

Yuki looked up from her screen, her eyes wandering across the table and studying everyone in turn before finally drifting back to Haruhi's. A long minute of thought later, she replied, "Unique."

"Well ... yeah ... but did you _like_ it?"

Yuki nodded slightly, without hesitation. "An evocative medium," she remarked.

"Haha, is our Nagato becoming a manga fan?" Kyon asked with a chuckle, raising an eyebrow, the hints of a smile playing about the corners of his mouth.

In response, Yuki pulled her cell phone from her pocket. The model she had finally settled on was a decent, established model - reliable, sturdy, and fairly expensive, despite not being top of the line. Haruhi wondered just how much money Tsuruya was _paying_ Kyon that he only shrugged at the price tag after picking up all of the Trope-tan manga...

Something else to figure out at a later date.

Still, it was a solid and very shiny phone (nicer than Haruhi's, actually), with no moving parts outside of the keys. Haruhi personally thought that flip-tops were more interesting and stylish, but Yuki had merely pointed at the hinge and labeled it a structural weakness.

Yuki pressed a button to wake the device and light up the background, which had already been replaced with a picture of the cover of the manga in question.

"I don't know that one well," Tsuruya said, shaking her head. "But I thoughts the movie was good!"

Yuki blinked, turning her gaze to Tsuruya as she pocketed her phone again. "Movie?" she asked.

Even though her token 'silent character' status was slipping, Haruhi couldn't help but be pleased that slowly, Yuki was becoming more outspoken and a greater part of the group. With Koizumi finally expressing his own opinions, Mikuru behaving more confidently, and even Kanae showing what looked like real trust for the others...

Not, she admitted to herself, that she was in any way immune. Though she'd never say it aloud in Kyon's hearing (it firmly landed in his small but real 'anger' zone), in a small way, she was grateful that events put Yuki in enough danger to allow the trust that prompted all of the changes they had endured. Kyon had opened her eyes to her friends, and though he acted aloof and behaved generally the same...

He _had_ changed. He was more at ease, at least ... and if he hadn't become so, she never would have realized that he _had_ been stressed in the past. But instead of feeling frequently remote and disapproving, he felt more like ... well ... a friend. A guide, even, maybe.

"Your turn," Kanae reminded her, waving a hand. "Is everything alright, Suzumiya-san?"

"Ah, just distracted," she admitted, studying the board, where Kyon, Koizumi, and Kanae had already taken their moves. "So, me versus team alliteration, eh?"

"Hmm," Tsuruya mused, glancing at the board game. "I wonders if there's a poem in that?"

Haruhi rolled the dice and moved her piece. Tsuruya had gotten out a calligraphy kit in the meantime. "You're not actually in the calligraphy club, are you, Tsuruya-san?" she asked. She didn't remember seeing Tsuruya with Mikuru in her original scan of the club ... but it had been a year ago.

"Private training," the heiress responded, her brush elegantly tracing characters as quickly as Haruhi thought most people could write. Mikuru had very solid calligraphy, but Tsuruya had her beat - hands down - in both terms of clarity and speed. "Important things to know, in the business."

"What else did you learn?" Kyon asked, grimacing as Koizumi played a penalty card on him. "Back to the beginning... I know you mentioned that you had some martial arts training, too?"

"All proper things!" Tsuruya exclaimed, focused on her current paper. "Tea ceremony, calligraphy, social behaviors, ninkyo dantai formality, martial arts, interrogations ... that kinds of stuff."

"You know tea ceremony, but you don't know how to prepare tea?" Haruhi asked, arching an eyebrow higher as Kanae rolled the dice and moved her piece.

"Oh, well," Tsuruya said, chuckling as she set her brush down. "That's entirely different. Mikuru-chan knows how to make teas with much less fuss, and I'm not sure how you use those tools. The teas I learned to make is from powdered tea, not tea leaves."

"Hmm," Haruhi mused, realizing she didn't actually know much about tea ceremony in general. There was a club at the school for it, but it seemed _hopelessly_ boring. She had almost fallen asleep during her day there, when they were talking about the importance of water temperature. "Maybe you can show us, some day?" she asked, tossing the dice for her turn again. "I'd like to see how it's done, I guess."

"Sure!" Tsuruya agreed, nodding. "I can teach you, too!"

"It might be fun to do once," Kyon allowed, throwing the dice when Haruhi finished her turn. "Oh, man..." He sighed and moved his piece back several spaces after landing on a penalty square.

"It sounds enjoyable," Koizumi agreed, playing yet another penalty card on Kyon, and rolling the dice again. "I, for one, gladly embrace these tranquil days where we find them."

"As long as things don't get too boring," Haruhi opined, while Kanae took her turn. "Except the beach trip this weekend, we don't really have anything planned."

"Actually," Kyon said, wincing slightly as he checked his PDA, "my family is meeting with Tsuruya and her father for dinner tomorrow night. It's a fairly formal thing, so I'll probably have to skip club for it..."

That chafed her... "I remember that being mentioned," she agreed, frowning. "Well, work is work, and you have to earn those paychecks somehow."

Though her face colored slightly, Tsuruya kept her attention firmly focused on her calligraphy.

Mikuru broke from her sketching to stretch her arms over her head and glance around the table, smiling when she spotted the teacup Kanae had left her. "I'll make tea for the next round, Kanae-chan," she remarked, seeing that the slider was involved with the game.

"Ah, thanks!" Kanae said, ducking her head and shooting the time traveler a grin.

Haruhi took her turn, landing twelve tiles away from the goal. A pair of sixes would win for her...

Kyon rolled the dice, then his eyes, moving forward three tiles before sending the dice across the table to Koizumi.

"Could this be a rare instance of me actually doing better than you in a board game?" the esper asked cheerfully, taking his turn. Mikuru giggled in response, rising to move to the tea set. "Perhaps I'll even win!"

"Nope!" Kanae cheered, playing a penalty card on him before rolling, stopping one square short of the goal. "Aww..."

Haruhi rolled the dice, grinning at her pair of sixes. "Better luck next time, Koizumi-kun," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and nodding in satisfaction. "Pick out a game that can have more players, Kyon!"

"Then I can collect penalty cards from even more opponents," he replied with a smirk, before walking around the table to the game cabinet. Koizumi shrugged and began putting the current board game away, while Mikuru hummed and prepared a new batch of tea.

Kyon returned to the table with a copy of a murder mystery board game Koizumi had picked up months ago. "Here," he said, setting it down and retaking his seat. "Up to eight players."

"Ooh, I know this one!" Tsuruya exclaimed, finished with her calligraphy. "I'll play! I wants the green piece!"

"Give me the gold one," Haruhi claimed quickly.

"Can I join, too?" Mikuru asked, serving everyone their refreshed tea.

"Naturally," Koizumi agreed, nodding.

"Nagato?" Kyon asked, pulling out the board and pieces.

Yuki blinked, seemingly satisfied with her work on the laptop for the moment. She closed it and gave a tiny nod, turning her attention to the board game.

In spite of herself, Haruhi smiled. It wasn't quite what she originally had in mind when she was looking for people who were different from 'normal'. She'd thought initially that playing with time travelers, aliens, espers, sliders... Well, she'd originally thought that having fun would involve using their powers a lot. After all, that would be a kind of fun that no one else would get to have!

All the same, she couldn't quite bring herself to be upset with the way things were going. Everyone was having fun, after all. Not just _her_, but thanks to what she'd learned over the last year, she had at least learned _that_ wasn't the _point_.

Well ... it wasn't what she had been looking for. But maybe it was what she had wanted, anyway.

Even if she wasn't going to be able to see Kyon or Tsuruya at the club the next day, she felt that things were going to be okay.

* * *

After class finished on Thursday, Mikuru briefly contemplated her options. Well, attending the club was still a requirement, of course... And she _had_ the basic designs. She just needed to measure Yuki to figure out what the measurements should be; Tsuruya didn't want to wait on measuring first, so there was already a very large pile of lengths of cloth, probably much more than another outfit would take.

Though, thinking of the green-haired girl, she was skipping club to take care of some business with Kyon. Humming to herself and wondering what to do with the rest of her day, she opened the door to the club room, absently heading towards the costume rack for her maid outfit before realizing she had walked in on Kanae mid-outfit change.

"Ah," Kanae managed, her face turning pink. "I forgot to lock the door."

"I always do that," Mikuru assured the slider, reddening slightly herself as she closed the door.

Kanae ducked her head and giggled, rushing to change into her stewardess outfit. "Well, I suppose that Koizumi-san and Sempai are the only boys here, but still," she said, buttoning the coat up.

Mikuru felt her face color more darkly. "Kyon-kun always knocks," she said, nodding. "Um, I'll get started on the tea while you dress."

"Thanks! Sempai's thoughtful like that - like you!"

"Well, he did walk in on me accidentally once, after I forgot to lock the door ... the first and only time, really," Mikuru confessed, giggling.

Kanae's gasp sounded behind her, the slider simultaneously sounding eager and jealous. "S...Sempai got to see you change?"

"Ah, well..." Mikuru hesitated, setting the kettle on the hot plate. He'd seen much _more_ of her, in that picture Tsuruya snapped, in that very fancy but embarrassingly ... she couldn't think of a proper word, and her face was red enough. Coughing and fussing aimlessly with the tea basket, her back to the slider, she managed, "It was quite embarrassing ... I almost screamed. He was so apologetic afterwards!"

"Ooh," Kanae murmured. "But, then ... Sempai always knocks now, but what about Koizumi-san?"

"Koizumi-kun usually comes to club later, or follows someone else," Mikuru agreed, turning back to Kanae, who was finishing adjusting her cap. "You should be completely safe changing in here! Only the other girls should walk in on you."

As if to underscore that point, the door suddenly slammed open with an oddly muffled thud. "Hello!" Haruhi cheered, her smile widening slightly at seeing Kanae in her stewardess outfit. "Ah, that is so _cute_!"

Kanae tried to smile, but it was overridden by a pout. "I wouldn't have minded Sempai," it sounded like the girl was muttering.

But surely she hadn't said something like that? Mikuru hoped that Kanae was just fixated on Kyon as a sempai, or an older brother figure, not... Oh, Haruhi would be so jealous if she found out!

"W...what was that?" she asked, eyes flicking to Haruhi nervously. "Um, and do you know where Yuki-chan is?"

"Computer club today, since Kyon's absent," Haruhi answered, shrugging. "I checked in on them, since I suspected it. Anyway, what's wrong, Kanae-chan? Don't like your costume?"

"N...no, no, it's cute!" Kanae protested immediately, waving her hands as though to ward away the very idea. "Just... W...well, when you said 'stewardess' costume, I thought it might be a bit ... um ... well..." She trailed off and offered Mikuru a sheepish, apologetic smile. "I'm kind of envious of Tsuruya-san's first costume..."

"What, you think it's not sexy enough?" Haruhi asked, raising an eyebrow as she walked around Kanae to toss her bag on the table and drop into the chair behind the computer desk.

Kanae blushed wordlessly and stared at her feet, poking her index fingers at one another.

Mikuru silently raised the fingertips of one hand to her mouth, unsure of what to say. She hadn't designed it herself, after all, just copied the idea from an anime... Though, that was just as true for Tsuruya's more daring outfit. And given that Haruhi, regardless of if she would admit it or not, was easily made jealous...

That and the fact that Kanae looked younger than she even was, being so tiny. Mikuru couldn't really think of how to try and make an outfit for her that was more 'sexy' than 'cute'. Something else she couldn't say, at least not without crushing the slider's confidence. She turned her eyes to Haruhi, worried about whatever was to happen next.

Haruhi made a thoughtful noise, as though considering something, then shook her head and leaned back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest. "I don't think that will work," she said disagreeably. "The initial point of a mascot for the club was to try and find someone who was really _moe_, someone who would draw people to the club and get us members!"

"I might be able to do that!" Kanae managed weakly. "Um ... i...if I tried-"

"We don't really want just any member, now, though," Haruhi interrupted, waggling a finger at the slider. "So, the mascot position isn't about recruiting anymore. It's just for fun, and so Mikuru-chan gets to practice her sewing! It's still nice to have cute mood-setting costumes for multiple occasions, but I don't think it's for the best to turn it into a competition.

"I do like the idea of competition in general, but all things considered, doing it here would undermine the teamwork and friendship we're trying to build. And, anyway, the chief of mascot services has a certain home field advantage, doesn't she?" Haruhi underscored the last remark by sweeping an arm out, pointing squarely at Mikuru's chest.

She squeaked involuntarily, wondering what costume was in store for her next. Though, if she got to make it herself...

"Haha, see?" Haruhi said, nodding knowingly at the way Mikuru shrunk away. "Kyon fell for that, too! Not that I can blame him..." Haruhi jumped from her seat, and Mikuru valiantly tried to flee - but not quickly enough. She made it about three steps towards the door before Haruhi glomped onto her, holding her tightly from behind and nuzzling the back of her neck.

"N...not the ear thing again!" Mikuru protested.

"She's so moe you just want to grab her and take care of her - and in that outfit, you're the same way!"

"Kanae-chan!" Mikuru whimpered. "Run, save yourself!"

Unexpectedly to Mikuru, Haruhi suddenly released her, as both the brigade chief and the slider burst into laughter. "So!" Haruhi said brightly, moving next to the time traveler and clapping one hand on her shoulder. "Use what you've got, and don't worry about the rest so much. We're strong in our unique attributes, not the ones that everyone has that are the same."

"W...well, even so," Kanae said, giggling, "there are _some_ ways that I wish I was more ... um ... similar to Asahina-san in."

"W...what?" Mikuru asked, dazed. "You can always grow your hair out, Kanae-chan... I think you might be even cuter if you grew it out!"

"That's not what I need to grow," Kanae said with a pout.

"Well, that's Mikuru-chan's specialty," Haruhi sighed. "If it makes you feel better, I'm jealous of that from Mikuru-chan, too! But in your case, well, you've got time to grow. Eat your vegetables, and drink your milk!"

Mikuru wondered what on earth Haruhi and Kanae were talking about.

"I will!" Kanae said cheerfully, pumping one fist in the air. "If you believe in it, I'll do it!"

Even though she didn't entirely understand the situation, Mikuru suddenly realized that, more than anything, she missed Kyon. She hadn't realized how much of a calming influence he was on everyone... Which was silly of her to forget. And it wasn't _just_ that she wanted to run away from Haruhi before another 'ear' event, or...

Well.

"Um, Suzumiya-san," she managed, creeping away towards the tea set. "Would it be alright if I were to leave the club early today?"

"What for?" Haruhi asked in surprise, as Koizumi opened the door. "Oh, hey, Koizumi-kun."

"Hello, Suzumiya-san!" the esper replied cheerfully. "What's the plan for today?"

"Not sure yet," Haruhi answered, turning a questioning gaze to Mikuru.

"Um ... if Yuki-chan and I are going with Kyon-kun to see a movie tomorrow, I was thinking of taking Yuki-chan shopping for some clothes...?"

"Yuki-chan has other clothes!" the brigade chief noted. Then she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. "I know she wears other things on vacation ... but ... come to think of it, you're right. I suppose for Yuki-chan, school uniforms are the new black. Okay! I get what you're going for. If Yuki-chan doesn't mind leaving the computer club, then go for it!" She beamed a bright smile at the time traveler, and Mikuru felt her heart lift.

"That leaves just the question of what shall be done with us," Koizumi remarked with a shrug, taking a seat at the table. "Is anyone up for a round of Othello?"

"Oh, I'll play," Kanae agreed.

"There's just one thing," Haruhi warned Mikuru sternly, before she could move to the door.

So close to escape! "Ah...?" Mikuru forced a smile and looked at Haruhi with nervous expectancy.

"I know you have a camera in your phone ... so I expect pictures of Yuki-chan trying on the different outfits!" Turning to the table, where Kanae and Koizumi were already setting up the board, she added, "Actually, Koizumi, after your match, we should go over preparations for this weekend. And if I'm not mistaken, Kanae-chan has to bring up her history grade, so we can help her study, too."

"Ooh," Kanae noised, frowning. "More study."

"That's right!"

"O...okay, I'll be off, then," Mikuru agreed, nodding at Haruhi as she collected her bag and retreated to the computer club room. From the hallway, she noted that the 'soundproofing' that had been put on the club room was remarkably effective, actually leaving the upper corridor eerily quiet. Though, she was trying to delay the inevitable... As little as she relished returning to the scene of the crime - the computer club room - she couldn't talk to Yuki without going there.

And, really, Haruhi was a bigger danger than the computer club members.

She knocked on the door, and a moment later the computer club president answered, blinking in surprise to see her. She could tell by the faint haunted expression around his eyes that he hadn't forgotten that uncomfortable incident, either. "Uh," he managed, flinching back a step. "Y...you're here for Nagato-san?" he asked.

"Y...yes," she said weakly, unable to meet his eyes.

Yuki looked up from behind an over-sized monitor, two of the club's other members staring in awe at whatever was on the screen behind her. "U...um, Yu- Er, Nagato," Mikuru called. "D...do you have some time...?"

After tapping a few keys - much faster than she typed on her laptop in the clubroom lately - Yuki glided weightlessly from her seat on silent feet, stopping in the hallway before Mikuru and gazing up into her eyes with a silent curiosity.

"Um," Mikuru managed again as the computer club president closed the door to grant them whatever privacy the hallway would allow. "Yuki-chan, would you like to come shopping with me for some new clothes?"

"I have adequate clothing," Yuki answered, blinking.

"Er... Y...you don't want to get something special for when we go to see the movie with Kyon tomorrow?" she pressed.

There was a tiny trace of something around Yuki's eyes. Something ... like frustration? "This clothing is not appropriate?" Yuki asked.

"W...well, actually, the student handbook says we're not supposed to wear our uniforms except at school ... or on the way to and from school," Mikuru admitted. "Y...you don't have to wear something else, I just thought..." She trailed off lamely. She had thought, what? That Yuki needed _her_ help? That the smaller girl might look better in other outfits? Maybe she was just being insensitive.

Quietly, Yuki said, "As has been remarked, I fail to adhere to many social norms. In this matter, as I am uncertain on the specifics of how to proceed, I will defer to your judgment."

"S...so, you're okay with going shopping?" Mikuru asked hesitantly, uncomfortable with the idea of making Yuki do something she didn't specifically want to.

Yuki's lips shaped a few words soundlessly, as though she were trying to figure out the answer for a long minute before she said, "His perception ensures that most information is conveyed without any extra attempts to express that information with significantly higher than average reliability given the inherent unreliability of the verbal mode of data transmission. It is therefore inferred that no additional measures are required to deliver the content of this information to him.

"However... If 'dressing nicely' is a behavior intended to demonstrate interest, a desire to please, subservience, or comfort with an individual, then another logical issue makes itself known.

"My inability to understand him with absolute certainty is most likely caused by my inability to express myself to him equally. Therefore, by attempting to conform to social norms, I may fit better within the standards that he expresses himself with."

Dressing up indicated subservience? Well... In the case of the SOS Brigade, that actually seemed entirely true. But by that logic, Koizumi was the least subservient member of the brigade. She shook her head, realizing she was distracting herself from the unexpected storm of words that Yuki had unleashed.

"Y...you don't have to change yourself for other people," she told the smaller girl, smiling. "I think Kyon-kun doesn't mind you being the way you are at all. I...it was just my silly idea, so ... we can forget about it!"

"For him," Yuki said, blinking one time, "and for you, I wish to."

Mikuru bit her lip, barely restraining the urge to grab the smaller girl and hug her tightly again. This was in the hallway of the school building, after all. "Okay!" she said, smiling brightly. "Then, let's find out what kind of clothes you like to wear, right?"

Yuki nodded, following behind Mikuru for a heartbeat before the time traveler shook her head, nudging Yuki to walk beside her. The 'date' she and Yuki would be sharing with Kyon... Well, things were going to work out after all, somehow!

* * *

Frowning in dismay at his closet, Kyon realized he had four suits. One of them was the suit his parents had gotten him several months ago, to replace his previous formal attire. The other three were gifts from Tsuruya.

Sighing, he grabbed one of the three nearly identical suits and dressed. His sister was causing a ruckus downstairs, presumably throwing a fit over the fact that she wasn't going to be attending. Thankfully, Miyoko's family had agreed to watch over her for the evening. Well, thankfully to everyone but his sister, anyway.

After putting everything else on, he fumbled through his wallet until he found his reference card and correctly knotted his tie. A small mirror let him check his appearance. He'd need to properly brush his hair, and in what was starting to be a habit, he moved his Tsuruya family pin to his lapel... After a moment of thought, he put on his coat, switching through the PDA functions until he found the ability to turn the coat invisible.

Then it occurred to him that his current outfit might be useful at other times, so he took the coat back off and scanned himself with his PDA, adding the suit to his list. He had just finished putting the coat back on and stealthing it when his door slammed violently open, and his sister escaped the grasp of his father to launch herself at him, wailing.

"Don't leave me behind!" she demanded, as he caught her, spinning with the force of the impact to keep from hurting her. "I wanna go, too!"

Her grasping hands found his coat, even though it wasn't visible, and she started, staring in confusion at the empty air she seemed to be holding.

He quickly grabbed her wrists and pried her hands free, kneeling to be closer to her height. "Imouto," he sighed, shaking his head. "I'm sorry ... but this is a formal thing. You know that!"

Her attention went from his invisible coat to his face, and she pouted fiercely. "I want to be a part of Kyon-kun's life!" she insisted. "And Tsuru-nee-san's, too!"

"Nonoko," their father sighed from the doorway, "I'm glad that you and Kyon get along ... but this just won't do. Kyon trusts you enough to leave you alone with your friends, doesn't he?"

Kyon's father shot him a guarded look. Between the fact that it was his father, and his ability to read people in general, the message was clear enough: Boys don't fit into that category.

He nodded at his father. The first boy to break his sister's heart... Well, hopefully that was years away, but if it were to happen... Kyon's father caught the implied menace for such a doomed boy in Kyon's gaze and gave a very approving nod in return.

Kyon's sister seemed to miss the exchange, just pouting severely. "I don't want to lose my Kyon-kun," she grumbled. "Haru-nee-san wouldn't take you away like this!"

"Nonoko!" their mother called loudly from downstairs. "Miyoko-chan is here with her mother to pick you up! No misbehaving; your father and I still need to get ready, and you absolutely _must_ let Kyon look his best!"

For a moment, the girl looked about ready to protest, before sighing. "You'd better do your best, then, Kyon-kun," she mumbled, sulking as she slunk out of the room. "Oh, hey, Miyoko-chan."

Kyon exchanged a glance and shrug with his father, as he heard Miyoko ask, "What's Kyon-nii-san busy with, Nono-chan? My mom didn't say."

"Oh, some formal thing," he heard his sister sigh, their voices dwindling from range. "He's meeting with..."

Even though they were vanishing in the distance, he heard Miyoko's shocked, "He's _what_!? Er, I..." The rest was too quiet to hear.

Kyon's father shook his head and stepped out of the room, tossing back, "Once you're done getting ready, we can watch a ball game while we wait for your mother."


	29. Chapter 28

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Initial Conflict Arc V

Chapter Twenty Eight: Meetings

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Fragment: Clan Annals (unverified)"_

_"Entry for 5.19.2011:  
Sometimes, just sometimes ... being a slave to tradition has its perks. And those can make it worth it the rest of the time.  
- Tsu-Oyabun # 108"_

_"[Undecipherable]" - Recovered From Primary T.E.S.A. Archive_

* * *

Though she had previously already considered the feasibility of just altering whatever data she could find into different outfits, Yuki was able to recognize that the request wasn't _just_ to get her to change her clothes. She had access to several references that suggested shopping as a bonding experience and relatively standard social activity.

Then again, theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge weren't always identical.

So she walked at the side of her time traveling friend, strolling through the crowds as they walked a path very similar to the one she had walked with her other brigade members the night before. Mikuru touched a fingertip to her lips and looked around thoughtfully, her eyes lingering on several of the smaller boutiques before she settled on one and pointed it out, asking, "Should we look in there to see if there's anything you like?"

There wasn't much distinctive about the shop, other than the fact that it appeared to cater exclusively to females. Two of the stores that Mikuru hadn't decided to point out also qualified in that regard, which left the potential of this store's superiority to some factor that Yuki was positive she observed. She simply couldn't quantify it. "In this instance," she answered, turning to look at Mikuru, wondering if the time traveler would be able to sense her regret, "I must defer to your judgment."

Mikuru, while not as sharp as the boy they were both interested in, seemed to understand at least some of her trouble. "Well, this place has a good variety of types of clothes, at least. We can find out what you're comfortable wearing! Your outfits last summer vacation were very cute, I think! Did you like those?"

It was different from what she was used to, in any case. She followed Mikuru into the boutique and looked at the variety of clothing on display. All manner of shirts, blouses, shorts, skirts... She could name all of them, matching styles and colors to her reference pool. She could even identify which combinations would not adhere to social expectations, within a small degree of error.

But had she _liked_ them? She couldn't say she actually cared for them either way, except for the fact that they were slightly simpler to put on than her school uniform. In that regard, she calculated that she preferred clothing that was easy to wear. Was that enough for Mikuru to work with?

"Yes," she answered, while the time traveler waved off an attendant and stopped at a display of shorts, not far from a racks of blouses.

"Hum... You know your sizes, right?"

"Yes."

Mikuru tapped her chin thoughtfully, then turned away from the clothing and studied Yuki for a moment. "Yuki-chan ... what kinds of clothing have you worn before?"

"School uniform, casual clothing for summer vacation, traditional attire for the obon festival, swim-wear when appropriate, fortune teller costume, and cold-weather wear for winter," she replied. "Additionally, a coat and scarf over the school uniform."

Mikuru pursed her lips thoughtfully. "So, I've pretty much seen all of the clothes you've ever worn," she noted.

Yuki nodded at her.

"So, you've never tried wearing a sundress, for example?"

She shook her head.

Mikuru smiled, then found an example of the garment in question. "Let's see what your colors are," she mused, pulling a handful of hangers from the display, then holding them up against Yuki, one at a time. After she'd put all but three back, she handed them back to Yuki. "I'm not sure, really," she said, shaking her head and smiling. "So, try these on, and we'll see how you look, okay?"

"Yes," she agreed, her eyes settling on the changing booth at the far end of the store. Mikuru waved her into the booth, and then closed the curtain so she could change. The full length mirror in the booth with her let her try to judge her appearance herself, but she had already modeled how the dress would fit internally.

No significant deviance from her internal model. She couldn't see how it changed her much, except that the lines of her clothes were now much simpler than her school uniform, and the color was a pale, buttery yellow. She opened the curtain, unsurprised that Mikuru was waiting outside for her, already holding more articles of clothing.

The time traveler's reaction suggested that the dress did not suit her.

Still, that helped her establish a baseline. Some values of the current garment were obviously a poor combination. But then, she didn't have to try and determine this herself: "This is not adequate?"

"W...well, I think that color doesn't suit you, but the style does," Mikuru answered, looking apologetic. "Um... That was a bad call on my part. So ... well, try on the green one?"

Yuki nodded and closed the curtain, changing outfits once more. Would she end up trying on everything in the store?

She calculated how long that would take, determining that it wasn't going to be feasible without missing school, and most likely the movie that the clothes were being acquired in preparation for. Surely the time traveler had some algorithm or methodology that she hadn't yet determined herself... Some concept that Yuki had not yet managed to emulate herself.

After straightening out the green sundress she opened the curtain again. Mikuru's reactions felt - oddly - significantly more informative than the mirror did. "Yes," the time traveler said, beaming a bright, pleased smile at Yuki, before snapping a picture with her cell phone. "This cool mint tone works very well with you!"

It was pale, but brought to mind the color of the male school uniforms. One positive factor of what worked for her, identified.

Mikuru indicated the other clothes she had hanging over one arm, adding, "I'll put that yellow sundress away for you ... did you want to try the blue one, too? I think it might suits you fairly well."

"No need," Yuki answered, blinking. "This color is superior." After all, the other girl had made that observation herself.

"A...ah, okay," Mikuru agreed, nodding. "But, Yuki-chan... Since you're wearing that now, you must tell me at least if you think it's comfortable. Is that something you think you could enjoy wearing?"

Well, a sundress was quite easy to put on, so it was at least an efficient garment. Mikuru had approved of the color, and seemed certain that the combination was aesthetically appealing. She still was uncertain, unable to effectively determine if she _liked_ it. It wasn't something she could classify as easily as an interesting book, or one of her favorite people. Did 'liking' have to extend to things as simple as objects?

People and stories were unique data structures. Clothing wasn't much different from flakes of snow... At a glance, they seemed unique, but in reality, there were merely a plethora of distinct variations. To find uniqueness again, one had to look at a level that human perception could not typically observe unaided anyway.

Unable to answer the question, and aware of Mikuru's growing apprehension as she watched, Yuki finally tried something she had considered, but not attempted before, outside of occasional attempts at humor. 'Off color' or poorly timed attempts at humor blended in with her assigned personality, but this... Her primary protection target frequently compared unlike things, seeming to discard non-analogous aspects of the unlike things, and reaching a reasonable and logical conclusion anyway.

If she looked at clothing not as merely objects, but as a form of expression (her references suggested that this was a frequently accepted view), then it was a way to frame her_self_. In other words, Mikuru was trying to teach her to express herself in a different way. Words were difficult enough ... how could she master expressing herself through actions? It was difficult enough to choose a phone - just like identifying an item on a restaurant menu as desirable. How could she apply that to clothing?

She turned her attention to the frilly shoulder straps of the dress that she was currently wearing. "I do not ... like this," she said, tugging at the ruffle. "It is unnecessary."

Mikuru seemed oddly pleased at that. "Good!" she said, nodding. "The whole thing, or just the ruffle?"

While it was extraneous, as well, the bow across the dress's chest didn't bother her nearly as much. "Just the ruffle," she echoed.

The time traveler considered this for a moment, then picked one of the garments out of the bundle in her arms. "This is a jumper," she noted. "Maybe you'll like it better? It seems that simple clothes are the ones you like best?"

Yuki nodded, thinking that sounded accurate.

Mikuru nodded, her smile a bit faded as she considered. "Okay, I know a few ways we can coordinate different outfits - let's get to it, then, shall we?"

Accepting the jumper, Yuki calculated how long it would take to try on various other articles, given the amount of time spent already. Given what she'd managed to exclude, the new projection was still lengthy. The odds of reaching home before it was time to eat seemed to be slim, at best.

Some thirty three articles of clothing and almost as many pictures later, the pair had amassed a small heap of clothing that were both approved by Mikuru and accepted as 'likeable' by Yuki. As per Mikuru's suggestion, Yuki's taste seemed to veer as far from complexity as possible. She wondered if that qualified as a real opinion, or just a judgment that she didn't like to spend more time dressing than required.

The hour and half spent so far went against what she would have chosen to do with her own time. But, strangely, it didn't bother her. Was it because it was time with Mikuru? Her friend? Was it because Mikuru looked happy, helping her pick clothing out?

She had decided that it must be a bit of both when Mikuru declared, "I think we're done!"

Yuki nodded and collected the clothes they had decided on, carrying them to the counter. The clerk at the register seemed quite pleased at the variety, and engaged Mikuru in small talk about upcoming fashion trends while ringing up the total. After Yuki paid and her new outfits were bagged, Mikuru waved to the clerk and the pair left the store together.

"And now," Mikuru said, scanning up and down the street, "the next store!"

Blinking, Yuki turned a questioning gaze to the time traveler. "These are not adequate?" she asked, wondering if deferring to Mikuru's judgment in these matters may not have been the best idea.

"That's only the basics!" Mikuru said, shaking her head. "Yuki-chan, you're going to need accessories, too. What if you're wearing an outfit that has no pockets? You'll need a purse!"

She considered, and double checked her references, but Mikuru was correct; she did not have a purse. She nodded at the time traveler, trusting her judgment.

"Hum, come to think of it ... I suppose the swimsuit you had last year still fits you?"

Yuki had not grown enough for that to change, so she nodded.

Mikuru smiled at her. "Well, if you're happy with that, then it's no problem."

Was she 'happy' with that? Her existing swim-wear was functional, which was her primary concern. It was even one of the colors that Mikuru had judged were good for her.

She wasn't exactly distracted, as her focus wasn't narrow enough in normal circumstances for that to happen. Something in the other being's proximity field masked her presence more than announced it, and as a result, Yuki was not acutely _aware_ of the presence of the other - Suou Kuyou - until she was in Mikuru's visual range.

Yuki would not have missed the presence of Sasaki or Kyouko, however, and deduced that through some means Suou Kuyou had actively concealed them from her awareness until the point where visual contact was established. In relative conformity to the situation around them - shoppers wandering between stores - Sasaki was evidently discussing something with Kyouko about that girl's associates.

She abandoned thinking about clothing for the moment, focusing her attention on the other three. Mikuru allowed an alarmed squeak to escape when her eyes met Kyouko's, then searched the crowd anxiously, scanning for some other threat.

Sasaki exhibited several mostly concealed stress cues; her eyes continually flicked to the girl at her side, and she shifted her shoulders an almost imperceptible distance. Her fingers wouldn't stay still, and she kept a purse on her shoulder, small though it was, between herself and Kyouko.

Kyouko demonstrated tension, but not anxiety. More subtle cues hinted at barely concealed anger; her slightly stiff movements, her overemphasized steps, and a shift in stance towards aggression.

She absorbed that in an instant. But from Kuyou, Yuki could determine absolutely nothing beyond the fact that she was staring fixedly at her. While Yuki was aware of the overlapping layers of reality - inaccessible and usually imperceptible to most humans. Kuyou was, as well, but neither entity _acted_ at that level. Both merely observed.

What was Kuyou's plan, though? Was she an enemy, or an ally? Given that she _could_ be an enemy to the entity, there was a _potential_ that she could be an ally... Provided she didn't intend harm to any of Yuki's friends. While she could easily put her faith in one boy, going so far as to tell him that she was willing to bet on him, she couldn't extend any of that trust to an unknown entity if it meant risking him.

Even Hanyuu had to demonstrate something opposite ill will before Yuki could regard a being as potentially dangerous as herself or Kuyou an ally.

As far as Yuki could determine from context, Sasaki had been expressing her displeasure at the methods of Kyouko's group. Kyouko cut her off with an insincere smile and a quick, "Oh, Sasaki-san, if it isn't Kyon-san's friends!"

"W...what do you want?" Mikuru asked, struggling to keep the apprehension from her voice.

"I'm not here to threaten you," Kyouko said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away. "Why can't you get over that?"

Yuki had never observed an expression on Mikuru's face nearing anger, but she was aware of the small cues in her friend suggesting that she was near it. Only a greater level of fear kept her from expressing it. Sasaki gave her friend a sharp, but very brief look. Yuki doubted Mikuru had noticed it.

"A...aside from that, then, if we don't have any business, then, um ... well, have a nice day and enjoy your shopping, I guess," the time traveler said unsteadily, giving a very weak smile to the other three.

Kyouko opened her mouth to protest, and Sasaki coughed before she could speak. "Well, we don't intend to bother you, either. This encounter was just coincidence," she said. "Um, about a month ago, Asahina-san, I saw Kyon with your sister ... I've been trying to get a hold of him ever since, but it seems he's not returning my calls... Is he upset with me, do you know?"

Mikuru was baffled, but didn't betray it at a level either of the other girls seemed able to notice. "Oh... W...well, let's see... I'm terribly sorry, but Kyon-kun hasn't mentioned you, really." She thought for a moment, then asked, "W...was he with, ah, my twin sister?"

"No, no," Sasaki replied with a shake of her head, laughing. "She was older ... dressed like a teacher. Fujiwara-kun called her by your name by mistake. Though, it seems they know one-another, as well!"

Whatever was stressing Sasaki, Yuki noted that the effect of it was wearing off. She was less bothered now than when the encounter had just begun. Kyouko, on the other hand, was becoming more irate. What internal stresses did their group suffer from?

She felt certain she knew one person who might be able to determine that...

Mikuru shook her head. "I have no idea what that's about," she said honestly. "I haven't, um, spoken with any family lately."

"You live alone?" Kyouko asked.

Mikuru pressed her lips together tightly, and Sasaki gave a curious look to her companion.

"Well, you should take care," Mikuru said decisively, ignoring the question and taking Yuki's closer elbow in her hand. "Goodbye."

Though she looked forward, the majority of Yuki's senses were on the others. She allowed Mikuru to lead her away, modeling combat with Kuyou and preparing contingencies to protect Mikuru, should it be required. There was still enough focus remaining for her to observe that Sasaki had once again become upset with Kyouko.

And through it all, Kuyou did absolutely nothing but watch her.

A block and a half away, heading back towards Yuki's apartment, Mikuru released Yuki's arm and hugged herself, shivering, looking back over her shoulder anxiously. Not that the others were in sight. They had gone into one of the storefronts, and with a suddenness that Yuki determined must be Kuyou's data manipulation (or some other effect that appeared very _like_ data manipulation), they had abruptly vanished from her awareness.

"S...scary," Mikuru whimpered. "O...oh... I didn't like any of that!"

"Unpleasant," Yuki agreed.

"Ooh..." Mikuru shivered again.

Reprioritizing her focus, Yuki turned to look at her friend. Kyouko's inference that Mikuru lived alone, and the request for verification obviously had come across as a threat. While she hadn't been there for it, she was aware of the incident where Kyouko and her group had tried to kidnap Mikuru. "You are scared," she noted.

"Y...yes," Mikuru agreed, sighing. "I'm a coward... Ooh... I don't even want to go home, now! W...what if..." She shivered, shaking her head. "N...never mind that, though. Um. W...we should finish shopping for you, anyway."

Yuki considered the situation. It was very unlikely that Kyouko would be able to succeed if she were to attempt kidnapping Mikuru again. Though the time traveler seemed oblivious, Yuki herself was acutely aware of the fact that they were already being trailed by five people currently.

Three of them were wearing the same pin as Kyon - the symbol of the Tsuruya clan. The female esper would not get far with Mikuru before she was stopped, and Sasaki did not exhibit that much hostility.

Suou Kuyou might have been a different matter... But Yuki was confident that she could at least delay the other entity long enough for Mikuru to be helped.

None of those facts were guaranteed to actively reassure the other girl, however. "There is an empty room in my apartment," she said quietly. "You are ... welcome if you wish."

Mikuru blinked at her in surprise, her mouth dropping open a slight distance. "W...well, tonight, at least, would be nice," the time traveler agreed. "Um... Y...you're a very thoughtful friend, Yuki-chan. Thank you. Ah! I know, I'll cook dinner for you tonight, is that alright?"

"It is fine," she agreed.

Smile restored, Mikuru nodded at Yuki and led the way into the shopping district once more. "J...just two more stops, then. We'll get you a purse or two, then visit the market?"

Yuki nodded, wondering if it would be appropriate to offer the other girl a hug once they were in a private location. She would have to ask once they got to her apartment.

* * *

Tsuruya was so absorbed in reading the reports she'd gotten back from her father's lab that she entirely failed to notice what was going on until after her head maid - Shinobu - had started to help her dress. Even then, she was only roused from her distraction when she realized that Shinobu was pulling on a third layer of elaborate robes. "Wah?" she managed, surprised, looking down at herself. "A junihitoe?"

"That's right," Shinobu agreed. "Your father was very insistent."

She didn't even know her father had commissioned such a thing! When she looked around her room in dismay, she could tell by the boxes on the floor that she had at least another ten kilos of costume to look forward to wearing. "Too much!" she said, giggling anyway, and still cooperating with her maid. "It'll takes an hour to get all these layers on, at least!"

"Yes," the maid agreed, apologetically. "I strongly advise against drinking much of anything ... the washroom will be particularly difficult to use."

Tsuruya blinked at that, having not even considered it. "Wah ... and now I'm thirsties," she chuckled, shaking her head. "Why a junihitoe?"

"Your father didn't say," Shinobu acknowledged. "However, as this complex outfit was historically reserved for royalty, or at least nobles, might it be his way of saying that you're his princess?"

"But, people don't even wear these," Tsuruya mused, as they started pulling on yet another layer. "Um, I recognize this color scheme from lessons... 'Nadeshiko'." The robes were layered from innermost white, to outermost plum, with the layers smoothly shifting the spectrum across them. Once she was fully dressed, the shades would all be visible along the hems of her sleeves, and across her chest.

The meaning to her was obvious; a yamato nadeshiko was a traditional wildflower. In this instance, the color scheme meant to suggest that she was a traditional flower of Japanese womanhood. Why had her father thought this was what she should wear?

"Empress Michiko wore one during the Emperor's coronation," Shinobu commented, answering the unvoiced question.

"Two decades ago," Tsuruya allowed, rolling her eyes. "Hum... Well, it's a nuisances, but that's okay! Pictures for Haru-nyan!"

"I doubt that your father would let this pass without at least a few photographs," the maid agreed.

After enduring a nearly hour-long dressing process, then additional minutes of hair styling and a very faint layer of makeup, she was finally done. Shinobu then excused herself to change, returning surprisingly quickly in a simpler (but still complex) kimono, dressed as an attendant.

Entirely unsurprisingly to her, once her father's limousine pulled up to the estate, he was dressed in an immaculate kimono of his own. The outermost layer matched her robes, except for being slightly more subdued in color. Both of their costumes had a repeating pattern of the family crest.

He grinned widely at her, his fang gleaming, eyes shining... What was he getting so emotional about? Why all the production?

It was fun, if a bit silly... But her father had _always_ had a habit of going overboard. After spending a few minutes getting her clothing entirely in the vehicle, only Shinobu's keen eye and quick hands preventing the robe's trailing end from dragging across the ground, she was seated next to him. Shinobu quietly sat opposite the pair, politely looking away once Kasai closed the door.

Tsuruya tried to elbow her father in the ribs once the vehicle started moving, but the thick layers of cloth prevented her from doing much more than fumbling at him. He chuckled at her, asking, "You likes it?"

"Decadent," she giggled. "I hopes Kyon-kun isn't intimidated by it!"

He snorted, shaking his head. "Not once you tells him what we learned!" the man said, grinning. "Now, did you bring that paperwork from the labs?"

"No pockets!"

"I have the papers, Tsuruya-sama," Shinobu said quietly. "As well as Kyon-dono's heirloom tsuba."

"Excellent!" her father said, laughing. "Then tonight shall be a night to remember!"

Tsuruya nodded happily. Hopefully, Kyon would think her outfit was cute. Or funny. As long as it made him smile, it would be worth it - she was certain Haruhi would adore the pictures, at any rate.

The rest of the ride was quiet, since they were so close to the restaurant that her father had chosen. When they got there, Kasai opening the doors, Shinobu climbed out first to help with the robe's train. Looking around, Tsuruya recognized that they were at Nishinomiya's most exclusive restaurant. The classic styled building sat in the middle of dozens of acres of elaborate gardens, meant to evoke images of an ancient palace.

Strangely, except for some of her father's men surrounding the area, she didn't see the signs of anyone else there... The somewhat uncomfortable walk to the building proper took nearly ten minutes, thanks to the slow hobble that her garment enforced, and then what Tsuruya guessed was the entire serving staff of the restaurant was waiting immediately inside.

Her father moved ahead of her to speak with the head waiter, and Tsuruya pulled her fan from her sash, opening it and waving it, incidentally hiding the lower half of her face from the room as she asked Shinobu, "Did father buy this place...?"

Shinobu gave an incredibly minute nod in response, and Tsuruya was hard-pressed to avoid breaking into laughter. That really felt like his solution to everything, some days. Still, in this setting, she needed to maintain some sense of decorum. After she schooled her expression, just before her father turned back and beckoned her to follow him, she stowed her fan where it belonged. Not long after that, they were in the restaurant's best private room.

The entire exterior wall was made of sliding panels, left open for the cool spring air, and revealing a host of floating candles drifting across the garden's main pond. A single low table sat in the middle of the vast room, while a small crew of (also) period-dressed serving staff hovered at the outer perimeter - Shinobu moving to stand next to them and blending in seamlessly.

After sinking to sit with her back to the open wall, Tsuruya wondered if the setting might just be a bit _too_ much for Kyon's family. Certainly, the clothing was over the top - by leaps and bounds.

Her father sat nearby, to her left, and nodded with approval. "They should be here soon," he remarked, though Tsuruya didn't see a watch on him. He tended to have a very good sense of time, though, so she nodded her agreement.

After a few quiet minutes, the silence only punctuated by the regular sound of a shishi-odoshi in the garden, Tsuruya had to restrain the urge to fidget. Some seventeen iterations of the sound of a bamboo tube falling to resound off a stone passed, giving her time to wonder at the odds of the antiquated device serving its intended function, instead of just being a symbol of the place's culture. Eventually, however, a member of the staff entered the room and was immediately intercepted by Shinobu. After a hushed exchange the messenger retreated, and Shinobu approached the table, kneeling near Tsuruya's father to murmur, "Your guests arrive, Tsuruya-sama."

"Excellent," he said, nodding once more.

Shinobu moved to the room's entrance, and the doors opened to admit Kyon's family. Tsuruya saw that her initial guess was correct... While Kyon seemed to have adapted to the situation, even he looked awed at the surroundings. And then his eyes fell upon her, and most of his pretenses at self control were washed away.

She was of two minds about that. It _was_ quite rewarding to see the boy she liked awestruck over her, so that was nice. On the other hand, the excessive formality of the occasion were probably off-putting, and she wasn't really sure she appreciated that part so much.

And then he _did_ smile, and it was worth it. That sense of security she got when he gave her an almost identical smile after saving her from enemy yakuza, or reassurance that he didn't regret being involved with her... It was _that_ smile, so everything was okay after all.

His parents were already operating at a level that Tsuruya would label shell-shocked, at best, and she felt a bit guilty for his mother, especially. The woman looked painfully self aware in her much simpler dark blue dress. Kyon's father was glassy-eyed, unsure which aspect of the decor or the surroundings to try not to gawk at.

Shinobu moved unobtrusively to Kyon's side and murmured something to him, too low to carry to the table, and snapped him out of his daze. The trio approached the table, Kyon sitting opposite Tsuruya at Shinobu's direction, and his parents opposite her father. Personally, Tsuruya would have been happier if the setting were a bit more relaxed, and Kyon were sitting right next to her.

Come to think of it... The moon was nearly full, and the angle would be just right for her to be framed in the reflection from his vantage point, too. She'd absolutely need to try arranging some time with Kyon in a less severe setting. Hopefully the movie they were planning on seeing next week would work.

"Welcome!" her father boomed, grinning at Kyon's parents. "Welcome!"

"W...we're quite grateful to be invited to such an occasion," Yuuto managed, still a bit awed by the surroundings.

The first wave of drinks was brought out, the staff serving tea and water silently to everyone at the table before retreating. "So, as much as I adores elaborate settings, I don't care abouts formalities most of the time - especially where family is concerned," her father added, nodding at Kyon's parents. "Relax! This is an auspicious occasions, isn't it?"

Kyon's mother nodded in response, shakily sipping at her tea. Tsuruya allowed herself only the tiniest sip of her own drink, keeping Shinobu's earlier warning in mind. "E...even so," Kyon's father said, "it would be wrong to be anything other than grateful for such an opportunity."

"Commendable humility!" Tsuruya's father boomed. "But, no worries! Yuuto-kun, how has works been treating you?"

"Ah, quite well," Yuuto acknowledged, seeming to become slightly more grounded at the reminder of his job. "Um, actually, allow me to express my gratitude for promoting Yoshida-sensei to his new position."

"He's getting on in his years, and was making mistakes," Tsuruya's father answered with a shrug. "Howevers ... more than four decades of experience instills a man with great knowledge. Yoshida's wisdoms should not be wasted! How are you getting along with your new section heads?"

"Suzumiya-san?" Yuuto asked.

Tsuruya couldn't help but cover her mouth before she giggled at that, and Kyon managed to break free from whatever force had stunned him long enough to exchange a more amused smile with her, as well.

"Yes, he's the one," Tsuruya's father agreed. "Seems a bit stiff and eager to complains, but a solid worker."

"Ah ... that matches my views on him," Kyon's father agreed, ducking his head slightly and nodding sheepishly. "I didn't work with him directly at Nishinomiya Heavy, naturally. Still, he seems a good person; he talks about his daughter at work a lot, so I know he's a family man, at least."

"Family is one of the most important things ever," Tsuruya's father said, nodding, then turning his gaze to her. "Speaking of this... Haru-chan?"

"Ah," Tsuruya allowed, grinning. "Yesterday, Kyon-kun asked me to research somethings for him," she said. Recognizing her cue, Shinobu set a small bundle with the tsuba of Kyon's family and the paperwork they had gotten from the lab at her side. Tsuruya picked up the paperwork, first, presenting it towards Kyon's parents. "The maker's mark that Kyon-kun copied was the mark of Sukemune, student of Sukehiro, of the Settsu regions."

Kyon's father's face lit up, while his mother merely looked puzzled - but distracted from looking embarrassed, so that was something.

"Settsu is an archaic name, but is this very region," her father supplied helpfully.

Tsuruya nodded. "Sukemune crafted weapons for many samurai - but the tang of this weapons also had a personal dedication," she continued. "So the lineage of this blade is known; the inscription reads, 'be as worthy of the Taira descendant as the original'."

"T...Taira!?" Kyon's father sputtered, eyes widening. "S...surely that's... I mean... R...really?"

Placing the tsuba on the table, Tsuruya nodded again. It had been cleaned - but not polished. The tarnish was a proof of age and heritage, after all! "This tsuba has another name on it, inscribed around the edge." She slid it to Kyon's father, who picked it up with reverence, eyes glowing as he studied the characters that were previously concealed beneath grime and grit. "Also, the metals was tested and carbon-dated - accurate to within thirty years - and was worked about one thousand years ago, so around one thousand A.D. Can you read the names on the tsuba?"

"Usui Sadamitsu," Kyon's mother said, her eyes evidently sharper than her husband's. "But ... I thought that was just a fairy tale?"

"The heroic legends of Raiko may only be a legend," Tsuruya's father acknowledged. "However, the families were real. Minamoto no Yorimitsu himself - also known as Minamoto no Raiko - was an ally of the Fujiwara clan while they were one of the four great families in powers at that time. Speaking of those great families, Taira was one of them!

"It has for a very long time been a point of pride that the Tsuruya clans is descended from the Minamoto line. My daughter will be the one hundred and eighth head of that same clans. While the title may change, the roles is the same." Technically, she was already an oyabun in her own right, but she nodded her acknowledgement anyway.

"The sword was in my grandfather's things," Kyon's father explained, sounding almost apologetic. "I wish I'd asked him more about it, now, but..." He shrugged, still looking somewhat awestruck.

"E...even so," Kyon's mother said, dubiously impressed, "where did this sword come from? It's not related to _our_ family - Taira isn't our family name."

"Wasn't Usui Sadamitsu's real name, er ... wasn't she actually named 'Taira no Tadamichi'?" Kyon asked hesitantly, his voice hushed in the great room.

"_Exactly_!" Tsuruya's father boomed, pounding one fist on the table in delight. "So, this is _fate_, not mere happenstance!"

"It is quite amazing," Kyon's mother marveled, looking at the papers and the tsuba in astonishment. "B...but, this doesn't really constitute _proof_ of anything, does it? Isn't it still possible that Yuuto's grandfather or one of his ancestors found or bought the sword this came from?"

"I believe it is fate," her father said resolutely. "And that is why now, more than ever, I believe our children should be engaged."

In a moment of eerie synchronization, Tsuruya realized that she and Kyon were precisely as unprepared for that announcement, both of them turning curious, alarmed gazes at one another. Not that she _minded_ in the _least_... But expecting it was an entirely different matter! Obviously, he'd had no warning, either.

Well ... that was the kind of thing that her father would pull, she admitted to herself. And she wanted to laugh again - how silly! This was supposed to be an omiai? Was _that_ what all of the production and extravagant dressing up was for? If so, that explained why her father was so excited about Kyon's heritage.

But then, as she thought about it... Haruhi would probably _not_ be delighted.

"I...I'm not entirely certain I'm swayed by the tsuba," Kyon's mother managed.

Tsuruya felt a small pang at the relief that Kyon showed at that remark. Then again, she reminded herself, he was probably more concerned with Haruhi becoming furious over this development. If it weren't so hilarious at the moment, she would be more concerned about it herself!

"Still," her father pressed. "While it's meaningful to me, I understands if you wish to set that legacy aside for the moment. I stand by my suggestions."

"And it seems reasonable to me, on those grounds," Kyon's mother agreed, nodding. "I just don't want it to turn out that Kyon's _not_ descended from this lineage, and then the whole deal being thrown out."

"No worries!" Tsuruya's father insisted. "His own merits tells me he's good enough for my daughter!"

"Y...you mean..." Kyon managed, staring at his mother with wide eyes.

Kyon's mother nodded at him, beaming a bright smile. "It's all taken care of, Kyon!" she said. "Tsuruya Haruka-chan is a positive influence on you! Isn't it fortunate that your parents are working so hard to ensure you're taken care of?"

"Y...yeah," Kyon forced out in the manner of one who has been told he has only hours to live. "S...so ... fortunate."

Tsuruya's father leaned forward and pounded Kyon's back companionably. "That's our boy!" he cheered. "Ah, Yuuto - join me in a toasts to our children! Think of it! Two families, separated for a thousand years, and once again united!"

Tsuruya ducked her head slightly, feeling a blush coming on as she pressed one hand against her face. Maybe she had been too quick to dismiss her anime as unrealistic? Or, maybe her father had thought that making this event a complete surprise was a good idea _based_ on her anime? Oh ... this was going to be awkward to explain to Haruhi.

* * *

After spending the better part of two hours listening to his parents (and Tsuruya's father) discuss the terms of his engagement to Tsuruya, and mechanically eating a meal that was _probably_ exquisite, the occasion finally ended. His father had tried to keep up with Tsuruya's father, but ended up too drunk to drive, and his mother didn't have a license. Tsuruya's maid arranged for another of the family's limousines to give the three a ride home.

Other than being the target of a plot that Kyon had thought only happened in manga and anime, Kyon had no idea where to begin genuinely considering the implications. His sister naturally demanded details, so he told her that it was very formal, and there was nothing to do. She pouted, but seemed to accept that answer.

After spending the entire night without sleep, broken only by the nightly training, he found himself uneagerly leaving home to walk to school.

At least, he _did_ have a better idea of why his mother thought so highly of Tsuruya... Because she didn't trust him to make his own decisions, and thought his future would be more secure with her.

The girl in question was waiting for him in a limousine, and he belatedly remembered that she traditionally paid him on Fridays. It wasn't like he could be mad at Tsuruya for setting the whole thing up - she looked just as surprised as he was by the announcement. After climbing into the limousine to sit next to her, she sighed and gave him an apologetic smile.

"Um," she said suddenly, shaking her head. "This is this week's pay for you..."

"I am grateful to receive this," he acknowledged, with the usual formula, bowing his head as he tucked it into his greatcoat's inner pocket. "S...so, thank you, Tsuruya-kun."

Technically, aside from being his superior in her organization, and his subordinate in Haruhi's, now Tsuruya was ... well ... his fiancee as well. Should he start calling her by her first name? But then, that wouldn't be appropriate in business matters...

And all of that was ignoring the fact that Haruhi was most likely going to explode, leveling most of Japan. He looked outside moodily. Why did the last day of his life have to be so bright and cheery? It should at least have the decency to be overcast and rainy.

"I'll explains what happened to Haru-nyan," she said, breaking the silence.

He started, turning to look at her, where she was gazing out the opposite window. "What do you mean?" he asked. As her sometimes bodyguard, advisor, and now fiance, he was pretty sure he would completely fail all roles if he just let her end her life in such a way. "Explain what?"

"Ah..." She smiled at him, blushing cutely. "About my father's... Ah, well, about us!"

"Maybe you should let me do that," he suggested. That should give Tsuruya enough time to run, possibly to some sort of shelter...

She shook her head, giggling. "I...it will be okay. Um... I don't really minds, but I think that's not what you want. So... I can tell Haru-nyan that we're engaged ... but being engaged doesn't mean _that_ much! We're not married, after all, right?"

"T...there is that," he agreed. Their combined parents had agreed to wait until they were finished with high school, at least, which gave them slightly less than two years. But then... "Y...you don't really mind?"

Tsuruya's blush deepened, and she shook her head, not meeting his eyes, but leaning closer to him. "Kyon-kun is dependable ... and has saved me many times," she explained. "My father spends money like waters, but he's not blind or a fool. H...he can tell how I feels about you, and thinks you'll always be reliable... And, um, women in my position often finds it difficult to get truly good husbands. So often someone who wants to usurp powers shows up and..." She gave him a nervous smile. "Well, I know I can trusts Kyon-kun more than that."

"I'd like to be reliable for you," he agreed, more than a little awestruck by the fact that Tsuruya actually thought so highly of him. Then again, he supposed it wasn't that often that she would be able to meet someone with the advantages that let him retain his original perspective, yet still be equipped to assist her in the ordeals they'd endured so far. "Um... Even though I'm worried about Haruhi's reaction, please don't think it means I think less of you. I'm, er, flattered that you think so highly of me. It's quite amazing to me to end up in such a situation with an extremely likeable and amazing person like yourself."

Impossibly, Tsuruya's smile brightened. "You're cute," Tsusuya said suddenly. "But... Well, I'll find some way to explains this to Haru-nyan."

He nodded, feeling his face redden at Tsuruya's remark, and sensing the yawning chasm that led to his special hell looming ahead of him. It was really bad letting Mikuru's older self kiss him, while also making out with Yuki, and kissing Haruhi the same day. Now he was _engaged_ to Tsuruya, which easily trumped them bathing or sleeping together...

And the real hell of it was, as much of a jerk as he thought it made him, he couldn't deny that he cared about all of them. Admittedly, he cared about _all_ of his friends, but there were moments that he knew went beyond that, on occasion. Kissing, for example.

Maybe he should try and spend some time with Kanae, and avoid all of the unintended romance that seemed to be cropping up.

"Speaking of Haruhi, since we skipped the club meeting yesterday, she's almost certainly going to be waiting for me at the train station," he said. "She's going to be upset enough ... probably best not to exacerbate things by going straight to school while she's waiting for me."

"Okies," Tsuruya agreed. "Just, don't say anything about the engagements, please?"

"Alright," he allowed, frowning. "But ... well, as nicely as I can say this, I _am_ supposed to be responsible for helping protect you. Even though this probably sounds really egotistical, if she gets mad ... I'd rather she lashed out at me instead of you." After all, he had armor and force fields; he'd survive probably almost twice as long.

She flashed him a smile, breaking away long enough to notify the driver (not Kasai, to his surprise) of the change in destination. After turning her attention back to him, she shook her head and said, "I'll be okay, Kyon-kun. After all, we looks out for each other, don't we? You keeps the hordes of enemies off my back, and I do what I can to help you!"

Well, he had thought the research she had done for him was actually impressive enough help. Even if the family name had changed somewhat, the idea that he was a descendant of a legendary figure like Usui Sadamitsu... "You might be able to distract Haruhi with what you found out," he suggested, giving Tsuruya a weak, uncertain smile.

She playfully smacked his shoulder. "Kyon-kun should have more faith in me!" she protested. "Aren't Haru-nyan and I friends?"

"That's true," he admitted. He couldn't quite help but feel apprehensive about things, though. He was still trying to come to grips with the whole engagement concept, wondering if it were going to even last, or if it was only temporary until something was worked out. "Well, in that case, I trust you, but at least promise me that if you need it, you'll ask me for help. I don't think I could forgive myself if you got hurt."

He wasn't sure he would be able to forgive himself if Haruhi got hurt, either. Maybe he was already _in_ that special hell?

"Of course!" she chirped. "Just promises me that you won't tell Haru-nyan yourself, in return."

"I already said I wouldn't," he noted, shaking his head. "But, if it makes you feel better, I promise."

She touched one fingertip to her lips thoughtfully, blushing. "Um... Though, since we _are_ engaged, at least for now, there is one other thing...?"

"What can I help you with?" he asked, trying to smile once more.

"You know, an engaged woman can get away with this kind of thing," she said quietly, an eager glint in her eyes. "So... Well." She looked about ready to try and say something else, then shook her head and abruptly darted forward, pressing her lips against his.

Martial skill was absolutely useless in the face of girls who wanted to kiss him, he realized belatedly, unintentionally responding to Tsuruya's enthusiastic kiss. Though, she was in no way unpleasant to kiss at all... One of his hands - entirely of its own accord - found its way to the back of her head, running through her hair and pulling her close.

Oh, hell, he told himself, if he were going to die, he might as well die a bit happier. And she made a good point - they _were_ engaged. He knew that kissing well could leave someone stunned - just look at how Mikuru left him! He'd managed to daze Haruhi once, too, so he put his all into making _this_ kiss potent for Tsuruya. Several minutes passed before they broke for air.

Her blush was back, and darker, but her grin was wider than ever. Her eyes seemed dreamy, unfocused, and like him, she was breathing heavily. When she finally collected herself, she gave him a cheery giggle. "With that," she said, not meeting his eyes, "I have the confidence to go forward. After all, even if you don't say it, you're not fighting being with me..."

"If I wasn't afraid of the fallout, I wouldn't have a problem with this," he acknowledged. Well, his parents trying to make the choice for him _was_ incredibly annoying, but they could have chosen someone he didn't care for at all. "Like I said, Tsuruya-kun... I can understand that you have to be selective, given your position, but _any_ guy would be fortunate to end up with you. Whatever does happen, um... I do always want to try and be there for you. Your enthusiasm..." He trailed off, shrugging with an apologetic smile at her.

She grinned back at him. "You flatterer," she teased. "You mean if Haru-nyan weren't here, you would be happy with this?"

"No complaints," he admitted, wincing. "Except that saying that sounds disrespectful to you ... and Haruhi, too, really." He sighed and shook his head. "It's probably too much of an unreasonable request ... but I really wouldn't mind if we could all just stay as good friends as we are."

"Hehe, you're cute," she said again, as the limousine stopped in front of the train station. "Ah, I see Haru-nyan - let's go say hello~!"

"Yeah," he agreed. At least he'd gotten to share a kiss with Tsuruya before his demise. Really, all things considered, the number of kisses he'd gotten...

That was a more than adequate send-off. Like his legendary samurai ancestor, he should embrace his death with nobility.

* * *

After waiting impatiently with Kanae for Kyon to arrive at the train station, Haruhi was surprised to find he and Tsuruya approaching from the station's parking lot ... though, seeing the limousine driving away helped explain that somewhat. She wondered what had happened in their meeting the night before; Kyon looked gloomily resigned, and Tsuruya seemed uncharacteristically nervous, for some reason.

Kyon and Kanae walked slightly ahead, while Tsuruya pulled Haruhi behind and whispered that they urgently needed to discuss something during lunch, but wouldn't say more about it.

That made class more of a trial than usual, until the lunch chime sounded, and she dashed out of the classroom, pausing only long enough to toss Kyon the extra bento she had made for him. She reached the clubroom first, partly because of a burning need to know what Tsuruya wanted to talk about, and partly because the second year classrooms were just closer to the clubroom. Other than Yuki entering silently, taking her usual seat and reading - the next volume of the Ghost in the Shell manga, though, so that was a bit new - she was left to her own devices, waiting for Tsuruya.

With time and energy to spare, she turned on the computer, surfing the internet and checking news stories to follow up on Kyon's shooting. Kyon himself had avoided interviews with reporters, and so had she and the rest of the SOS Brigade. Koizumi and Tsuruya had taken care of that with their connections - which she was grateful for.

She raised an eyebrow seeing that there actually _was_ a new article linked to Kyon's shooting, posted that morning. She browsed over to it, frowning at the headline of, "Yakuza Syndicate Crushed in Police Raid: High Honors Given to Tamaru Brothers". She knew them ... and now she knew they were Organization members. But they were real police officers, too?

The article had a picture of Tamaru Keiichi escorting a man in bright suit with a dour grimace to a police car. The caption read, "Officer Tamaru Keiichi (right) arrests ranking Sumiyoshi-rengo member Fujiya Masao (center)". Most of the rest of the article went on to explain that the raid was prompted by an investigation to the supplier of firearms in a recent shooting involving an area high-school student as a target. After that was a little bit about the chief arresting officers politely declining requests for interviews.

She had just finished reading the article when Tsuruya opened the door, waving with a strangely guilty smile before she closed it behind her. "Heya, Haru-nyan~!" she greeted. "So... About the meetings with Kyon-kun's family last night?"

"Is it this bit here, about arresting the yakuza who provided the guns?" Haruhi asked, pointing at the screen.

Tsuruya blinked in surprise and shook her head quickly, moving to Haruhi's side to study the article. "Oh," she said, scanning across it and grimacing. "Um. That's... Nothing to do with us. Kyon-kun agreed to bury the hatchets with them... Hum, the rest of the Sumiyoshi-rengo might blames us for this. We'll keeps our eyes open for that, then."

Haruhi felt a pang of annoyance... Well, she consoled herself, she managed to find something out that Tsuruya hadn't known yet, at least. "Then, what's this all about?" she asked, turning her attention to Tsuruya.

The green haired girl produced an SD card and set it on the desk by the mouse pad. "I brought some pictures," she said, smiling weakly. "Ah ... but... So, last night, my father sprung a surprise on Kyon-kun and me... Um, so, we went to dinner with our parents, and, um, it was ... my father's idea of an omiai..."

Haruhi blinked slowly, feeling the world around her spin, lurching a wildly for a moment. Despite all the motion, until it seemed to suddenly snap back into place, Tsuruya remained staring at her worriedly, unaffected by the strange gravitational shifts, except that her smile faded. Behind Tsuruya, Yuki had raised her gaze from her manga and was watching the heiress with an unblinking gaze.

"S...sorry," Haruhi stuttered, one hand going to the back of her head, for reasons she didn't have time to think of gathering her hair up as though to try making a pony tail again. "Did..." She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, dropping her hands to her sides. Why was her heart pounding so hard? "T...then, what... What did ... Kyon's mother say?"

Tsuruya looked uncomfortable. "Um ... she ... doesn't seem to know what our family does? So, she approved, and... Um... Well! There's plenty of time! They agreed nothing before college - so, there's plenty of time to talk them ... out of it..."

Even though she felt something like a surge of reassurance at that, she berated herself internally. More of that jealousy... And she wasn't so blind as to miss Tsuruya's wince at the idea of breaking things off with Kyon like that. "This is just a bit sudden," Haruhi managed. "A...and..." She hesitated, then berated herself again. Tsuruya wasn't her enemy - or, really, even a _rival_, if they played their cards right. "Wait. Why should you talk them out of it?"

The heiress gave her a strange look. "A...are you... Well, you must be, nyoro. You did promise, after all. You know, I don't plan to try and keep him for myself, Haru-nyan... Not now."

"I guess I'll have to hold you to that," Haruhi said weakly, even as Tsuruya's words helped bolster her confidence. Even after everything she had talked about with Kyon's aunt, and remembering Rika's admission that she wished Keiichi had married Mion...

The woman's words had been motivated by guilt, though - she'd said as much herself. Was Haruhi _really_ being honest that she was trying to arrange for everyone to be happy, if she had to be the star in Kyon's life? One part of a constellation, perhaps, but the brightest point... Why was it so hard not to be selfish? She'd been as much as _told_ how badly jealousy could make this entire thing go wrong... And yet, it was still so difficult.

"You know," she said, before Tsuruya could speak, "i...in a way, this is actually kind of a blessing?"

"You're sure?" Tsuruya asked anxiously. "I don't want you hurt over this, Haru-nyan..."

"It stings a bit," she acknowledged. "But never mind that. It wasn't your plan. The point is that if you look at it, this way, who Kyon marries is out of his hands. It's not like he tried to propose to just one person, or one of us tried to wring it out of him... R...really, isn't this a little better?"

Tsuruya raised her eyebrows, then nodded. "When you say it like that, maybe," she allowed, smiling cautiously. "I still feel a little bad, though."

"That's okay," Haruhi said, forcing a smile. "I mean... I shouldn't be totally selfish, but I'm a little glad... I think I might really be hurt if this turned out other ways."

"My plan is not to take Kyon-kun away from you," Tsuruya said insistently. "Think about it! Without Haru-nyan, I would never have met him!"

"I can tell you're genuine, you lost your verbal tic again. Well, this set me straight on one regard," Haruhi admitted, absently shutting the computer down and rising to her feet. Her knees were still wobbly, so she steadied herself on the desk. "It's really not fair to leave Mikuru-chan in the dark... No wonder she's got no confidence about this ... but I've not been very helpful for her."

Tsuruya nodded, smiling guiltily. "I didn't want to tell you that," she acknowledged. "So, I'm glad you feel that way now! But ... when do we tell her? And Kyon-kun?"

Haruhi bit her lip. "If it's not fair to Mikuru-chan, it's probably not fair to Kyon, either," she sighed. "But, even saying that, I want to put that off a bit longer... Though, if that's the case..."

"It's not much of a problem for me," Tsuruya said quietly, looking out the window as her cheeks colored. "If we're engaged, um, Kyon-kun and I... But for everyone else, that's not so fair."

"I ... um, get the idea that Kyon won't struggle too much if a girl is a bit forward," Haruhi said. "I mean, he's enough of... Er, he's..." She took another deep breath with closed eyes, and mentally slapped her inner tsundere into submission. When she opened her eyes, Tsuruya was looking at her curiously. "Being honest, Kyon isn't that much of a pervert, so I don't think he'd try to take things, um, too far. S...so, within reasonable boundaries..." She trailed off with a shrug.

"Would kissing be within those boundaries?" Tsuruya asked, grinning, sounding the slightest bit guilty. Behind her, Yuki inclined her head the slightest distance, shifting the focus of her gaze to Haruhi.

Haruhi found herself laughing before Tsuruya, for once. "I already did," she made herself admit. "So I'd be a hypocrite if I said no."

Tsuruya gasped quietly, eyes sparkling. "So he practiced with you!" she deduced. "That's why he was so good... Er... Um..." She quickly looked around, spotting Haruhi's camera in the corner. "Um, I have a picture of me in a junihitoe on that SD card!"

"You and him!?" Haruhi yelled, wincing when she finished at her lack of self-control. At a more reasonable volume, her eyes shifting away from Tsuruya, she managed, "Er... I mean... Yeah, he's really _really_ good, isn't he?"

"I thinks so," Tsuruya bashfully agreed.

Softly closing her manga and setting it down, Yuki added, "I also think so."

Haruhi and Tsuruya shared a wide-eyed gasp of realization, turning to stare at the quiet girl. "Kyon got so good at kissing because of _you_!" Haruhi yelped, pointing an accusing finger at the club's resident bookworm and silent character.

"That is probable. However, I have no comparable metric for comparison," Yuki returned blandly, her cheeks shading the merest, tiniest bit red. "But I do find the sensation ... very enjoyable." She blinked, considering things, then asked, "Did this exceed established permissions?"

"A...as it turns out, no," Haruhi mumbled. "Though, I feel a bit jealous, now... Well, I _did_ say you could 'borrow' him a long while ago... Though, as Auntie Rika said, that wasn't the best way to go about it."

Yuki blinked. "I am uncertain how to address this," she said softly. "Is it appropriate to offer ... practice in this activity as ... apology?"

Did Yuki just offer to teach Haruhi how to kiss better? Why did she have to look so _cute_ making that offer? "H...how do you mean?" Haruhi asked hesitantly. Could she just ... instill skill in her?

"Y...you means, to practice kissing _you_?" Tsuruya asked, one hand going to her mouth.

Yuki nodded solemnly.

"Y...you don't have to offer that!" Haruhi stuttered, waving her hands before her as though to ward the suggestion off. "U...um, I appreciate it, but... Ah..." Why were those images going through her head?!

"Y...yeah," Tsuruya agreed, chuckling nervously. "Um ... I don't think we're that good of friends yet, Nagato-chi... Maybe I could imagine with Haru-nyan, or Mikuru-chan, but..."

"Gah!" Haruhi yelped, spinning to stare at Tsuruya. "Don't tease!" she protested. That little jealous spark was flaring at the idea that maybe she wouldn't mind so much if Kyon had his way with- If she could just- If he wasn't the only one who-

With no real warning, Tsuruya grabbed Haruhi in a tight hug. "I'm glad we're friends, then," Tsuruya said cheerfully. "Thanks for being so understanding, Haru-nyan."

Reassured, her thoughts finally settling down, Haruhi hugged Tsuruya back. "Fair's fair," she grumbled, her face red.

"Plus, you're cute when you're flustered!"

"Y...you too," Haruhi returned, as Tsuruya released her. "But I almost never get to see a flustered Tsuruya-san!"

"Haha... Formal training!" Tsuruya chuckled, shaking her head, which caused her long hair to sway behind her. "Say, Haru-nyan, you didn't always used to be so polite - you don't have to call me 'san'," the heiress remarked. "After all, like you says, we're friends!"

"Thanks, Tsu-chan," Haruhi allowed, ducking her head. "Ah ... as much as I'd like to try and make things up to Mikuru-chan by explaining this situation to her, I think I'm near my limit for today. And, anyway, Kyon's engaged to you, now." Strange that it was easier to say, though still a little unnerving. She wanted to find Kyon, drag him to the empty stairwell, and be left stunned by his kiss for reassurance as it was. "S...so, can I trust explaining the situation to you? I want Mikuru-chan and Yuki-chan to have a good time tonight."

"You gots it!" Tsuruya agreed, saluting. "I will use my engagement powers for the greater good! Should I talks to Kyon-kun, too?"

"I'm a bit worried about his ego if he understands what's going on completely," Haruhi mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. "But if we _don't_ tell him, then we're pressuring him to behave badly and stray, and that's not really for the best, either."

"I can tells him that it's okay to be close friends, and maybe a little more?" Tsuruya suggested. "After all, we're not _married_, just engaged."

Which was for the best. Aside from her burning desire to drag Kyon off somewhere and make out with him until he couldn't see straight (or she couldn't - whichever came first), she couldn't deal with more at the moment. "Thanks, Tsu-chan," Haruhi managed, smiling shakily. "I'll have to trust that part to you, then. Any more excitement today, and I think I'll need to lie down!"


	30. Chapter 29

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Thwarted Lull Arc I

Chapter Twenty Nine: Night at the Movies

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"File K:3419.8.19/2011.5.20"_

_"Selfishness in small degrees may be okay, but breaking the [CLASSIFIED] is right out. So how is it possible that someone could use [CLASSIFIED], cross their own temporal path, and interfere so incautiously? Wouldn't any T.E.S.A. official or [CLASSIFIED] monitor for it in advance? Unless ... somehow ... such a thing were pre-determined? But if rules like ____that__ can be, well, not broken, but ____bent__..."_

_"[CLASSIFIED]" - Peraea Mons T.E.S.A. Dataplume_

* * *

Idly munching on the bento Haruhi had left for him - there were worse last meals, after all - Kyon nodded dubiously and otherwise pretended to pay attention to the nattering on of his friends.

"...all I'm really trying to say," Taniguchi said, concluding a very long-winded speech, "is that, no offense to you or her, you're both very new at this! At least, in a lasting sense. As one who has endured, crafting a meaningful relationship that has withstood the test of time beyond the legendary two week mark - did I mention that I met her father? Well, Kyon, I am one you can turn to who is knowledgeable in these things!"

"Two week mark?" Kyon mused, sharing a look with Kunikida. "That does sound legendary..." For Taniguchi, at least.

"Agreed," Kunikida remarked, nodding back with a wry smirk.

"We're pioneers!" Taniguchi agreed, nodding quickly. "And on _that_ note, how are things going between you and Suzumiya? Or are you still eternally stuck at 'friends'?"

"Being friends isn't so bad," Kyon countered, frowning.

"Ah, poor Kyon," Taniguchi said in a consoling tone. "Well, that's fine! If you're in Suzumiya's 'friend' zone, you've got other options!"

"Is sanity among them?" Kunikida asked, picking at his lunch.

"Don't be silly! I'm talking about Asahina-san, or either of the younger 'A-minuses' - Nagato and that first year, Michikyuu Kanae. Ran into her a while back ... she's kind of cute, in that pettanko, lolicon way, you know? Not to my tastes, but Kyon has a thing for 'strange girls,' so..."

"Did you just insult my kohai?" Kyon asked his taller classmate, wondering if he should practice his intimidating smile.

Taniguchi didn't even look up, still shoveling vegetables from his lunch into his mouth. "No, of course not," he said between mouthfuls. "Face it, her attributes are _absolutely_ appealing to some types! I'm not judging you if you're one of them, I'm just trying to remind you that you've got options! Pretty decent ones, too."

"I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say with that," Kyon answered tiredly, picking at the meal Haruhi had given him, "but I think I should point out to you that I liked you a lot more when you obsessed over your _own_ relationships."

"But I've mastered that!" Taniguchi protested, scraping at the bottom of his empty bento with a grimace. "I'm more interested in further challenges!"

"Good luck with that," Kunikida decided, finished with his meal and packing away his containers. "Let me know how it works out for you!"

"Really," Kyon noted, glancing at Kunikida as someone ran up to the classroom door loudly, "you've got a better candidate right here, eh?"

"Hey!" the shorter boy protested, shooting Kyon a sharp look. "Simply because I'm more reserved-" He cut off with a sigh and gestured to Kyon. "Nevermind ... but there's someone at the door for you. Perhaps Taniguchi is looking to solve your girl problems, when really your troubles are with boys...?"

Still debating how to respond to Kunikida, Kyon rose from his seat and made his way to the doorway, where Koizumi stood anxiously, obviously struggling to restrain his emotions. He seemed to be warring between a barely restrained rage and ... something else. "What's going on, Koizumi?" he asked dourly as he stepped into the hallway. As it was, the girls in his classroom had all instantly noted the esper's arrival, and were staring at him with varying degrees of intensity.

Man, why did he have the bad luck to be stuck with such a pretty-boy for a friend? Though, maybe if Tsuruya's father had liked Koizumi instead...

Strangely, that idea made Kyon want to punch an esper. He decided he was best off not thinking about it.

"I'm struggling with ... multiple factors," Koizumi finally said, smiling more widely than usual, and leaning far too close to Kyon for his personal comfort. "Naturally, these factors share an origin point."

Scanning to make sure the hallway was clear of eavesdroppers and witnesses, the boys spotted several. "This isn't the best place to talk," he replied, leaning away.

"Coffee, then, my treat," Koizumi said brightly, leading the way just below a run. Within a minute, the pair were outside, seated at the same table that long ago... "So!" the esper said, suddenly cheerful and friendly, leaning nearly halfway across the table towards Kyon. He paused to sip at his coffee, then beamed a smile Kyon could only label 'far too friendly' at the other token male member of the SOS Brigade. "What did you do?"

"Why does this all come across as my fault?" Kyon protested, leaning away from Koizumi and testing his coffee. Once again, left in the hands of the esper, it had far too much sugar.

"I see no one else to blame," Koizumi said, somewhat darkly, before shaking his head. "Sorry ... she's ... struggling with a lot of emotions right now, and many of them are..." Pausing, the esper stared blankly skyward for almost a minute, before shaking his head. "The stairwell?" he mumbled.

"Even though I probably actually don't want to know," Kyon began, prepared to bolt, should he need to, "how _is_ Haruhi handling things?"

Collecting himself, Koizumi steepled his hands before him and set them on the table. "That wording tells me that you know more than you have shared with me," he remarked. "I'm in a difficult state at the moment. Suzumiya-san is intensely conflicted, as well."

"Alright, look, this isn't easy for me to talk about, even if it's important to you and the Organization - but it involves Tsuruya-kun, so it's inevitable you'll find out anyway," Kyon allowed, sighing, then pitching his voice low. "Um... Where to begin... So, by being carelessly competent, I accidentally seem to have demonstrated my value to the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Specifically, I seem to have impressed Tsuruya-kun's father, Tsuruya-sama, and... His well-meaning suggestion combined with my mother's conviction that I am unable to make meaningful decisions on my own - so, on their idea, without really much chance to disagree, Tsuruya-kun and myself ended up getting engaged."

Koizumi stared, his mouth dropping open slightly. "Y...you're joking," he said flatly. "This is a prank?"

Kyon shook his head, pushing his coffee cup away from himself.

"W...well," the esper began, his knuckles whitening, unfamiliar stress filling his voice. "This is a fascinating development! What do you intend to do about it?"

Tapping one finger against the table before him, Kyon sighed. "Face my death like a man, I suppose," he allowed. "I was hoping somehow that Tsuruya-kun would be able to convince Haruhi to be calm about it... You know, maybe explain that it's just an engagement, so there's time to figure a way out of it..." He shrugged. "Anyway, how do you plan to spend the last day of your life?"

"When that day comes, I'd like to be surrounded by my family and be told that they were proud of me," Koizumi answered, nearly in a growl. "Please be serious about this, Kyon-kun!"

"I'm as serious as the situation warrants," Kyon countered. "Events beyond my control caused a situation that takes the choice from my hands. This kind of thing happens all the time in the real world. It may not be the way I'd have chosen, but at _some_ point, Haruhi needs to learn that she can't always get her way."

"We'll return to this point to discuss things later," Koizumi decided. "However, for the moment, are you saying that after all that's happened that you do not want to or intend to pursue a romantic relationship with Suzumiya-san?"

"That's frank," Kyon allowed, raising an eyebrow and studying the esper's features. Koizumi looked unusually tense ... though, Kyon couldn't really hold that against him, all things considered. "And I never said any of those things."

"I think that an honest-"

"Hold up, let's pause _this_ part for a second, too," Kyon countered. "I know, I know ... fate of the world, esper's responsibility, all that nonsense I've heard before. Can you stretch your mighty esper brain to consider things from _my_ perspective for just a moment?"

Koizumi pressed his lips together in a hard, flat line, and sat back to watch Kyon warily, inclining his head the slightest distance.

"Let's imagine that there's this girl you kind of, sort of, maybe a little bit like." The esper nodded doubtfully. "Now, surround her with a gang of people who can read her feelings, and have one of them constantly breathing down your neck. This guy can _talk_ to you, and _knows_ her feelings. Despite the fact that he's just starting to be a friend to you, he's actually almost a total stranger with her - but he _acts_ like he's an older brother, or an ex-boyfriend, and while meaning well, does have this unfortunate tendency to show off an aloof smile and act smugly superior.

"Strangely, this makes it really, really hard to be friends with this person ... even when you try very hard. Koizumi, I can't be your friend if you're so busy being an agent of your organization, or an esper jerked around by Haruhi's feelings... If you can't ever find a moment to be _you_, who am I trying to be friends with, exactly?

"Because, if you look at the guy in my situation, what he could really use right at the moment is a friend who was interested in helping him out, not some fire-breathing psychic who _just_ wants to give him grief for other people's decisions. Tell me that what bonding we had in the hospital was meaningful, and not just another of your masks? I appreciated that honesty."

Done with his tirade, Kyon stared at the esper, arms crossed over his chest.

Koizumi looked away and took a series of deep breaths. "It is doubly difficult for me to see things from your perspective, knowing what I do," the esper muttered. "But ... I cannot deny that your own perspective is critical to you. In that case, let me apologize, and add that ... I am being influenced to no small degree by the severity of Suzumiya-san's emotional state. While I understand you don't want details, let's say that in some cases it goes beyond merely 'awareness' of her emotional state."

"So ... now we can talk like it's just two guys?" Kyon hazarded.

Rubbing at his temples, Koizumi gave a sharp nod. "You have a plan, then?" he asked cautiously.

Well, the 'plan' as such was just to be honest. He'd seen and been through too much to try and hide it from Haruhi. Everything got to her eventually, anyway... Love letters that he was supposed to be delivering on behalf of a middle school acquaintance, rescuing some random kid from being flattened by a van... One way or another, Haruhi always found out. So, being up front and non-evasive was probably his best bet.

"Yeah, I have a plan," Kyon agreed.

"You said also that this would be a good chance for Suzumiya-san to learn she can't always have what she wants?" the esper asked doubtfully.

Shifting his shoulders, Kyon sighed. "Well ... probably in the end she _will_ get her way - the point is, she has to deal with the fact that the choice was made before she had any input - just like Tsuruya-kun and I. I mean ... if she believes that this is it, and has to acknowledge the way things are for now at least..." And, being honest, he and Tsuruya had already as much as agreed that eventually they would break their engagement for Haruhi anyway.

"Then, how can I help with your plan? And if I cannot help, what may I be trusted with knowing?" Koizumi pressed. "I apologize if this seems to be overstepping the bounds of friendship, but if I know you, then there is some reason why you're allowing Suzumiya-san to become so upset without trying to resolve the matter."

Kyon sighed again, rubbing at his forehead. "Alright," he allowed. "So ... I can't really do much to go against my parents without causing more trouble, right now. If I actively oppose the current situation, it's a good bet that I'll get grounded, and my mom will _probably_ say I'm not allowed to attend the club _and_ I have to go back to cram school. We can count out any activities before winter break, at the very least. I'm not sure how things go for Tsuruya-kun, but I get the impression if she tries to go against her father, well ... that comes down on me, too, and if not, then things may become difficult for the Organization."

"So, really," the esper said slowly, one hand rising to stroke his chin thoughtfully, "you _are_ saying that events are beyond your control ... and your plan is that you intend to show Suzumiya-san that these things happen?"

Nodding, Kyon stretched his arms over his head, then set his hands on the table. "That's about the size of it," he agreed. "Maybe it'll be an obstacle to be overcome, but in any case, it must be faced."

"From your perspective, I can see how things must appear to you," Koizumi finally acknowledged. "However, while trying to be your friend and seeing things from your point of view, I also am still ... unfortunately aware of the turmoil that Suzumiya-san is experiencing at this moment. I said I would trust your judgment in Suzumiya-san related matters, and I still _do_, but I feel more confident in you when I am certain you have all of the information.

"In that regard, if it's not too much to ask, can you show Suzumiya-san this important lesson you wish her to understand while also doing some small thing to reassure her? I haven't been subjected to turmoil this severe since ... the day that closed space vanished."

Running a hand through his hair, Kyon nodded. "I wouldn't be much of a friend to either of you if I didn't do that," he admitted with a sigh. "Well! In that case, off to be returned to my ancestors. At least I know their names, now." Rising from the bench, he gave Koizumi a grave nod. "Will you be alright?"

"I think so," Koizumi said, covering his eyes with one hand. "Just struggling with a ... difficult emotion right now. I think I'll sit here and recover myself a bit more. Good luck, Kyon-kun."

Nodding dubiously, Kyon returned to the school building, making it back to the classroom in time to pack up his bento. He didn't have enough time to look for Haruhi, though, as it was close to class starting again. She returned moments before the chime, giving him an unreadable look before taking her seat. When she was bored, he might find an opportunity to watch her, but today there was going to be no way to observe her subtly.

And, naturally, she ran away the second the next break came around.

He had started to become extremely nervous when class finally ended, and it was time to go to the club. This time, she didn't run ahead, instead glancing around as though to check for interference. She didn't even give him time to grab his bag, though. The second he rose from his seat and turned to face her, she shot one hand out and seized his necktie, hauling him after her at a breakneck pace through the school.

One day, he vowed to himself, _one day_, he was going to turn the tables on her.

...probably not long after he managed to stun the older Mikuru.

Seeing as that day was a long way off, he followed, rather than risk being strangled, coming to a precarious stop in Haruhi's new favorite spot, the empty stairwell that was used as an overflow storage area for the art room. "Hi," he wheezed, when she stared at him, tight-lipped. "What's the occasion?"

She released his necktie as though it were on fire, and he loosened it, glad for the chance to breathe. Haruhi's face was slightly red, and her eyes wouldn't meet his. "S...so," she mumbled. "Um..."

He straightened his uniform out, guessing that she had to know what was going on, but unwilling to gamble on it. "You talked with Tsuruya-kun?" he tried.

Nodding stiffly, she said, "Yes."

Well. She was taking this with remarkable aplomb. Since she wasn't flying into a rage ... yet...

"Um," he managed, looking away without moving. What next?

"Anyway," Haruhi said shaking her head, "I've had a lot to deal with today, and I guess you've actually got a bit more to go... So, ultimately, um... Well..." She stomped one foot, finally fixing him with a sharp scowl. "Like Monday," she managed to spit out. "That."

He blinked at her. What had happened on Monday...?

There was that time travel thing, and then a veritable _storm_ of mind-fuzzing kissing, and... But, that would mean... Surely she didn't... Well, actually, from Haruhi that made a certain sense.

Fighting back the urge to roll his eyes, he gave Haruhi a weak smile. "Why?" he asked her. Did she have some strange desire to be 'the other woman', probably just for an odd excuse like 'to see what it's like'? He doubted it... But he was also confident that he needed to be careful, at least enough to find out what her motive _was_.

Her face reddened and she scowled, looking away. "I know what's going through _your_ head," she grumbled. "This is nothing about trying to hurt someone else's feelings, or trying to mess up ... things. You know what my feelings are on romance between other people! What I _do_ care about is if ... you still..." That was as far as she could get, her eyes starting to shine, her hands faintly trembling.

Suddenly, Kyon felt a stab of guilt. And to compound matters, he admitted to himself that he was about to do something terrible - cheat on Tsuruya. The yawning abyss of his personal hell was nearby, he could _feel_ it.

"Well... I guess I can't say much for myself in this matter," he sighed. "Not much positive, anyway ... but... No, look ... my feelings haven't changed at all. What's going on ... it was my parents, and Tsuruya-kun's father."

Haruhi managed a stiff nod, but didn't relax at all. Stifling a sigh internally, and making himself admit that it was actually kind of fun having the upper hand... He reached out and cautiously drew his fingertips across her cheek, turning her face towards him before he took that final step, into the chasm.

Hopefully, Tsuruya would understand enough to forgive him some day.

* * *

Her plan was relatively simple. Wait until Haruhi cooled down, then go over details again. Maybe give Haruhi some encouragement, since she _was_ dealing with a lot of stress, but, as they said, old tricks are the best tricks.

She wasn't an expert, but she simply asked herself what _she_ would do in Haruhi's shoes. And Tsuruya told herself that she would smile, put up a strong front, grab the first chance she could find to be alone with Kyon, and then (to borrow a phrase from her English tutor) snog the daylights out of him!

Haruhi and Kyon weren't in the clubroom when Tsuruya dropped Kanae off, though Yuki and Mikuru were. They even managed to catch Mikuru changing, which was amusing to Tsuruya and Kanae, but not nearly so much to the time traveler. That in mind, Tsuruya resisted the urge to snap a few pictures of her and instead dashed off to look for the missing pair.

They weren't in their classroom, either, and Tsuruya's _next_ best guess was betrayed by Koizumi, though she strongly doubted he _meant_ to be obvious. She found him standing just outside the stairwell leading up to the roof.

The area was almost deserted, the occasional passing student just shooting a brief glance down the hall and then vanishing. But Koizumi had dropped his bag and had one hand pressed to his chest. His eyes were distant, he had the faintest hints of a blush across his face, and his expression was shifted from his normal cheerless grin to something that managed to simultaneously combine awe and terror.

She couldn't help herself; she snapped a picture of him.

That got his attention, rousing him from his stunned daze. "Ah, er," he managed on seeing her. Amazingly, his blush faded almost instantly, and his features instantly switched back to his typical mask. "Um, Tsuruya-san, what brings you to this completely empty corner of the school?"

"Looking for Haru-nyan!" she chirped back at him. After a moment of time to reflect on it, she realized she knew _exactly_ what was going on, and just barely restrained an amused gasp. She couldn't keep down the smile or giggle, though. Obviously, Haruhi had found Kyon and done the expected ... and Koizumi was significantly 'aware' of it.

"Y...you'll probably find her in the club room," he suggested, smiling weakly. "I t...think we should go there now!"

Perhaps it was a tiny bit of jealousy that Haruhi was a flight and some distance up, of all things, making out with _Tsuruya's_ fiance. She could admit it stung a little... So she elbowed Koizumi companionably. "You alright?" she pressed. "Your knees are shaking, and your face is a little red, nyoro~!"

"Side-effect of my esper powers," he said, stooping to collect his bag. "It's only in my head, but..." She had a good guess that Haruhi was either out of earshot, or _incredibly_ distracted. Possibly both. In either case, Koizumi managed one step down the hall, away from the stairwell, before he froze, his eyes crossed as he gasped.

Sighing, and deciding Haruhi needed her 'moment' a little longer, Tsuruya took the wobbly esper's elbow in one hand. "Come on," she ordered, leading him like a dazed, lost puppy. "Nurse's office, or club rooms?"

"Club room," he wheezed, his gaze still glassy.

So, another detour to drop off the nearly catatonic esper before she could double-back. Her hopes were denied ... instead of being able to jog up the stairs and give Kyon a good-natured heart attack, catching him in the act and then reassuring him that it was okay (as long as she got hers, too), she reached the stairwell just in time to see the pair descending.

For his part, Kyon looked simultaneously smug _and_ resigned, which was a look that she was hard pressed to think anyone aside from him could really pull off. Haruhi's hair was mussed, her eyes were distant, and she seemed to have borrowed Kanae's luminescent blush. Yeah, either of those were worthy of a picture - both were worth _several_.

Kyon snapped out of his daze first, looking guiltily around, as though to scan for witnesses before he was unable to meet her eyes. Well ... she was a little touched to see he felt guilty about it - enough to soothe that tiny jealous burn, anyway. "Er," he managed.

"Uh," Haruhi agreed, blinking away her confusion and nonchalantly trying to smooth her hair back into place.

A few more pictures later, Tsuruya finally pocketed her phone again, quirking an eyebrow at the couple before her. "Well?" she prompted, when neither said anything else.

Bowing his head, Kyon heaved a sigh and raised one hand to his temple. "Let's say that this was my fault," he mumbled, looking even _more_ guilty. It was kind of cute, in a way... But there was no way she was going to risk getting caught kissing him in the halls, tempting though that might be.

"Then I'm disappointed in Haru-nyan," she judged, unable to keep the smile from her face. "Really ... dragging you heres and making you do all the work?"

Haruhi winced, staring at the floor while her blush deepened. Kyon didn't react at all, probably telling himself he hadn't heard the comment.

"Aaaaanyway, Kyon-kun," she drawled, waving a hand before his face to draw his attention, "I'll just says ... I don't see that any rules were broken, hum? You takes good care of Nagato-chi and Mikuru-chan tonight, too, okies?"

"Er, right," he managed, snapping to attention and nodding, though he still looked completely baffled. "Absolutely."

"I have to talk to Tsu-chan, so you can go home and get ready," Haruhi added, somewhat more recovered. "But she's right! If you don't show those two a good time, it's a penalty!"

"Right, right," Kyon mumbled, bowing to the pair and then trudging towards his classroom. "Death penalty if I fail... I know where _I'm_ going to end up!"

Tsuruya watched him walk slowly away, wondering at that last remark. Haruhi also watched him, her cheeks still glowing. "So," Tsuruya asked with a giggle, pitching her voice low enough that Kyon wouldn't hear, "was it good?"

"He's _really_ good," Haruhi agreed, nodding. "Like ... amazing. I, er, kind of ... lost track of time. I only meant to grab him for a minute, and then, um..." She shrugged uncomfortably.

"No problem," Tsuruya chuckled. "Oh, um... But I didn't talk to Mikuru-chan. I thoughts about what you said, about how there's a gap between you and her...?" She gave an apologetic shrug of her own. "I think you should be the one to bridge that gap, really."

"Ugh," Haruhi sighed, covering her eyes with one hand. After a moment, she straightened up, dropping her hand to her side. "You're right," she agreed. "I do have to take care of that myself; thanks, Tsu-chan."

"Hehe, were you just deficient in Vitamin K?" she asked her friend with a wink.

"...yeah," Haruhi agreed, shooting Tsuruya a half-hearted glower. "This is so embarrassing!"

She was at her limit, so, leaning heavily on Haruhi, Tsuruya finally gave in, exploding with laughter. The entire situation was too silly!

"What!?" Haruhi protested, not pushing Tsuruya away. "What's so funny about this?"

Once she had calmed down, Tsuruya managed to explain, "You're cute when you get flustered, remember?"

Haruhi pouted. "I _am_ going to get an equal share of seeing you flustered in turn," she warned. "Once I figure out how..." She clicked her tongue and sniffed pointedly.

Tsuruya chuckled in response ... but she could only think of two things that Haruhi could arrange that would really fluster her. And with Kyon sent home, only one was viable. "We'll see," she allowed. "C'mon, let's go talks to Mikuru-chan~!"

"Right," Haruhi agreed.

* * *

Really, Mikuru had thought she had gotten used to dressing up as a maid for the club. She hadn't realized she actually liked it until she found Kanae taking over her role. What she had once expected would be an escape, somehow, left her missing the opportunity.

That thought in mind, she had rushed to the club room to change before the slider could... After all, hadn't Haruhi mentioned that Kyon really liked seeing her in a maid outfit?

...not that that was her entire reason, or what motivated her to keep changing when Tsuruya and Kanae burst into the room. Still, it wouldn't hurt to do something _nice_ for Kyon, especially since he was supposed to be taking her and Yuki out to see a movie that night anyway. Once she finished changing and started heating water for tea, she and Kanae managed some small talk, mostly centered around the slider's slowly climbing history grade.

Though, she seemed reluctantly consigned to only barely getting a passing mark... "It's better than not trying at all," Mikuru said, just Tsuruya stopped back by the clubroom again, this time snickering as she pushed Koizumi in and then ran away.

The esper dazedly made his way to the table, looking strangely distracted. "Ah ... Koizumi-san?" she asked cautiously. "Are you alright?"

"I'm ... wrestling with some issues," he said, shaking his head as he took a seat. "I expect that very shortly the problem will go away."

"Oh!" Kanae said, perking up slightly. "Is this about esper business, then?"

"Yes," Koizumi reluctantly agreed, nodding.

"Oh, my," Mikuru said, frowning as she glanced around. "Um ... should I call Kyon-kun about it?"

"No!" Koizumi barked, almost shouting

At the same time Yuki raised her gaze from her book and said, much more calmly, "No."

"Huh?" Kanae asked, looking between the two. "What's going on?"

Swallowing, Koizumi lowered himself from where he had started to leap out of his seat and gestured the quiet girl to go on. "Data is being transmitted through relevant memetic channels," Yuki offered, blinking.

"What kind of 'data transmission' could Sempai have with Suzumiya-san?" Kanae asked, puzzled. "You mean, like, a conversation?"

Yuki blinked then turned her attention back to her manga wordlessly, blushing incredibly faintly.

The slider pouted, then turned an imploring gaze to Koizumi.

"S...so, is the tea ready?" the esper asked with a nervous chuckle. "Some nerve settling tea would be ju..." His remark was punctuated with an eye-crossing pause, before he quickly shook his head and cleared his throat. "J...just the thing," he managed, his voice shaking in an unfamiliar manner.

"Y...yes," Mikuru agreed, pouring him a cup of tea and setting it within his reach. "But, um ... are you alright? You seem really ... stressed."

"It's nothing," he insisted, gulping his tea and scalding his mouth. "Ah! Er... Nothing at all!"

"Nothing?" Mikuru asked doubtfully. "I don't really understand how an exchange between Kyon-kun and Suzumiya-san would make you..." She trailed off with a blink, thinking about things. She didn't really know the specifics of Koizumi's powers. He could do things in closed space, access that closed space, and ... had a link of some sort to Haruhi's emotional state? Kyon had mentioned that once...

"Oh, oh dear," she fretted. "Did Kyon-kun upset Suzumiya-san?"

Koizumi muttered something that sounded an _awful_ lot like, "Thank the gods, they're finally done," before shaking his head and sitting up straight. "Let's discuss something else," he suggested. "Yes, so ... ah ... our beach trip this weekend - won't that be fun?"

Kanae eyed Koizumi suspiciously, but finally shrugged and turned a curious gaze to Mikuru. At that moment, the door slammed open, Haruhi beaming an excited smile to everyone inside. Tsuruya was behind her, glowing with her own radiant amusement. "Hello~!" Haruhi called cheerfully.

"A...ah ... um ... hello?" Mikuru tried cautiously, managing a smile. What had happened? Where was Kyon?

"Hello Suzumiya-san, Tsuruya-san," Kanae greeted cheerfully. "No Sempai today?"

"I sent Kyon home to get ready for tonight," Haruhi said, waving a hand dismissively.

"I guess I don't feel bad about not getting to dress up, then..."

Mikuru couldn't help but sigh at that, a little disappointed. That meant there wasn't much of a reason for her to dress up, either.

"What's that face for?" Haruhi demanded, striding to Mikuru's side and clapping one hand on her shoulder.

Mikuru didn't _quite_ squeak in alarm, though she did jump a little. "N...nothing!" she protested quickly. "Um, I'm sure Kyon-kun will be just fine!"

"And you'll get to see him tonight for your movie," Haruhi added. "You and Yuki-chan..."

"I'm jealous," Kanae mumbled, offering a tiny, guilty smile. "I want to see a movie with Sempai."

"I got us tickets to the Trope-tan movies, though!" Tsuruya pointed out, taking a seat next to the slider and putting one arm around her shoulders. "Remember? Next Friday!"

"Yeah!" Kanae agreed excitedly, nodding energetically. "I haven't forgotten that at all! Er, but..." She shook her head. "I...it's probably nothing..."

"What's that, then?" Haruhi asked, turning to look at her curiously. "Something on your mind, Kanae-chan?"

"I was thinking of maybe talking to Sempai a little bit about, um ... my enemies ... and how we're supposed to plan for that. I... I've been trying to avoid it, but that's a really bad idea if they might be showing up soon..."

"That's a good point," Haruhi agreed, frowning. "Okay, well, hm... Ah! I have it - Tsu-chan, can we use your place as a base of operations?"

"That's what my places is!" the heiress agreed, snickering.

"Okay! Mikuru-chan, Yuki-chan, come over to Tsu-chan's place after the movie with Kyon. We'll go over what information we have and then we can work on that this weekend when we're not at the beach. Until then, hum, Mikuru-chan, Yuki-chan, you two should just go ahead and get ready. There's no sense letting this distract you from what should be a nice evening, right? I really _do_ expect both of you to enjoy yourself ... this is my apology to Mikuru-chan for what happened last time!"

Yuki blinked, looking up from her manga wordlessly.

"And to you for not being involved last time," Haruhi acknowledged, nodding at the shorter girl. Yuki nodded slightly in response and turned her attention back once more.

"Enjoy myself?" Mikuru asked, dismayed. Well, if Kyon was there, then she'd enjoy _that_ much, at least. But how was she supposed to try and have _fun_ when she knew they were planning to deal with some sort of horrendous extra-planar invasion? As frequently happened when she thought about Kanae's enemies, she found a curious and probably intentional blind spot in her memories. More deeply concealed than merely 'classified', that information had been redacted.

She supposed that was some small comfort... That meant it was a matter for history, and that ... probably ... they survived. But that didn't seem like much of a consolation, really, so she didn't mention it. Anyway, with the weight of all that looming, and the knowledge that she was supposed to try and 'pursue' Kyon - earnestly, despite the fact that she knew it could never happen...

"Yuki-chan, you know what I mean, right?" Haruhi asked.

Yuki nodded without looking up.

"Hmm... Okay. Anyway, there's something _else_ we need to discuss tonight, Mikuru-chan, but that can wait. Just focus on having a good time! Soak up tons of energy for this weekend, like me! That may mean seizing an opportunity when you see it - so if you find an opportunity, strike! Strike until you can strike no more!" Haruhi looked out the window, tapping her lower lip thoughtfully. "Hmm... You might _just_ be able to stun him like-" She cut herself off with a cough and a shake of her head. "Anyway! Mikuru-chan, Yuki-chan, you can go ahead and head out when you like - our official club meeting can convene at Tsuruya's place tonight!"

"Y...yes," Mikuru agreed, frowning. Almost no one had even enjoyed the tea she made!

"Oh, and Mikuru-chan, you might need a secret weapon, so..." She trailed off thoughtfully for some reason before brightening, though she had an eerily predatory smile. "You should put your hair up in a ponytail when you go out with Kyon tonight! It's at least plus five versus Kyon!"

"O...okay," Mikuru managed to agree, moments before Haruhi gave a nod of approval, and stormed out of the room with Tsuruya, Kanae, and Koizumi. Yuki quietly flipped to the next page of her manga.

The time traveler sighed, prepared to remove her outfit once the door shut.

"Wait."

She froze, looking at Yuki with mild surprise. Though her expression had hardly changed, Yuki fished her phone from her pocket and snapped a picture of Mikuru. "...eh?" she noised. "What's that for?"

Yuki punched some keys, sending the picture to Mikuru's own phone. "For him."

"Y...you want me to send him a picture of me?" she asked, confused.

Though it was subtle, Yuki's gaze felt vaguely puzzled to the time traveler.

"You know, you can ask for clarification," Mikuru offered at a sudden insight. "I mean, you don't _have_ to try and struggle to guess everything on your own. We ask to make sure that what we say is what we mean all the time in conversation ... in classes on communication, it's called 'perception checking'."

"Verbal error-correction-checking to adjust and correct issues in a naturally lossy medium," Yuki observed, ducking her head slightly, looking the tiniest bit pensive.

"Well ... that sounds a bit analytical, but I suppose that's exactly what it is," Mikuru agreed, pulling off the apron for her maid costume.

"You ... want him ... to see you in that outfit," Yuki finally managed, which was not really a question at all.

"Y...yes," Mikuru agreed, pulling off the frock and hanging it before pulling on her uniform skirt and top. Once she was finished doing up her skirt, she gave Yuki a cautious smile. "You were trying to help me?"

Yuki nodded.

"Aw... Well, thank you, Yuki-chan, but, um... I don't know if he would really like... I mean, I could send him a picture, I suppose. I was just... Ah, it's not important! We'll see him tonight, won't we?"

Yuki nodded again.

"So, um ... hum. I didn't bring a change of clothes with me. Did you want to go our separate ways and then meet up, or would you like me to come with you to prepare?" she asked. Would Yuki want her help getting ready for the movie...?

After rising to her feet and hesitating, going through her internal struggle, Yuki said, "Assistance would be ... appreciated."

Mikuru couldn't help but smile at her friend, barely resisting the impulse to hug her again. Plenty of time for that after deciding which outfit to wear.

* * *

After retrieving his schoolbag, Kyon trudged home, trying to sort things out. Did Tsuruya know that he had kissed Haruhi? Did she really mean that was okay?

As nice as it was to think that, it seemed much more likely that Tsuruya didn't know what had really happened.

For the time being, he felt oblivious to the other students walking along with him and on the train. He was partially ecstatic, since Haruhi did know, but was (somehow) holding things together. On the other hand, he had also proved himself a bigamist, by cheating on Tsuruya, and that was weighing on him heavily. So he was torn between extremes, lost in a daze until he reached his sister's school.

He shook his distraction off outside of the gates, glancing up the street and spotting a well-dressed member of the Tsuruya branch giving him a subtle nod as their eyes met. A few minutes later, his sister and Miyoko left the school together, both perking up on seeing him (though, they both looked cheerful anyway).

Between the two of them, only his sister tried to use her body as a projectile, and he caught her easily. "Kyon-kun~!" she cheered. "You're not going to move into Tsuru-nee-san's house right away, are you?" Behind her, Miyoko nodded earnestly, giving him an expectant look.

"Of course not," he replied, setting her down and ruffling her hair. "That'd be years and years away... Man, is _that_ what you've been talking about today?"

Miyoko nodded. "When can I meet this girl?" she asked cautiously. "She wasn't one of the girls with you when we went to see that movie..."

"I never get to see movies with Kyon-kun," his sister grumbled.

"Maybe you can ask Tsuruya if she can get you tickets to see the Trope-tan movie with us," he suggested, not realizing what a mistake this was until his sister exploded with excitement at the prospect.

Some minutes later, while his now hyper-actively charged sister tried to explain the entire Trope-tan series to Miyoko, who was struggling to follow her, his phone rang. At a glance, they were only a few blocks from home... Was it Haruhi, wanting to talk to him about the 'situation'? Tsuruya, wanting to confront him about him being a bigamist?

Maybe Koizumi, struggling to be a friend, trying to offer advice. Mikuru or Yuki, wanting to see if he was on for the movie he'd been told he had to take them to, still?

Or maybe, just because he wasn't expecting it, Kanae?

Except, when he absently pulled his PDA from his pocket and hit 'talk' without checking the caller ID, it wasn't any of them. "Hello?" he greeted cautiously.

"Ah! I've finally reached you!" Sasaki said across the connection, sounding oddly relieved. "I thought I'd try, since I ran into your friends yesterday while shopping."

He was so stunned that he didn't say anything right away.

"Well, nevermind that for now - um, Kyon, things are somewhat difficult at the moment, and I feel that it's very important that we speak. Are you free this evening?"

"No," he managed. He didn't really think about it, just saying, "I'm going to see a movie tonight with a girl from my school, sorry." Actually, it was two girls, he realized belatedly.

The silence became uncomfortable as Miyoko and his sister stared at him expectantly.

"A...ah, I see!" Sasaki said, her voice now strangely stressed. "With, ah, what was that name ... Miyokichi?"

"What? No! I'm not that kind of person!" he protested. How did this keep happening? "Why does it always seem- Look, Miyoko-chan is like a little sister to me!"

"Ah?" the girl in question managed, looking confused. "What's going on?"

"Sorry," he said with a sigh. "No, no, tonight I'm going to the theater with Asahina-san and Nagato."

"Oh!" Sasaki exclaimed, now oddly relieved. "Oh, well... That... Yes, of course! That makes much more sense. Of course if it was- Sorry, that was- Ah, rather, nevermind! On to somewhat more pressing matters, then?"

"Okay," he allowed. "I'm really busy these days, but I can at least hear you out."

"Yes, right. I'd really like to meet with you to discuss this in person, could we arrange that? You say you're busy, but knowing you, it's because someone else already imposed on your calendar and made arrangements."

He sighed wordlessly. He could read people, but Sasaki _knew_ him.

"Aha, just as I suspected! In _that_ case, I'd like to impose arrangements of my own on you, if possible! Namely to meet in person so we can discuss things. It really does seem to be increasing in urgency."

His PDA obligingly flipped to his day planner. 'Skynet' (it changed its name automatically shortly after Haruhi had renamed it 'Kyon's PDA') seemed to understand things that people around him said and filled in his schedule appropriately. Irritatingly enough, Sasaki was right, though, and every event _had_ been initiated by someone else. While he found the planner useful, he hadn't actually put anything into it himself.

"Well, this weekend is no good for me," he told her, bringing the phone back to his ear. "I've got plans. And next Friday I'll be going out with some other friends."

"Well, how about Monday night?" she pressed. "I'd really rather this be sooner than later..."

"Actually, I wanted to take my parents out to dinner to talk with them about something important on Monday," he lied, while Skynet obligingly made a new entry.

"I'm going too!" his sister demanded waving her arms to get his attention. He nodded at her, as Sasaki sighed across the line.

"So busy?" she protested. "You've really changed quite a bit, then... It's not that you're avoiding me, is it?"

Kyon had tried not to think about that. Or the fact that a whole year had gone by where he thought about Sasaki frequently, but never tried to talk to her. Really, he was deep enough on the path to his special hell as it was. He could _claim_ that it was because she upset Haruhi, but he couldn't say that to Sasaki. That and the fact that he would be lying to himself...

"See, it's... I ended up getting a part-time job - I'm heavily involved in a very traditional, family-run business now, so that takes up quite a bit of time," he offered. That was actually close to true.

"Hmm... Well, I don't expect you to be the sort who would break their school rules concerning part-time work," she mused. "So, one of your friends must have asked you for help. Is it so bad that you can't speak with me when I ask you for the same?"

He winced at that. He'd just seen her earlier that week, from his perspective. From hers, that was over a month ago, though. How could he call her a friend, and not listen to her request? "I never said I wouldn't meet with you," he grumbled. Hell ... if he had a chance to speak to some of Sasaki's allies without endangering any of his friends, maybe they might have some insight into Kanae's situation.

Though, he would need to be very careful not to let them know any details about Kanae, if he could help it. Or would they mysteriously have already connected with Kanae's enemies? Come to think of it, if that were a possibility, and they could be expected soon, putting off such a meeting longer than needed... "So, ah ... how about next weekend?" he offered.

"Ah, I've got something then, myself ... what about Monday a week after next? The thirtieth?"

"Yeah, okay," he agreed. "Where? And what time?"

"Let's say ... six o'clock, at that cafe? If that's not too much trouble. I'll treat you!"

"It's no trouble. I guess, uh ... sorry for being so distant, things have just been really, really hectic lately."

Sasaki actually giggled at that. "Believe me, I've ended up quite busy lately, too! Now- Ah, oh... Well, I'm afraid I must go - see you at our meeting, unless we run into one-another first! And be careful!"

She disconnected before he could reply, so he shrugged, checking his calendar. There was his meeting with Sasaki on the thirtieth...

"Well?" Miyoko and his sister asked in tandem, just as they rounded the corner to the street leading to his home.

"It's someone from Kyon's middle school," his sister determined.

"And why did this person know about me?" Miyoko added worriedly.

"How did you know that?" he asked his sister, frowning. "And for the other part, that's a good question, Miyoko-chan. I'm not sure - I'll ask Sasaki when I see her." Skynet obligingly made a note on his to-do list. Such a useful device... He didn't look forward to its inevitable betrayal.

"I don't know who that person is, but make sure you're close to Haru-nee-san when you talk to them," his sister warned.

"That's a strange thing to say," he remarked, pocketing his PDA and frowning at his sister. Somehow, the idea of bringing Haruhi along to meet with Sasaki sounded spectacularly bad. "What gives you that idea?"

His little sister gave him a faintly aloof smile. "Where are you going this weekend?" she asked him. "I saw you with a checklist of things to pack!"

So much for keeping her from finding out... Sighing, he shook his head. "You already invited yourself along for Monday," he noted. "So _if_ I tell you, that means you can't go. Understand?"

"Okay!" she cheered. "So, don't tell me! That means I can go!"

He blinked at her. "That's not what-"

"Come on, Miyoko, let's go call Haru-nyan and tell her that Kyon said we could go, as long as it's a surprise!"

"Okay!" Miyoko agreed, grinning as she and his sister charged the remaining distance to the house.

It would be trivial to chase them down and stop them, but he couldn't see that actually accomplishing anything. If he told her, she'd just insist on tagging along anyway... And he supposed it wasn't _that_ bad having his sister along on a beach trip. She'd missed the entire island adventure, after all. Miyoko being along shouldn't be a problem, either...

He watched the pair of girls dash through the doorway into the house and shook his head, bemused. At least she wasn't going to be tagging along for tonight's movie with Mikuru and Yuki.

By the time he opened the door, his sister and Miyoko were already transcribing a list of supplies - his sister was naming them off one at a time, and Miyoko was hurriedly writing them with her neat handwriting. His mother confronted him before he could really take the situation in, asking, "Where exactly are you taking your sister this weekend?"

Well, Tsuruya's name was a talisman that cut through any of his mother's complaints, so: "Tsuruya-kun and I are going to the beach with the rest of the club. Imouto asked if she could come along, so..." He shrugged.

His mother arched one eyebrow higher, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "There will be chaperones?" she asked.

"Yeah, and Imouto just joined their ranks," he jibed, grinning. "It's not like it's a _private_ beach." Or ... was it? Well, it wouldn't matter if it was...

"Just because you're engaged, don't overstep your bounds," his mother warned him sternly, frowning slightly. "She's a very nice young woman, and it wouldn't do for you to ruin things! In fact, come to think of it, perhaps we should find a protocol and etiquette teacher for you?"

"Auntie Rika trained me well enough," he countered, surprised at how much the comment seemed to nettle his mother. She winced and bristled, fixing him with a wary gaze.

Why wouldn't his mother get along with Rika? Well ... _that_ was a mystery to solve later.

"Anyway, speaking of the aunts, I have some money saved up from babysitting." This was technically true - all told, the sitting ended up paying quite well thanks to the per-cousin fee, once he had totaled up the damages. At this point, that sum had been greatly amended by his regular paychecks, as well.

"And?" she asked doubtfully. "You didn't spend your savings, did you?"

"Of course not," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Give me _some_ credit. I've been saving every week!"

She beamed a surprised smile at him. "You've been saving all of your allowance? Good! I'm glad you show that much responsibility!"

"Well, actually, I wanted to take you and Dad - and Imouto - out for dinner ... and maybe talk about how things are going lately," he offered.

"Oh, that's very thoughtful of you, Kyon!" his mother exclaimed, looking genuinely surprised. She immediately seemed to realize something and fixed him with a suspicious stare. "What is this supposed to be an apology for? What have you done?"

"Got engaged recently and felt that I really needed to have better communication with my parents?" Kyon suggested, giving his mother a somewhat baffled look, trying to keep the reproach from his gaze. "Do I _really_ give such a bad impression?"

Mollified, she shook her head, looking away. "Not usually..." she admitted. "Alright. Just leave a note for your father so he knows where and when."

"No problem," he agreed.

* * *

After moving their bags of beach equipment to Tsuruya's place in advance to save some time, Mikuru and Yuki spent some time getting ready at Yuki's place before retreating to Mikuru's so she could change herself. After that, the pair retreated went to the train station near the theater where they were supposed to meet Kyon. Mikuru couldn't help be a tiny bit apprehensive, since the last time...

Well, with Yuki nearby, surely Kyon wouldn't get injured again... Though, hopefully, he wouldn't even be attacked in the first place!

Surprisingly, Kyon was already waiting for them when they arrived. He was distracted by his new cell phone, though, so the girls had the jump on him - so to speak. He was dressed relatively nicely, in jeans and a white t-shirt, with an unbuttoned blue long-sleeved shirt over that.

Mikuru smiled and motioned Yuki to silence - not that she really needed to put any effort into being quiet. While he was distracted, she crept up behind him, poking him in the back of the neck with one fingertip. "Surprise!" she exclaimed.

He gave a startled jump, fumbling his PDA before recovering and expertly snatching it from the air with a rueful smile. "You sure surprised me," he agreed, before turning and falling completely silent, his mouth hanging slightly open.

It was obvious he was stunned, but she hoped it was because he approved of her outfit, not because he thought poorly of her. Her dress was a nice little one-piece - not too ostentatious - in a red shade that complimented her hair. The lower hem was a bit shorter than her school uniform skirt, but longer than the embarrassing waitress outfit she had worn for Haruhi's movie. Normally she wouldn't have gone for something with such a revealing neckline, either, but the clerk when she tried it on had insisted it was so flattering... Well, it wasn't _quite_ as bad as the bunny-girl costume.

"Y...you look very nice," he managed, looking like he suddenly felt very self conscious. "Um ... I should have dressed better..."

She ducked her head and blushed, satisfied for the moment. He didn't disapprove... Still, since she was stuck with her own constraints as a time traveler, the best she could _really_ do was maybe push him a little towards Yuki. She thought Yuki's outfit was cute, too! "Thank you," she said. "Um, what do you think of Yuki-chan?"

He glanced around, actually looking across Yuki before his eyes snapped back to her and widened. Mikuru had used a little make-up for herself, but not much ... she had put some on Yuki, too, but she had needed even less. A hint of blush and some eyeshadow. Yuki was wearing a green blouse with elbow-length sleeves, and a brown-jumper with a knee-length skirt. It had taken Mikuru _forever_ to convince Yuki to wear them, but she also had a pair of hair clips, patterned with green leaves and tiny flowers the same light color as her hair.

Kyon worked his jaw for a long minute, then finally said, "I was not expecting you out of your uniform, Nagato. Y...you look amazing, actually." He started, seeming to realize that he might have slighted Mikuru, and quickly added, "Both of you do, in fact."

Mikuru couldn't help but giggle ... and if she weren't looking for it, she wouldn't have seen the small tension in Yuki's face fade at Kyon's comment. "I am glad you approve," Yuki answered.

Kyon quirked one eyebrow higher. "I think it suits you, but ... do you like that outfit?" he asked.

At that, Mikuru giggled again. As she had expected, Kyon really could see into the heart of Yuki. Though, being honest with herself ... if she hadn't spent so much time being afraid of Yuki, she might have been able to notice earlier.

Yuki bowed her head, brow furrowed in concentration. "I ... might," she allowed, looking up and meeting Kyon's eyes. "It is different."

Kyon smiled at her. "Well, I'm glad you're branching out, even though the image of you in your uniform is iconic to me. Just like Asahina-san in her maid outfit."

Mikuru felt her face warm up. So he _did_ like her in that outfit! "What movie did you choose?" she asked, clasping her hands together and leaning towards Kyon curiously.

"Ah, well, since I didn't really think to get tickets in advance, I'm afraid I had to get tickets to a foreign film... Evidently it was somewhat popular in America, though," he said apologetically.

"O...oh," Mikuru managed, dismayed. "Like the last one?" Well, Kyon _would_ be there, but she wasn't sure she was up for another movie like that! How did Miyoko enjoy such things?

"No, no," he said quickly, shaking his head. "I checked with the clerk! And, um ... evidently Skynet gets internet service, so I double-checked on-line. It seems to be a romantic comedy ... mostly."

"What's it called?"

"'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'," he said in English, before switching back to Japanese. "I'm confident enough in my English to think I can follow it, but just in case, it is subtitled."

"Oh, my English is good enough to understand," Mikuru said, giggling. "And I'm sure Yuki-chan, as well!"

Yuki nodded, looking vaguely bemused.

"Something bothering you?" Kyon asked, motioning the pair to follow as he headed towards the theater, through the evening crowds in the district.

"There is no clear link between a wanderer who engages a planet in battle and the concept of romance, though comedy may be inferred through futility," Yuki observed. "I do not completely understand."

"I think it's meant to be ironic, but sometimes movies might have nonsensical titles or tag-lines just to try and draw people in ... it's the same with book titles, right?"

"I see," Yuki mused, seeming placated by that observation.

Ultimately, once the movie began, other than a few cultural oddities that didn't translate well, Mikuru found the story fairly engaging. The special effects reminded her in some ways of the augmented reality context tags that she used herself, and she ended up needing to disable her own until the film finished, since they were overlapping in a confusing way. It had some very strange fights, and some things that totally puzzled her... But it was quite fun, in the end.

They chatted about it a bit on the way to the train, but even though everything had gone well, Mikuru was still nervous until they reached the station. Then she finally let herself relax, asking Yuki if she had enjoyed the movie as well. In her typical manner, Yuki commented, "Unique."

After reaching the train station near Tsuruya's place, they walked along, Mikuru uncomfortably sure that they were being followed. She couldn't pinpoint it, but... "What's wrong?" Kyon asked, noting her discomfort.

"I ... think we're being followed," she managed, wincing. "M...maybe it's nothing..."

"There are three of Tsuruya-kun's men behind us," Kyon offered, not even looking back. "They're supposed to be keeping an eye on you, making sure you're safe."

"Oh!" she managed, surprised. "I didn't know that!"

"Sorry," he replied, glancing at her sheepishly. "Tsuruya-kun or I probably should have mentioned that..."

"Ah, w...well, I am glad to have friends that look after me," Mikuru managed. She wanted to shift the conversation, to ask him about what Sasaki had said - that someone who looked like her but older was with Kyon at one point. But ... they had reached Tsuruya's place, and he was going to go back home after seeing them through the gate.

She stopped at the threshold of the entrance when Yuki tugged at her hand, before she could say goodbye to Kyon. "Thank you," Yuki said, turning to face Kyon. She could tell that Yuki really meant it, and wasn't just being polite. Kyon could, too. But why had Yuki taken her hand to delay her? Before she could ask, Yuki slipped through the gate into the estate, closing it behind her, leaving Mikuru alone with Kyon.

Well, she could open the gate easily enough, but she still didn't know why Yuki had done that... It was quite intentional, but she had a hard time thinking the shorter girl was trying to play a prank or had just been inconsiderate. Was it Yuki's unspoken message that she should spend some time alone with Kyon? She didn't really have an objection to that, but...

"U...um, I had a very nice time tonight, as well," she said, smiling at Kyon, one hand absently patting down her ponytail nervously. She usually wore her hair differently ... why had Haruhi insisted on the style? She felt vaguely certain that it was linked to another unanswered question.

Kyon seemed too distracted to respond immediately. Well, they _were_ alone ... and Haruhi said she _did_ have to try... She fought back the temptation to do something she shouldn't and leaned closer to Kyon with her hands clasped behind her back. He looked a little flushed when she did that for some reason... "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Er, fine, yeah," he managed, seeming to struggle to tear his gaze from her as he chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. "S...sorry. Um, I'm more than fine - and glad you had a good time. A guy like me should consider himself incredibly fortunate to get to treat two visions of beauty such as yourself and Nagato to a movie! Y...you know ... I always thought you were cute..."

"Ah," she managed. He looked faintly flustered for some reason ... so unreasonably adorable! She felt a little stab of jealousy... Haruhi was going to end up with him, though, unless she somehow lost interest. She didn't see _that_ happening any time soon, though. And that aside, it wasn't like she could break the rules and-

And yet... "Y...you can call me Mikuru-chan," she said quietly, giving him a hopeful smile. Of course, she'd told him that a _year_ ago, but he'd remained very formal and polite, even though she called him by his nickname. "Please?"

"Ah ... well ... at least this once," he agreed, giving her a wink. "Thanks for a wonderful time tonight ... Mikuru-chan."

Oh ... that did it. He'd gone and completely blown past her threshold for withstanding cuteness. Something inside her gave way, and she realized she was doing something she really, really shouldn't. Why had she told him to call her that?!

"Oh, no, no!" she whimpered, grabbing him and pulling herself to him, frantically pressing her lips against his. "We mustn't!" she protested, between her clumsy attempts to try and kiss him, pushing him to stumble back against the wall of the entry gate. "It's forbidden!" she cried, locking her arms around his body as she tried to pull him to her as tightly as she could. "We can't!" she gasped before diving in once more, one leg rising, the inside of her knee brushing the outside of his leg as he hugged her back. "Please, Kyon-kun..."

Then all coherent thought was thrown completely out as he - after a few moments of her showering him with her tokens of affection - appeared to also succumb to the same temptation and with increasing enthusiasm kissed her _back_. Well, it was _her_ first kiss, but she supposed he must have had some practice at it.

When her senses finally returned, she was panting for breath. His arms were around her, and she was pressing herself against him so heavily that she had even lifted one leg slightly behind her, like a vintage film actress.

"I know you said we shouldn't, but I've wanted to do that for _so_ long," he confessed, slightly short of breath, looking simultaneously pleased and guilty, his eyes almost glowing in the dim evening light. "I'm sorry ... Mikuru-chan, but ... I don't know if I'll ever be able to resist you."

She had already stretched the rules this far already, so why not? "Oh, who cares, Kyon-kun?" she breathed, pulling his head down for another round, enjoying the moment and ignoring everything else.


	31. Chapter 30

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Thwarted Lull Arc II

Chapter Thirty: Day at the Beach (part one)

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Three: Strike While the Iron is Hot"_

_"Living explosion-to-explosion is all well and good, but remember that you should be ____living__, not just ____surviving__. There is a difference. So, for better or worse, recognize when you can steal a moment to relax, and do it. If such moments cannot be found, on occasion, you must ____make__ them."_

_"Roll With the Punches" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

Shortly after Yuki had been let into the Tsuruya compound without Mikuru, Haruhi sat upright and gasped in realization of something. Tsuruya evidently figured it out it, too, springing to her feet and charging for the estate's security control room.

Even though she didn't know what was going on, Kanae followed the other girls, through the halls, suspecting it involved her sempai.

She'd never seen the interior of a security room, before, so stopped to look around, seeking some clue that would explain the behavior of the others. A large console filled one whole wall, the upper half a bank of no less than twenty smaller monitors above a pair of screens the size of her living room television. A surprisingly small array of switches and buttons were built into a small desk below that, clearly labeled with numbers that did nothing to explain their function.

A single chair stood before the desk, and Kasai, one of Tsuruya's imposing bodyguards, sat there looking over his shoulder and arching one eyebrow up at the intrusion into what also probably doubled as his office. There was a filing cabinet and a smaller desk against one wall, where a computer sat, currently showing a screen saver of a bouncing Tsuruya family crest.

"Gots to check something out," Tsuruya said, somewhat apologetically, gesturing to the hallway.

"Understood," the large man replied, rising from his seat and retreating to the hallway, closing the door behind him and leaving the four girls alone with the security equipment.

"What's going on?" Kanae asked, scanning the bank of monitors. The smaller screens showed various external views of the estate, most of them looking down at the walls surrounding the perimeter. One in particular caught her eye, and she realized it was her sempai and Mikuru standing together in the entryway, evidently discussing something. It was hard to make out a lot of detail, though, given it was one of the smaller screens.

"I don't actually knows how to use this," Tsuruya confessed, studying the array of switches. "Haru-nyan, do you know?"

"No, but that's no problem!" Haruhi said cheerily, patting Yuki on the shoulder. "Yuki-chan is great with computers and computer-like things! You can show me how this works, right?"

Nodding her understanding, Yuki approached the console and tapped a handful of buttons, bringing the tiny image to the main screen. She toggled a switch, and Kanae nearly jumped to hear her sempai's voice coming from a small speaker between the monitors. He'd evidently just concluded some point or another, since all she heard was, "... Mikuru-chan."

Haruhi started, eyes widening. "Wow," she murmured, raising an eyebrow. "Kyon hardly ever changes how he calls people-" The rest of her statement was ripped from her with a gasp as the older girl on screen suddenly launched herself at Kanae's sempai, pushing him back against a wall and...

Kanae felt very, very faint, and more than just a little bit jealous. Tsuruya burst into nearly hysterical laughter, Haruhi clapped one hand over her own mouth as her eyes bugged out and her cheeks turned scarlet, and Kanae was almost _certain_ that Yuki's eyes were glowing with amusement.

"W...why is she ... protesting?" Kanae managed to ask.

"Haha! She's sure resisting!" Tsuruya shrieked, grabbing onto Haruhi to steady herself between guffaws.

There was a good minute of necking before Kanae's sempai gathered the wherewithal to respond, and then Kanae-chan felt her face redden, but was unable to look away. She wanted to melt like that in her sempai's arms! But instead, it was Mikuru... Well, she tried to cheer herself, it was Mikuru right _now_. Maybe tomorrow at the beach...

When they stopped kissing they hadn't quite broken apart. They only hesitated for a moment, though, before Mikuru ... 'attacked' wasn't quite the word, but 'pounce' seemed about right. Well, she couldn't really blame Mikuru - if she was as brave as the older girl, she might try that, too! But Mikuru only gave him enough time to catch his breath and admit that he couldn't resist her before she pounced him again.

Haruhi flinched. "Ah..." she breathed. "W...well, I always thought so..."

Tsuruya's laughter subsided to occasional giggles, but she turned her attention to Haruhi. "That didn't sound like he thought less of you," she remarked, judging Haruhi gently with an elbow and winking. "But, see, we gots to explain things to Kyon-kun, soon. I think this is starting to get to be too much pressures for him; most engaged people don't have to worry about things like this."

"Y...yeah," Haruhi agreed, frowning. "The beach trip might be a bit too public for that, though..." She shook her head. "I don't know - we can figure it out after we bring Mikuru-chan in - if she ever breaks that eternal lip-lock!"

As though she had heard, Mikuru abruptly jumped away from the boy, clenching her fists together below her chin and looking around frantically. "Ah, um, ah!" she managed. "Um... Er... Thank you, Kyon-kun!"

"Um, thank you, too, Mi-"

The girl in question frantically pressed her hands over Kanae's sempai's mouth before he could go on. "No! No! No, d...don't say it right now; I'm no good at resisting, either! Uh, um, t...take care!" She instantly whirled and fled through the gate, leaving him alone to totter on his heels.

He hesitated a moment, then shook his head with a hearty sigh. "What now, Skynet?" he asked plaintively, pulling his PDA from his pocket before sighing. "Back home, then..." Despite his annoyance, his steps were light as he trotted around the corner and towards the train station.

"Ah, right, okay," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "Yuki, we need a copy of that video. Can you do that?"

She nodded.

"And also clear it out of the systems here," Tsuruya added, giggling. "It would not do for my father to get winds of that!"

Yuki nodded again, making a small gesture. Kanae expected the screen to somehow flicker or distort, some visible display of her power, but she saw nothing visible, save for one of Tsuruya's maid's calmly walking back into the estate through the gates. Haruhi cracked the door to the hall open a tiny crack-

"Hello~?" Mikuru's voice called tremulously from the hallway. "Tsuruya? Suzumiya-san? Um, Kanae-chan? Yuki-chan?"

Kasai coughed very loudly from the other side of the open doorway, his voice booming somehow even louder than normal. "Asahina-san, I believe the other young ladies mentioned preparing for the baths," he called.

Kanae winced, looking nervously at the other girls - except, they didn't really seem nervous at all. She supposed that left her and Mikuru to be the anxious ones, so, for the moment she was on her own. Even as she started to think that, Tsuruya nudged her and winked.

"O...oh? Um, okay, thank you, Kasai-san," Mikuru replied. "I...if you see them first, would you tell them where I'm headed?"

"I will see to it that she knows as quickly as possible," the man assured her.

"Ah, okay, then, um, thank you again... Oh, Shinobu-san, um, could you..." The rest of the request was lost to distance.

"Oh, well, you know," Haruhi remarked, as Tsuruya swung the door open, "I kind of _have_ always wanted to see if it was like one of those scenes from an anime ... the bath is just about the perfect setting for such a revelation like this, too!"

Kanae tried to puzzle out what that statement meant as Tsuruya acknowledged Kasai with a nod, and the four began trooping towards the baths.

* * *

His head still light, Kyon was still trying to sort things out after Mikuru had finally fled. Probably it was for the best that she had broken away. Each step from the path of the proper young man left him more susceptible to stray. Why was Mikuru so cutely tempting?

Even if he'd always _thought_ about her that way... Was saying it a mistake? Was letting her know that he thought those things...

He'd gotten himself entangled in an engagement with Tsuruya, some indefinable situation with Yuki involving frequent make-out sessions, another equally indefinable situation with Haruhi involving something quite similar, and now, he'd just admitted that as much as he _should_ have enjoyed what he had going on with three adorable girls, he really liked Mikuru, too.

As if he weren't feeling guilty enough, he spotted that _same_ Tsuruya family maid emerging from a small, evidently hidden door in the outside of the wall surrounding the estate. He stopped and cocked his head to one side in bemusement, bracing himself for the inevitable warning.

The maid looked determined, but only mildly disappointed. "Kyon-dono," she greeted him, bowing slightly. "A moment of your time...?"

He nodded, dutifully returning the bow, catching the fact that she didn't _request_ his time... "Anything for Tsuruya-kun," he agreed.

She smiled, giving a tiny nod, obviously pleased that he had grasped the basics of the situation. "Given the stature of the Tsuruya household, and in consideration of circumstances, please exercise discretion," she warned, still sounding cheerfully polite.

"Yes, right," he realized belatedly, sighing. "I... I shouldn't have..."

Nodding brightly, she giggled, adding, "Next time, step through the gate first; it wouldn't do if anyone outside of the family were to see. Oh, and ... for Haruka-chan, try not to leave her behind in your affections."

He blinked at that, stunned at the maid's endorsement of- But that would be- Surely he couldn't-

Scowling, he realized that the woman had breezed past him silently, and the hidden entrance had closed and melded into the wall invisibly. "Ninja!" he grumbled, shaking his head. Either that, or the woman was psychic.

Best hurry home before his mother sent him another nagging text berating him for being out late on the evening before planned activities with Tsuruya.

* * *

After hazily making her way to the bath, Mikuru realized with consternation that she was the first one there. Still, she couldn't imagine Kasai would lie to her, and she'd needed to wash herself anyway...

She had stripped down and started scrubbing herself on the sloping washroom floor before she heard the others. She smiled softly, calling out a greeting as she worked up a lather, "Hello!"

"Heya, Miku-chan~!" Tsuruya caroled in return, first out of the changing room. As usual, she didn't bother with a modesty towel at all, so Mikuru looked away, slightly embarrassed. "Ah, I'll scrubs your back~!"

Haruhi, Yuki, and Kanae trooped in next, just in time for Mikuru to feel even more embarrassed as the center of attention... Worse, she had to lower her own towel so that Tsuruya could scrub her back. "T...thanks," she stuttered, blushing under the scrutiny of the other club members. "U...um, sorry I'm, um, late?"

Tsuruya giggled behind her, drawing the soapy rag up and down once Mikuru pulled her ponytail out of the way. "So," Tsuruya asked, while the others washed, "how was your date~?"

"W...wonderful," Mikuru managed, before gasping in alarm, her eyes going to Haruhi, who had raised one eyebrow and was watching her expectantly. "Ah! It, I mean, we had fun, er, the three of us! It wasn't a date, Tsuruya!"

"Oh?" Tsuruya asked. "Hum, but, you know ... Kyon-kun and I are engaged, did you hear?"

"Bwa?" Kanae coughed, her eyes crossing as she slipped off the side of her bathing stool and landed solidly on the wooden slats of the floor. "E...engaged!?"

"Yep!" Haruhi agreed, nodding. "Some day, Kyon is going to marry Tsu-chan."

Mikuru stared, mouth hanging open. She had no idea what to say, or how to react...

"Um," Kanae choked out, still sitting on the floor. Yuki wordlessly started scrubbing her back. "M...m...married... S...Sempai..." That seemed to be the extent of what she could say with words. Her eyes conveyed slightly more; a hint of jealousy and and a library of stark awe.

"Don't worry, Kanae-chan," Haruhi assured the smaller girl, soaping up her arms. "Kyon isn't any further out of your reach ... or Mikuru-chan's."

"Huh?" Mikuru eked out, puzzled. "W...what are you talking about?"

"First of all," Haruhi began, seeming to Mikuru to be very much in her element as the authority of the group, "Tsu-chan and I are working together." She paused for a moment, hefting Kanae upright and helping her sit on the bathing stool she had fallen from. "Aaaanyway. I've been setting a bad example, in some ways, but then, it's not all about _me_, anyway, it's about _us_, right?"

"Right!" Tsuruya agreed enthusiastically, giving Mikuru absolutely no warning before splashing a wash bucket across her back, causing the time traveler to squeal in alarm at the unexpected sensation. "Don't you agree?"

"Right!" Mikuru gasped, not certain what she'd just agreed to.

"O...of course," Kanae echoed uncertainly.

Yuki offered her own wordless nod when Haruhi glanced at her questioningly.

"So, there you have it!" Haruhi declared, confident the issue was decided. Mikuru nervously accepted the washrag from Tsuruya as the two switched roles, and she scrubbed the heiress's back. Come to think of it ... at some point, hadn't Kyon, in this same bath... She was better off not thinking of that, she realized, turning her attention back to Haruhi.

"Um, what next?" Kanae ventured, rinsing herself off before heading into the bath proper.

"What?" Haruhi asked, looking up from where she was scrubbing herself off.

"You said ... 'first of all'," Mikuru prompted, hesitant, but not wanting to leave the slider on her own against Haruhi. Plus, maybe she could figure out what Haruhi was talking about through context...?

"Ah, right," Haruhi grumbled, her face slightly red. "Well, let's get in the bath, first."

Shortly, everyone had finished scrubbing and trooped in after Kanae, lounging about the spacious stone indoor bath. Really, it was a full-sized outdoor bath that just happened to be enclosed with a roof...

Once Haruhi had situated herself comfortably against a boulder with a cool washcloth on her forehead, she explained, "So, Mikuru-chan ... about your date today."

"I...it wasn't a date!" Mikuru protested, shaking her head quickly. "U...um..."

Tsuruya snickered, turning her attention to Yuki. "Nagato-chi, did _you_ enjoy your dates?" she asked.

Yuki nodded without hesitation.

Mikuru waved her hands before her, as though to ward off the claim. "N...no, no, um, I wouldn't... I mean, Kyon-kun..."

"So, then, you're saying that wasn't your first kiss with Kyon earlier tonight?" Haruhi asked, raising one eyebrow.

She could feel the power of speech leaving her with the realization that she couldn't offer any sort of justification for her behavior. Oh ... she was going to get it now! If not from her superiors in her agency, then from ... her superior in the SOS Brigade! "T...that," she sputtered, her hands waving twice as quickly as her face reddened. "Uhh...!"

Haruhi fixed Mikuru with a gaze that she couldn't really gauge. Haruhi was _upset_, but didn't look _angry_... At her side, Tsuruya merely looked amused.

"S...sorry!" Mikuru finally wailed, unsure who she should even apologize to. Haruhi, since she had obviously liked Kyon? Tsuruya, since she was ... somehow ... _engaged_?

"I don't mind~!" Tsuruya said easily. "As long as Kyon-kun doesn't get ahead too much with anyone else," she added, winking.

"B...but the _plan_," Haruhi pressed, her face reddening, "is that we can all _share_ Kyon. Um. Because ... if we're close enough of friends, I know we can make it work!"

Mikuru blinked, cocking her head slightly to one side. Was Haruhi still anxious, and thinking that they weren't good friends? She might be closer friends with Yuki, but she didn't think poorly of Haruhi!

...except, maybe, just a tiny bit, because Haruhi meant that Mikuru could never have _Kyon_.

But as soon as she'd acknowledged that to herself, the words Haruhi had spit out reached her. "Umm," she managed, sinking into the bath. "W...what do you mean, make it work?" she asked cautiously.

"I...it means," Kanae said, sounding timid and not meeting her eyes, "that we, um, can all ... share Sempai. E...even though I'm the only one he's never kissed..."

Mikuru tried to process that. Ignoring the fact that it went against her training... She turned her confused gaze to Yuki, wondering if the typically impassive girl had some input. Very subtly, Yuki nodded at her.

Well, that was some encouragement... She wasn't certain that she could ever even have a 'share' of Kyon without breaking so many rules... But then, Haruhi had always been about breaking rules, including the seemingly standard 'two partners per relationship', so making that small leap from a forbidden two-person romance to some bizzare polyamorous endeavor...

She knew she should protest, but all that really came to mind was the image of Kyon in his 'domestic' mode, and the sensation of him kissing her back in the estate entrance. She wasn't really sure she understood all of the details of Haruhi's plan, but ultimately, she realized, "Um, w...well... I...if it means more things like tonight with Kyon, I'd be willing to try my best." What did it matter what the details were? Somewhere in there, she could have her moments with Kyon, and for her ... that would be more than enough. And if Haruhi ignored the rules ... then maybe she could, too.

"Great!" Tsuruya enthused, grabbing Mikuru in a modesty-towel scattering hug. "That's all any of us can do!"

"Now, _this_ is more like I expect these scenes to go," Haruhi judged, nodding at the pair.

"A...ah," Mikuru managed, feeling her face redden as Tsuruya clung to her. "Um..."

"She's too cute!" Haruhi declared, splashing after Tsuruya to glomp onto Mikuru a moment later. "I want to be jealous, but I can so understand why Kyon goes for you! It's frustrating, but at least my pony tail idea worked!"

"Wah!"

* * *

Miyoko was excited to be spending the day at the beach with Kyon and his friends. She wasn't a particular fan of the beach, but she did like to spend time with Kyon's sister, and she thought that Kyon's friends were interesting and fun people. Plus, if she was calling Kyon her big brother (Nonoko didn't seem to mind that at all, which was a bonus), spending more time with him was great, too. It seemed a way to make up for what happened the last time she had gone somewhere with him, at least.

They arrived before noon, storming the beach with eager cries after Haruhi had assembled the lot of them in the nearest parking lot. Most of Kyon's friends came in a limousine, which Miyoko couldn't help but be a little jealous of. She'd gotten to ride with Kyon and Nonoko, though, in a nice black taxi-cab. Kyon spent most of the ride conversing with an older woman named Mori, that Nonoko had whispered was a secret agent of justice, frequently disguised as a maid.

She had sharp ears, though, and glanced back at the girls when Nonoko mentioned that. Aside from which, their conversation was eerily reminiscent of Kyon's conversations with that _other_ woman, when he'd revealed himself as a time traveler. There were a lot of big words like 'pre-determined' involved, and it was too difficult for either Miyoko or Nonoko to follow. Once they reached the parking lot and everyone had assembled for Haruhi's roll-call, the invasion proper began.

Kyon was sent out first, given the noble title of 'mine-sweeper', followed by the _most_ handsome boy Miyoko had met in person, who was told to report any untimely demise to Haruhi, should Kyon actually _find_ any mines and be blown up trying to find a good spot. With his typical enthusiasm, and also carrying the heaviest of the coolers, Kyon found a spot that wasn't claimed and was relatively free of litter. It was midway between the beach front and the shore, atop a slightly taller dune, making it a good vantage for the rest of the beach.

In short order, they had staked out a claim, throwing out several beach towels and umbrellas. After that, Kyon and the handsome boy ('Koizumi', according to Nonoko), lounged on the towels with a huge, unfamiliar man, while the girls gathered their swimming clothes and changed. And _that_ gave her a chance to meet the beguiling, amazingly good-natured Tsuruya.

She was beautiful, too, and Miyoko felt a bit jealous of how good she looked... Well, based on _appearances_ she was probably good enough for Kyon. And Nonoko was a good judge of character, so if she said Tsuruya was reliable, and good for Kyon...

After reaching what Haruhi had dubbed the base camp after changing, the boys trooped off to change. Miyoko and Nonoko found themselves gravitating to Kanae, who Miyoko _also_ hadn't met, and the trio sat near Yuki, chatting about what games they might play. "Ah," Kanae-realized aloud, after introductions were made. "Um... I...it seems that the ... least developed of us all came together."

Miyoko wasn't entirely certain what Kanae meant by that, until she spent a moment to take stock. Nonoko was utterly indifferent (or hadn't caught it), merely nodding and agreeing, "We're the youngest!"

Yuki quirked one eyebrow higher, turning her attention from the manga she was reading to scan across the other nearby three.

Tsuruya seemed to hear, and shifted to Kanae's side, patting her head reassuringly. "Don't worries so much about it!" she encouraged the smaller girl. "You'll fill in, in times!" Then she leaned close and whispered something that made Kanae's face redden, even as she tried to hide a tiny smile.

Miyoko wanted to find out what it was, but then the boys had returned. Kyon was wearing swim trunks, and an unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt. At his side, the handsome Koizumi was wearing the most brief of bathing suits and a pair of goggles. Miyoko wasn't sure how the other girls kept from staring at him. Kyon, naturally, was taken, so shouldn't this other boy be of more interest...?

Behind them, the hulking Kasai was wearing a pair of knee-length khaki shorts, and a loose long-sleeved shirt in a vivid Hawaiian red. His sunglasses were still covering his eyes, but Miyoko thought he looked vaguely amused...

"Why long sleeves?" she asked him, distracting herself from Koizumi.

Kasai scratched the back of his neck and coughed quietly. "Well," he said, apologetically, "I actually shouldn't swim here because of a ... skin condition."

"It's true," Tsuruya agreed, offering an apologetic smile. "My father has the same conditions!"

"Oh, right," Kyon mumbled, nodding. "Ah, well..." He frowned, shooting a sidelong glance at Mori, who looked entirely ready to swim, wearing a one-piece bathing suit. Only Haruhi, Tsuruya, and Yuki were wearing two-piece outfits.

"Where are those eyes wandering?" Haruhi asked, staring at Kyon suspiciously.

"Nowhere," Kyon replied quickly, shrugging and dropping to sit on a towel. "So, what's first on the activity list, anyway?"

"So you say, but if you've got time to relax, you obviously need something to do! We should investigate some mysteries, don't you think?" Haruhi asked, raising an eyebrow. "Surely there's going to be something _amazing_ and interesting to find here on the beach, given all these people!" She gestured with one hand, sweeping across the still-gathering crowds surrounding them. "I think we should break into groups and check out specific areas! Look for sea monsters, mermaids - that sort of thing!"

Kyon scratched behind one ear, looking doubtful, but shrugged, glancing to Koizumi speculatively. "What did you have in mind, then, Suzumiya-san?" the pretty-boy asked politely. "And how shall we determine our teams?"

"Yeah," Haruhi agreed, nodding vigorously. "Um... Kyon! You and Kanae-chan are a team! I expect you to lead by example and be a good sempai for Kanae-chan! Our longest-term member and our newest recruit, together."

"Okay," Kyon agreed, nodding doubtfully and offering Kanae an apologetic smile. "What did you have in mind?"

Haruhi faltered, frowning. "We'll worry about that later. For now, I guess, since this is a beach, everyone should have a chance to relax."

"Hmm. Why did you decide that Kanae-chan and I were a team without drawing straws?" Kyon pressed.

"N...nevermind that! Look, it's your pervy friend!"

Kyon blinked and turned to look. Miyoko followed his gaze, wondering what kind of 'pervy' person that Kyon would associate with.

"Ah!" a taller boy with slicked-back hair complained, emerging from the crowds and pointing an accusing finger at Kyon. "I knew it! Enjoying a beach scene with such a fine assembly!"

An unfamiliar girl emerged from the crowds in the boy's wake, fixing him with a dire stare.

"Almost as fine as Yanagimoto-hime," the boy tacked on quickly, glancing back at the girl with a forced grin.

"Yanagimoto!" Haruhi called, recognizing the girl. "Still putting up with Taniguchi's antics?"

"My lowly 'B plus' self seems to be keeping him in line ... mostly," she agreed, shrugging. "Oh, say, Suzumiya, you're interested in investigating mysteries, right?"

"Well, yeah," Haruhi allowed, nodding. "What, you know some good ones?"

"Maybe not _too_ much of a mystery," Yanagimoto said, smiling softly. "Um, so, you see that large rock formation over there?" she asked, gesturing to the western end of the beach. Miyoko had noticed that herself, since the beach was smooth white sand except where it ended abruptly in a thirty meter high slab of weathered stone. Going the other direction, the beach continued past a curve of land, out of sight. Trees grew atop the rocky pile, but not on the steeply sloping sides, or the sheer cliff that faced the sea. There may have been a path to the top of the trees, if one tracked inland far enough, but Miyoko didn't want to explore it alone to find out.

Haruhi turned to study the rocks for a while, then nodded, turning her attention back to Yanagimoto. "Anything good?" Haruhi asked, curious. "Maybe it's haunted?"

"At low tide, you can walk on the beach to the cliff face ... the rocks break, and there's a little hidden alcove," Taniguchi explained, waggling his eyebrows. "That's a two-person mystery, if you ask me!"

Yanagimoto smiled and elbowed the taller boy in the ribs fiercely. "Forgive his valiant attempts at painting us as the beta couple," she sighed. "Now come on, Taniguchi-baka, I think you've done enough damage."

"Yes, Yanagimoto-hime," the taller boy wheezed, before the pair turned and strode down the beach.

"What the heck is a 'beta couple'?" Kyon asked quietly, watching his friends leave.

"That's what Trope-tan calls her cool big sis and her boyfriend!" Nonoko explained eagerly.

"Entirely irrelevant here," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "However! Even if it's not the best mystery in the world, that's what I want you and Kanae-chan to investigate!"

"Got it!" Kanae cried, in Miyoko's mind, almost _too_ eagerly. "Er, um, um! Sempai, before we start exploring, though, um, could you help me make sure I get sunscreen everywhere I need it?"

Miyoko thought that was a good idea, since she had forgotten, herself. "Yeah, sure," Kyon agreed absently, turning to study his sister. "Imouto, Mom will kill me if I let you get sunburned; let me get you, first."

"Okay!" Kyon's sister agreed, moving to kneel in front of him as he rifled through the small heap of bags Haruhi had ordered dragged to the base camp. Shortly, he found what he was looking for, dutifully tending his sister before turning his attention to Kanae.

"Um, Kyon-kun, can you get me, too?" Tsuruya asked, clasping her hands together and grinning.

"Sure," he agreed, focusing on Kanae as he rubbed sunblock into her shoulders and the back of her neck. "Um, it'd probably go faster if I wasn't the only one putting this on people, though."

"I can help," Koizumi offered. Miyoko wasn't quite sure _how_ she had moved to be kneeling in front of him before anyone else, but she counted it every other girl's loss. For some reason, though, the boy seemed very disappointed.

Seeming to pick up on Koizumi's mood, Mori spoke for the first time since they'd gotten to the beach, stretching her arms over her head in her modest dark one piece outfit. "It's okay, Koizumi-kun," she assured him. "I'll let you get me." She winked at him even as Miyoko gasped at the cold sunblock on her bare skin. "Do a good job, and I may get you back!"

Soon enough, everyone had finished the ritual, even the implacable Kasai consenting to allow Nonoko and Miyoko to smear his face with sunblock. The only real slowdown was the fact that there seemed to be some argument over who got to take care of _Kyon_, but while the older girls drew to one side for a hushed debate, Nonoko declared, "I am returning the favor!" and took care of it herself. For his part, Kyon either ignored, or just hadn't noticed the other girls.

Since it was still early in the day, and they needed to let the sunblock dry a bit before swimming, Mikuru suggested breaking for lunch, which Tsuruya and Haruhi agreed to quickly. Then Miyoko was staggered by the unreasonably good fare that Mikuru parceled out, apologizing that it wasn't her best. If this girl could cook so well, with looks like that...

Well, that cinched it. The world just wasn't _fair_.

While they were eating, Nonoko told a story for everyone's entertainment, about how her family was descended from a legendary samurai woman. She even brought a prop along, a worn sword hilt with a missing wrapper, and no blade or guard. Kyon chastised her for taking it from the house and confiscated the thing, but his sister's spirits were buoyed by Tsuruya chiming in and filling in the details Nonoko had dropped.

"...and that is the story of Kyon-kun's lineage," the green-haired girl finished proudly, just as Mikuru started wrapping up the remnants of lunch and putting them away.

"I hadn't known _that_," yet _another_ unfamiliar voice broke in, much to Miyoko's exasperation. How many people did Kyon _know_? Nonoko complained that his popularity meant she didn't get to spend the kind of time she wanted to with her brother, but Miyoko hadn't realized how _bad_ it was until that day.

There were a group of four others standing at the edge of what Haruhi had termed the base-camp, and Miyoko wasn't certain how, but she was confident that they were together. At the center, but somehow not feeling like a true leader of the party was a pretty girl of around Kyon's age with short, styled brown hair. To her left was a girl with twin ponytails, her hair longer and lighter brown. Past _her_ was a young man with a too-pleased sneer and wind-tousled light hair, almost as handsome as Koizumi...

...almost.

To the central girl's other side, her face eerily impassive, her dark eyes focused on Kyon, was a silent girl with ankle-length black hair in a giant, sweeping fan. All of them were dressed for the beach; the girl with the twin pony tails was carrying an inflated beach ball, while the boy behind her was holding a mesh bag containing a watermelon. The impassive girl was already wearing a white one piece swimsuit with no designs or lettering on it, carrying a folded towel in one hand, while the lead girl bore an over-stuffed duffel-bag on one shoulder.

"Maybe," the short-haired girl continued, smiling, "your name isn't too noble for you after all... But, what fortune this is, don't you agree?"

"What are the odds!" Kyon exclaimed, though Miyoko didn't really think he looked like he considered it to be fortunate. "Sasaki, um ... these are my friends; we had just come to the beach to relax ... get away from things for a bit..."

"That was my goal, as well!" Sasaki returned, clapping her hands together and smiling. "Hum, do you have a few stray moments, Kyon? If you're not _terribly_ busy, ah ... I've heard there's a small cove around that rock formation, and-"

"He's booked!" Haruhi snapped suddenly, narrowing her eyes at Sasaki. "Really! Crashing our meeting like this? That's no coincidence! I'm not clear on the circumstances, but I believe there's something more to this encounter than just chance!"

"That may be a possibility!" Sasaki admitted, her smile not fading, even though her eyes changed when she shifted focus from Kyon to Haruhi. "In fact, it was Fujiwara-kun who suggested coming to the beach!" She turned to him, cocking her head to one side. "Did you know that Kyon and his friends would be here?"

The fair-haired boy looked irritated. "If it's time for interrogations, shouldn't you try and get introductions out of them?" he asked, though Miyoko thought his tone was impolite, especially to one of his own friends.

"That," Sasaki said, somewhat primly, "would be rude."

"It sure is!" Haruhi agreed, frowning darkly at Fujiwara. "What's your plan here, today? What are you up to?"

Miyoko looked between the two groups, catching parallels as she looked. Yuki seemed fascinated by the dark-haired girl; Kanae was staring just as avidly, but looked much more frightened. Haruhi was fixated on Sasaki. Mikuru was torn between cowering from the fair-haired boy and the girl with the twin-tails. Koizumi's attention was entirely on the twin-tailed girl.

There were odd people out, though. Kasai, mumbling to someone on his cell phone. Mori, who had vanished, probably to get shaved ice or something from a nearby stand. Tsuruya, herself, and Kyon's younger sister... But, no matter who was focused on who, everyone stole glances at Kyon. Well, she'd thought he was pretty neat, but seeing him be the focal point of this much attention was a bit surprising.

"I don't need to tell _you_ anything," Fujiwara spat, grinning.

"Fujiwara!" Sasaki protested crossly, shooting him a glare, her smile slipping for the first time. "Behave yourself! I've told you many times already, if you are a part of the group, you are just that - a _part_. We didn't entrust you to dictate policy! If this whole thing _is_ some elaborate scheme of yours, then I'd like to know about it!"

The fair-haired boy looked very cross, just turning to stare out at the sea and ignore Sasaki and the others for the moment.

"Please ignore my embarrassing friend," Sasaki said, struggling to force a calm, polite mask over her angry features. "I cannot discount _some_ strange ploy on his part. All the same, I'm merely requesting some time alone with Kyon to speak of some things... Is that too much for you to bear, for some strange reason?"

Haruhi flinched away, then rallied and bounced to her feet, hands on hips as she leaned towards Sasaki. "Kyon is my friend," she growled. "So I don't know why you're asking _me_ if you can talk to him."

Instead of stealing glances at him, everyone overtly shifted their attention to Kyon.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead, then shrugged. "Well," he said philosophically, "Haruhi did mention that I was booked - and I am."

"Ah," Sasaki managed. "I see..."

"R...right," Haruhi said, nodding. "So, you and Kanae-chan better get to work!"

Kyon reached down and offered a hand to the small girl. "Kanae-chan, I suppose we should finish our assignment...? I'm sure Haruhi has a penalty scheme for whoever discovers the least interesting thing, so we should get an early start."

The girl with the exceedingly long dark hair raised a hand, her eyes deep pits, focused on Kyon. She moved her mouth to shape several words, but nearly a minute passed before she said, "Events are _ at this _. Do not _ him." She blinked smoothly, then finished, "I am _ to _."

"Fine by me," Fujiwara grumbled, his gaze flicking between Kyon and the dark-haired girl. "If you leave the protection of your precious dolls, you're in for something else entirely."

Very abruptly, so fast that Sasaki blinked in alarm, and absolutely everyone on the beach who could see it turned to follow, Kyon had shifted from helping Kanae to her feet to standing _directly_ before the light-haired boy, so close that Fujiwara actually yelped and stumbled backwards, tripping to sprawl on the beach and look upward in alarm. "You can badmouth me _all_ you want," Kyon warned. "I really couldn't care less. But if you try making trouble for my _friends_, my patience will run out."

And then, just as quickly as he had moved the first time, Kyon was back to Kanae's side, offering the wide-eyed girl a hand up. "Everything okay, Kanae-chan?" he asked, as though he hadn't just menaced ... well ... someone well deserving of such behavior, to appearances.

"Y...y...yeah," Kanae said shakily, staring at the strange dark-haired girl. "J...just fine..."

Kyon nodded doubtfully, and Miyoko noticed that Kanae didn't let go of his hand once he had hauled her upright. The boy gave a meaningful, questioning glance to Kasai, who returned a nod, adjusting his sunglasses slightly and closing his phone. Evidently satisfied with the exchange, Kyon said, "We'll take care of our assignment now, I guess, Haruhi."

* * *

Sasaki pursed her lips, watching Kyon walk off with the short brown-haired girl. While she personally suspected that Kyon was oblivious to such things - or more likely, pretended to be oblivious just because he didn't know how to deal with it - she was obviously infatuated with him. She could only think of a few reasons why Haruhi would send him off alone with her, but they didn't make a whole lot of sense...

She personally would have guessed that Haruhi herself liked Kyon, given the first-name basis...

Well, Kyon didn't usually have much of any kind of demeanor beyond passively attentive, and she'd never really seen him roused to action. It was a point of interest that Fujiwara had provoked a response from him, but she found herself understanding much better why Kyon had complained about the company she kept. The boy who insisted he was a time traveler was usually more polite.

"Fujiwara," she said, turning to look at him, frowning, "it's unfortunate to have to ask this, but since you seem a bit prone to causing turmoil, I think it would be more respectful to Kyon-kun's friends if you were to give them space while we properly apologize."

"It would be," he agreed, not meeting her eyes.

"Fujiwara," she pressed, wishing - not for the first time - that she could give orders instead of requests. Well, friends meant she didn't have real power over him ... the most she really could do was ask. It wasn't like she was Haruhi, and could claim Fujiwara as a subordinate.

"Fine," he sighed, scowling. "I've got something to take care of anyway." He shoved the bag with the watermelon in it at Kyouko and stormed away before the other girl had time to recover.

"Friendly guy," the girl with the long green hair said dryly. Turning to the large man next to her, she added, "Kasai-"

"Mori-san is taking care of it," the huge figure returned, his attention on Sasaki and her friends. At least, she thought ... those shades seemed a bit menacing.

"Really," Sasaki sighed, "I would like to apologize. I don't like the idea that we're both friends of Kyon, yet adversarial to one-another. After all, shouldn't we try to be mutual friends?"

The youngest looking girl there squinted at Sasaki, then shook her head, her side pony-tail bobbing. "Friends make each other smile," she said.

Haruhi raised her eyebrows at that, then nodded. "That's true," she remarked.

"I realize that Kyon's not here, but I think we can still try to be friends," Kyouko suggested, frowning. "Except for the fact that Itsuki-kun and I don't see eye-to-eye on certain matters, we should still try and get along."

"That's an interesting observation, coming from Kyouko-chan," Koizumi returned, smiling politely. For some reason, Kyouko's eyebrow twitched slightly at that. Sasaki decided to let it pass, given her own annoyance with the self-proclaimed esper.

"See?" Sasaki asked, ignoring the fact that she could tell the two weren't getting along. "That's a great start! Why don't we join forces and spend some time together today? I've been trying to get a hold of Kyon for weeks, anyway!"

Haruhi's features relaxed slightly. "Hmm, and he hasn't been responding to you?" she mused.

"Well, he says he's gotten a part-time job," Sasaki answered, shrugging. "But, surely you wouldn't mind so much if the three of us joined you...?"

"The two of you are quite welcome," a cheerful voice from behind her noted, as an older woman in a modest one-piece swimsuit clapped a hand on Kyouko's shoulder. The twin-tailed girl stiffened, her face a forced smile barely concealing utter terror beneath. "We haven't had time to properly _chat_ in a while, Kyouko-chan! How is your grandfather doing in Osaka?"

"He's f...fine, M...Mori-san," Kyouko stuttered, looking anxiously towards Sasaki.

For her part, Sasaki realized that Kuyou had vanished ... probably with Fujiwara. She suspected the two of them, with their communication woes, got along the best. Well, if it meant finally having a chance to speak with Kyon, Sasaki didn't mind making Kyouko uncomfortable in the slightest.

Haruhi seemed doubtful, but after glancing between Mori and Kasai, nodded. "Sure," she allowed. "There's space enough. Throw down your towel."

* * *

Kanae was shaken by the sight of one of the other sliders during the beach visit. Stranger, her sempai seemed to _know_ her... But, she hadn't acted like she usually did, when Kanae encountered her. In fact, for whatever reason, she seemed completely oblivious to Kanae. Not that she would mind being beneath her notice...

"I...is it okay for us to leave the others alone?" she asked hesitantly, as they picked their way across the beach, weaving between the towels others had laid out, and ducking the occasional thrown beach ball. She couldn't bring herself to release her sempai's hand, and he didn't really seem to mind. Though ... he didn't really seem to _notice_, either.

"I don't like leaving the others like that," he admitted, "but ... this seems like the best opportunity I'd find to ask you; did that quiet girl with really long hair seem familiar?"

She nodded quickly, and realized that he grasped the connection from what little she had mentioned before.

"Now, I just have to figure out if it's the same one, or if this is like ... I don't know ... the local copy of her," her sempai mused, frowning. "It's entirely possible that she has no relation to the enemy slider, yet."

"M...maybe," Kanae agreed uncertainly. They reached the end of the beach, walking along the shore as they came upon the rock formation. At high tide, the path would be beneath a foot or so of water - probably still traversable. As it was, there was a path a few feet wide right against the sheer stone cliff.

Her sempai led the way around the stone, almost crashing into a couple - an older looking boy and girl, both giggling as they rounded the corner. The girl blushed crimson and wordlessly dashed ahead, while the boy bowed apologetically, unable to keep a satisfied grin off his face before running after. "Well," he judged, rolling his eyes, "I think I get why Taniguchi knew about this place."

"I...it's okay to keep going, right?" Kanae asked nervously.

"Sure," her sempai agreed, as they finished walking along the cliff, and found a surprisingly open space - probably a good fifty meters wide - before another tumble of tree-topped rocks. The beach extended between the sheltering stone walls before coming to a large and imposing pile of very steep rocks, most of which looked rough and jagged. Kanae suspected that she could climb up the sprawl, but it would take some doing ... in the meantime, there was a small, private section of the beach, empty except for a smattering of litter - discarded soda bottles and a few unidentified wrappers.

The noise of both the city and the other beach-goers was entirely blocked out, leaving the silence to be interrupted only by the softly rolling waves. Her sempai surveyed the jumble of stones for a while, then shook his head. "It's private, but I don't think there's much mysterious here," he observed. "Plus, given who Haruhi's got in the club, I'm kind of surprised that she still wants to find more things ... though, I guess I shouldn't be."

"We're not really supposed to find anything mysterious," she confessed, feeling her face warm up. After the shock of seeing an evident clone of one of her pursuers, she wasn't really sure that she wanted to try and get her sempai to kiss her. Actually, she knew that was exactly what she wanted, but she wasn't confident she could face the risk of his rejection right after running into an enemy.

"Huh," he mused, frowning slightly, then giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Well, if this was Haruhi's way of letting you avoid Suou Kuyou, I guess I understand that."

"I...it was so we could, um, spend some time together," she mumbled, unable to meet his eyes.

"Really?" he asked, sounding confused. "Well, nevermind why; her mind works in strange ways. To be honest, I'm somewhat grateful for the chance to spend some time with you."

Her eyes widened and she turned to look at him as they walked very slowly towards the center of the small beach. "R...really?" she asked, quietly hopeful.

He nodded, his eyes scanning the stone around them. "I'm worried at how things are right now," he admitted, shrugging lightly, sparing a glance at her with a wry grin. "Between me and... Well. So, I didn't like the idea of you trying to rely on me while I was ... uh ... distracted."

She giggled quietly, reassured by that. Even if Haruhi hadn't explained the situation to him fully... Still, the others had all gotten kissed before he knew. Was she pretty enough to get the same...? She didn't have Yuki's quiet reserve, or the other girls' ... attributes to bank on. Then again, as much as it bothered _her_, Yuki seemed unconcerned with her own stature, which was roughly identical, and the other girls' continually waved it off as something that would solve itself with time.

But she didn't want to have to _wait_ to be appealing to her sempai. "S...Sempai?" she asked cautiously.

"Yeah? What's up?" he asked, giving her a soft smile.

"D...do you think I'm cute?" she managed timidly.

His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened in astonishment. "Of course!" he answered, quickly shaking his head and banishing the surprise that she seemed to evoke. "And I'm not just saying that because I look out for you - I hear that you're considered to be highly rated among your year!"

She felt her face warm up even more, but wasn't able to keep a nervous grin from forming. "R...really?" she asked.

"Absolutely," he agreed. "If I weren't your sempai ... and engaged to Tsuruya-kun ... I might even try and ask you out!"

They had stopped walking, she realized, his hand slipping from hers as he turned to regard her. "U...um," she managed, momentarily stymied. She had wanted him to say something more overt, but then she realized that from his perspective, he really _couldn't_. It wasn't like he had said he thought of her like a sister, exactly, but she could hardly expect him to declare that he had feelings for her without understanding Haruhi's plan.

She hesitated a moment, then made herself admit that if the other girls had to initiate their own kisses with him, it would hardly be fair to the others to expect him to suddenly make the first move here. She hesitantly raised a hand to the side of his face. Understanding seemed to dawn on him very quickly, but he didn't move away, merely looking troubled.

"S...Sempai," she managed shakily, "t...this may seem, um... W...well, what I mean to say is..." She steeled herself, taking a deep breath before blurting out, "I've always wanted you to be my first kiss!"

He struggled internally, finally closing his eyes and sighing explosively. "Kanae-chan," he said slowly, offering a weak, apologetic smile, "I don't know what you or anyone else would see in a really average guy like me. Lately, I've felt both incredibly fortunate and undeserving. I'm not sure I'm the kind of guy you want to waste something that precious on."

And that, more than anything else, told her that in fact, he was _exactly_ the guy she wanted to give such a thing to. "Please?" she managed.

They stared into one another's eyes for a long, quiet period ... and she thought that he might refuse, or push her hand away. Instead, though, he nodded. "Alright," he allowed guiltily. "As terrible a person as I am-"

"Not half as monstrous as that thing you're trying to kiss," another boy's voice interrupted. Kanae felt another shiver of raw terror run through her at the recognition of that speaker's tone.

* * *

Even though Kyon had taken away the sword hilt, Nonoko didn't mind too much. Tsuruya had backed her up on the story, and even though it was unexpected, she thought she was being given all sorts of clues as to what her brother dealt with. Mori, the secret agent of justice, had targeted the sneaky-seeming girl with the twin ponytails. Kyouko couldn't politely refuse Mori, but Nonoko felt that was fine; she was just a normal person.

Yuki, the magical girl, had initially seemed worried about the dark-haired girl. But once she vanished, her attention had gone to Sasaki. And Nonoko had _not_ missed her brother's reaction to Sasaki at all. Though, that was troubling to her, too...

He didn't seem to dislike the girl, exactly, even though he was a bit cold to her, which she'd never seen him do before. Then again, she'd never seen her brother threaten someone like he had the light-haired boy - a friend of the dark generals if there ever was one!

For the moment, Haruhi was talking with Sasaki, though Nonoko could tell instantly that Haruhi didn't trust the other girl at all. But Nonoko agreed with Haruhi; whoever could take away her brother's smile was either working with the dark generals, or worse. Then again ... maybe it wasn't her fault or choice? Either way, she contented herself by sitting next to Mikuru, keeping a close eye on Sasaki.

The situation felt oddly tense and uncomfortable for an expedition to the beach, though. It didn't help that Sasaki had spent a solid minute laughing about Miyoko, somehow recognizing the girl's old nickname - though, for all her laughter, Nonoko couldn't help but think that Sasaki had seemed somehow very upset with herself. After that she'd tried to change the subject, but Nonoko could tell she was still troubled about something.

"So, then, you have a fascination with the supernatural?" Sasaki was asking Haruhi.

"I'm not sure I'd call it that, but I find it interesting," Haruhi allowed, taking out her hair ribbons.

"Ah, my companions are interesting that way," Sasaki commented, giggling quietly. "I don't really believe it, but Kyon seems to understand maybe better than I do; Kyouko-chan her says she's an esper!"

Kyouko flinched at that. Was an 'esper' some kind of magical girl?

"You don't say?" Haruhi asked skeptically, redoing her hair in a ponytail. It was _just_ barely long enough to pull off, and she seemed immensely satisfied once she had finished. "And, let's see... If she's your esper, then Fujiwara's, what, your oni?"

"He says he's a time traveler," Sasaki said, shrugging. "I have yet to see anything I'd accept as proof of that, though."

"Oh?" Tsuruya mused. "What about the dark-haired one who ran away with him, then? Magical girl?"

Nonoko was certain that Tsuruya was pretending to be uninformed, for some reason.

"She says she represents some sort of alien power," Sasaki acknowledged. "To be honest, she doesn't speak much, and most of what she does say is incredibly vague, or just difficult to understand - for me, at least. In the meantime, I try and be the best friend for her that I can."

"Interesting," Koizumi remarked. "So, Sasaki-san, if you don't believe your associates back stories, why do you ... associate with them?"

"It doesn't prevent us from being friends," she said, shrugging and giving the boy an even smile. "We all have our differences. So, Suzumiya-san, what sort of amazing thing do you expect Kyon to find on his journey? And why have no other teams been sent out?"

"That's classified information," Haruhi countered without delay, rising to her feet. "Um, Tsu-chan, you'll keep an eye on things here for me, right? Koizumi and I were going to check something out."

"Okies!" Tsuruya agreed cheerily. "I'll hold down the forts!"

Koizumi rose, giving Haruhi a curious smile, but asking nothing. "We'll be back in a bit," she advised. "Then once Kyon and I are both back, we can see about sending out the next team."

At that moment, a brief but thunderous roar shook the entire beach, and Nonoko found herself clinging to Mikuru in alarm as shock waves from down the beach flattened all of the rising waves in a cone emanating from somewhere beyond the formation of rocks. Nonoko was absolutely positive that everyone except her and Miyoko knew something about what was going on, judging by the quickly exchanged glances among them.

"Later!" Haruhi cried, sprinting away, Koizumi just behind her as she dashed towards the rocks.

"I want to go too!" Nonoko cried, releasing Mikuru, but finding the older girl holding her still. "But, Kyon's over there!" she protested, pouting.

"S...sorry," Mikuru offered, smiling nervously. "Um, I think we should stay here for now."

Tsuruya nodded resolutely, as the crowd of beach-goers stirred, milling uncertainly before deciding to dismiss the event.

"Still," Sasaki murmured, frowning towards the rock formation. "What do you suppose that was?"

Nonoko didn't know ... but for some reason, despite Mikuru's reassurances and Miyoko's strange confidence in him, she was worried about her brother.

* * *

Kyon instinctively moved between Kanae and the new arrival, noting his features. He was taller than Kyon by a few centimeters, and looked better muscled. He wore a clean but heavily worn blue coat, looking vaguely militaristic, and black pants. His belt had a pair of remarkably familiar looking silver cylinders on it, and while he had probably generally average features, his face seemed more ugly for the sneer he was sending towards Kyon.

The sneer that may had been directed at Kanae, but he _had_ decided to try and be that protective sempai Kanae adored, so that meant it was being sent to him in any case. Other than his surprisingly long, unbound black hair, and his rude tongue, there wasn't anything else for Kyon to note. For the moment, they were about seven meters apart, though to Kyon's eyes the other boy (he seemed about Kyon's age, at a glance), wasn't in a ready stance, just crossing his arms over his chest.

"I know _you_," the boy remarked dourly. "Don't filthy yourself by associating with that creature."

"What do you have against Kanae-chan?" Kyon returned, scowling. "What's she ever done to you?"

"That's classified," the boy said, rolling his eyes. "An ignorant monkey like you wouldn't be cleared for that. Nevermind what she's done; whatever you _think_, she's a monster from another world who's just possessed that body."

Kyon could feel Kanae's nervous trembling, and without taking his eyes off the boy, slipped back a half-step to pat her shoulder once in reassurance. "Assuming I believe that," he said, shaking his head, "what evidence do you have of wrong doing?"

"Evidence?" the boy asked, doubtfully. "Listen, monkey, I don't need to justify myself to you or any other primates around here. I'm being _considerate_, here!"

"Yeah, I'm really feeling that," Kyon retorted. "Whatever you think is going on, I think it's best that you get going. Until we can really communicate on the level, I don't see us getting much done, here."

The boy rolled his eyes and reached for one of the cylinders at his belt. "Don't know why I even bother," he remarked, taking the object in his hand. As Kyon watched, it reshaped itself, becoming some very alien looking gun with multiple sharp prongs, and casual flickering bolts of energy arcing between them. "Since I'm such a nice guy, and you're unarmed, I'm going to give you to the count of one to let go of her before I reduce you to a chunky salsa. Ready?"

Seeing as Kanae was still paralyzed with fear, Kyon shifted his shoulders, setting his feet in. "You don't want to hurt her," he warned. "You _really_ don't want to hurt her."

The boy flinched at that, for some reason, then grumbled as the weapon in his hand shifted, now more streamlined and with fewer prongs. "Fine," he spat. "I'll knock you out first so I don't hit her instead. My point still stands! So, _one_." At that, he leveled the weapon at Kyon, just as - from seemingly nowhere - Fujiwara swept in, kicking the weapon from the other boy's hand. Leaping smoothly away several meters, clutching his injured hand, the other boy spat a guttural curse before reaching towards the other cylinder.

Kyon held his ground, ready to move, but waiting to see what happened. Fujiwara spared a sneering glance for Kyon before jogging to the fallen weapon, kicking it into the air and snatching it with one hand. Kyon was not terribly surprised to see the entire mass seem to turn into a blob of quicksilver and fall to the beach. "Shouldn't be surprised," Fujiwara grumbled.

"So, how does this character figure into _your_ goals?" Kyon asked, watching both warily.

"He's got some nice toys," Fujiwara grumbled. "I want one."

"I'm more than willing to let you _have_ it!" the other boy snarled, the larger cylinder in his hand becoming a larger firearm, shaped vaguely like what Kyon envisioned a shotgun to be. He aimed it at Fujiwara and pulled the trigger-

But Suou Kuyou was standing before Fujiwara, one hand raised, palm out, and the brilliant surge of energy, while staggeringly _loud_ - seemed to accomplish nothing, just narrowing and vanishing at some point between the two. Kyon's eyes hurt trying to determine _where_, and he decided he was better off not worrying about it too much.

"Why aren't you integrated?!" the rude boy screamed, face reddening with anger as he glowered at the alien.

Kuyou ignored him, bending down and collecting the quicksilver mass, reshaping it in her hands until it was a cylinder again. She turned around, her back to the stranger as she held the object out before her, her dark eyes sweeping between Kyon and Fujiwara. "Blank slate," she uttered.

"All I needed to hear," Fujiwara declared, snatching the object and vanishing into nothingness instantly. There was an eerie, mind-wrenching _otherness_ to the space around him, and Kyon was certain he actually _felt_ the reverberations of his retreat... But there was time for that later; he already knew what happened to that cylinder.

The other boy swore again. "Useless, unintegrated..." He trailed off, shaking his head, turning his attention to Kyon. "Whatever." The gun turned, too ... and even though she didn't _move_, somehow, Kuyou was between the two of them. From this perspective, the brilliant lines of energy abruptly _turned_, seemingly diverted to some other place, though it hurt Kyon's head to try and follow it. This time, the sound was louder, and Kyon was distantly aware of shock-waves radiating away behind them, into the sea.

Instantly, the girl was somewhere else again, already pulling the weapon from the other boy's hand - then just as abruptly, standing before Kyon, holding it out, unblinking. "Blank slate," she repeated.

Kyon hesitated, for a moment uncertain... But if she had wanted to hurt him, or Kanae, she'd had ample opportunity. Hopefully she wasn't an enemy after all. Despite his misgivings, and still aware of Kanae's paralyzed form, he reached out and took the device. Instantly, he saw the tiniest hints of emotion flickering within Kuyou's eyes - the barest gleam of satisfaction before she blinked, and it was concealed.

The new, larger cylinder in Kyon's hand went through the same strange and unsettling sense of awareness that the first one had, and Kyon inclined his head slightly to Kuyou. "Thank you," he acknowledged, still uncertain.

"Good ... luck," she replied.

"Luck?" he asked, as Kuyou seemed to turn away - and vanish, leaving him and Kanae alone on the beach with the other boy.

Instead of looking particularly upset about the loss of his weapons, he merely looked disgusted. "You'll need it, monkey," he sneered, as space around him tore, and he backed through a jagged black portal leading into mystery. The tear sealed almost instantly behind him.

Despite everything, Kyon was just considering relaxing when Kanae's shrill cry of alarm warned him. He had just enough time to turn and grab the girl, diving to safety as a brilliant beam of energy swept from a half-glimpsed monstrosity several meters tall and spider-like, crawling from the sea.


	32. Chapter 31

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Thwarted Lull Arc III

Chapter Thirty One: Day at the Beach (part two)

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Four: Capability"_

_"Of particular concern is the possibility that you project an image that is too confident for your ability, and then are called upon to do something you are not qualified or capable of doing. It's better to be underestimated than overestimated, in the long term. Otherwise, you're just bluffing, and when the bluff is called..."_

_"Cover" - Author Unknown_

* * *

"Suzumiya-san," Koizumi asked, jogging along at her side without much difficulty, "might I trouble you to ask where we are going?"

"There's a path to the top of those rocks," she answered without hesitation, weaving effortlessly through the beach-towels and umbrellas dotting the beach. Shortly they had reached the stretch beyond desirable campgrounds, drier and somewhat stonier sand. With less obstacles to dodge, and no beach-goers around to get in her way, Haruhi sped up.

He was able to keep the pace she set, but wished it wasn't such a strain... He had a lot more sympathy for Kyon these days, however. As far as the club went, he'd gone from being the 'mysterious esper transfer student' to just being a liaison between his friends and the Organization he used to serve. It wasn't so bad, but he was starting to realize that, intended or not, he had previously spent a lot of time being condescending to Kyon.

Hah, now _he_ was the closest thing to a 'normal' person in the brigade. Haruhi the reality warper, Yuki the alien interface, Mikuru the time traveler, Kanae the slider, Tsuruya the ninkyo dantai heiress, Kyon the... Well, he wasn't certain how to classify Kyon, but 'normal person' only qualified for personality at this point. In capability he had become something entirely different, though. In any case, at the end of that list was Koizumi, the esper.

Not that 'esper' meant much more than having a second, very unwelcome screen of Haruhi's feelings crashing through his own thoughts and emotions, now. More and more, Koizumi was becoming confident that his theory of Kyon _destroying_ closed space was the truth. Without any closed space for him to be an esper in, that meant that Koizumi wasn't really much more than a normal person himself.

And at the moment, while he wanted to be friends with Kyon, he was incredibly uncomfortable at Haruhi's emotions when the two were ... intimate. Even though it would ostensibly be for the greater good, he dreaded the thought of their relationship developing further.

He broke from those thoughts when they reached the base of the rock pile, Haruhi turning away from the sea without any hesitation. The high top of the sea-facing cliff sloped gradually down as the land sloped up, and shortly before the beach ended entirely, at the beachfront road, Haruhi leaped without hesitation into the brush. Koizumi followed with slightly more caution, finding that she hadn't leaped into the bushes, but onto a mostly-concealed pathway between the rocky outcrop's unchecked vegetation.

From there, it was a fairly straight path, except where it twisted around a larger tree or copse of some prickly bushes. Koizumi estimated that it took them less than a minute to reach the abrupt end of their trail when Haruhi skidded to a halt, grabbing onto a gnarled tree branch to arrest her momentum. Forewarned, he stopped somewhat more gracefully, still putting one hand out to briefly steady himself against another tree.

Below the pair of them was a steep slope of jagged boulders leading down to the beach proper. A hidden beach, really, nestled between two rocky arms of cliff face, probably some ancient natural feature left intact to segregate the public beach from a private one further on. At the moment, Koizumi could only stare in astonishment, not really able to absorb the natural details.

A good length of the wash, from the shoreline to the further rocky outcropping - the western side - had been transformed into a slowly cooling trench of molten sand. The glowing line led from some strange meters-tall construct of shiny metal, connecting it to a glowing, slagged heap of rock at the base of the rock cliffs below. Pushing himself up from the sand, evidently unharmed, Kyon dazedly climbed upright, Kanae shivering and curled into a ball near his feet.

"Enemies!" Haruhi declared, scowling, reaching towards the ... thing with one hand and closing one eye. "Ugh ... I can't grab it; it's animate."

"I should get Nagato-san," Koizumi realized aloud, fumbling for his phone. He hadn't gotten Yuki's cell number yet, but Mori was with the girl, so he could call her, and-

"Don't be an idiot!" Haruhi yelled, growling with effort as she levitated a handful of boulders from the slope below them, sending them crashing into the sand as a low wall to shelter Kanae.

From the beach, Kyon glanced back at the pair of them - ever so briefly - then rolled abruptly to one side, narrowly dodging another sand-melting blast of energy. "What shall I do, then?" Koizumi asked, his phone in one hand.

Haruhi grunted with exertion again, sending dozens of stones from below them across the beach, leaving Kyon a whole selection of barriers to hide behind. He wasted no time, immediately diving behind the nearest one and fiddling with his strange morphing weapon.

Done helping for the moment, though keeping most of her attention on the creature, she snapped, "Koizumi, you're an esper! Use your powers to help Kyon out!"

He blinked at her. Did she not understand his limitations? He recalled quite clearly that he had explained it to her in detail - with Kyon! And then she had just ... forgotten? "Suzumiya-san," he began to protest, before she cut him off, and yet another blast of energy escaped the strange thing on the beach, "my powers cannot be easily-"

"Shut up!" she yelled, turning her full attention to him for just a moment. "Kyon needs help, and I can only float things! You're an _esper_, so get out there and _ESP_!" With that, and no more warning, she shoved him off the edge of the cliff.

He windmilled for a frantic instant while he hung in midair before gravity took effect. Had just enough time to realize that if Haruhi hadn't levitated all of the good footholds out onto the beach, he might be able to jog at a (literally) break-neck pace. Instead, he was going to tumble painfully onto the sharp rocks that waited, meters below.

Then he pitched beyond the point of balance and allowed himself the luxury of resentment for his situation as the stone rushed up at him.

* * *

Society was never Tsuruya's favorite thing. For all of her trouble allowing people close enough to her to be friends (until recently), she'd had more than enough of attending events involving high-standing social families - other daughters and sons of government officials, famous authors, generic wealthy people... The occasional other heirs from ninkyo dantai families, greeting one another with wary nods of solidarity, hidden in the empty social noise around them.

To her, that posturing seemed fake, and lacked the delightful _earnestness_ of interacting with Haruhi, Kyon, and the others. Still, even if she didn't _like_ it, she did know how she was supposed to behave, and more importantly, how to dig for information or subtly interrogate someone in polite conversation. She also didn't know all of the details as to why Mikuru seemed to dislike Kyouko so much, or why Haruhi seemed agitated by Sasaki.

But Kyon and Haruhi were gone, for the moment, and Kyouko was cowed by Mori. Kasai was quietly standing by, his sheer stature unspoken menace by itself... Even buried as he was beneath a pile of sand, thanks to Nonoko and Miyoko. Aside from that, unless Tsuruya was mistaken, more of her father's men were already scattered across the beach, just waiting for whatever allies Kyouko might have to show themselves.

That meant for the moment, she had the superior position.

Well, even if it weren't her favorite thing, it _was_ something she was skilled at. If she only brought one thing to the brigade that was unique to her, it wouldn't be so bad if it were just that thing. So, while Kyon and Haruhi were off with the club's esper and slider, probably dealing with some _other_ threat, she decided to do her best and occupy Sasaki and Kyouko, and maybe even get some answers from them.

At a glance, for some reason, Nonoko already seemed very distrusting of Sasaki. That seemed the best place to start, so:

"Imouto-kun," Tsuruya asked, smiling brightly at Kyon's sister, "do you know this girl?"

"Nope!" the small girl answered, shaking her head quickly. "But..." She trailed off hesitantly and shrugged.

"But what?" Sasaki asked, smiling curiously at Nonoko. "I suppose then, Kyon never mentioned me at all? That's a bit of a sad thought..."

"Oooh!" Tsuruya gasped, eyes widening at Sasaki. "Could it be, this is Kyon-kun's elusive ex-girlfriends?!"

Sasaki's face colored faintly and she shook her head very quickly. "No, absolutely not," she replied without hesitation, smiling. "Kyon-kun and I are merely very good friends."

Such good friends he never talked about her, evidently. "And, how do you know Kyon-kun?" Tsuruya asked Kyouko.

"W...we've only met a handful of times," the girl with the twin ponytails said, glancing at Mori fearfully. Was the woman so scary to her...? "I don't know him well."

"You're quite interested in him for someone who doesn't know him well," Sasaki jibed, laughing softly at her friend.

"H...he's influential," Kyouko mumbled, shrugging uncomfortably. "I mean ... not that I'm that type of person. It really would be good if somehow Kyon and I could become friends, or at least I could get him to trust me more..." She turned to Sasaki. "If you put in a good word for me, I'm sure that would happen."

Humming thoughtfully, Tsuruya nodded. Evidently Kyouko thought that Sasaki could influence Kyon in some way. At a guess, if they were anything close to friends, Kyon would be able to influence Sasaki in some way, too...

"It becomes difficult when I don't know your true motives," Sasaki replied, shrugging with an apologetic smile. "While I like to think that Kyon trusts me enough to take me at my word, I don't know that I could give it without understanding your own goals better!"

"I have told you!" Kyouko protested. "I've always been honest."

"Kyouko-chan, fantasy stories aren't the truth," Sasaki chided, still smiling. "And if it's a game, well, I don't understand the rules well enough to play, and it seems that you're able to play just fine with me being in the dark."

The twin-tailed girl scowled at that, crossing her arms over her chest and staring out at the sea.

"At any rate," Sasaki continued, turning her attention back to Tsuruya, "I feel it's safe to say that Kyon hasn't told us of one-another simply because we've been out of contact. We went to middle school together, and attended the same cram-school, as well! He came to my house to study a few times, and our parents got along quite well. It seemed quite abrupt that after middle school, he stopped speaking to me!

"For a time, I wondered if he'd dropped out of school entirely, and went straight to work. Maybe he had stopped talking to me because of embarrassment? But evidently, that was a needless worry; it seems he's just been very busy. What a surprise for Kyon! But I'm sure once I get a chance to speak to him and learn this new game he's playing better, we'll be just as good of friends once more!"

"Ah!" Kyon's little sister gasped suddenly, eyes widening. "It was _you_!" she accused, pointing a finger at Sasaki, frowning sharply. "You were the one!"

* * *

Even though he had distantly considered Kanae's words from long ago, once he was actually going toe-to-toe with a giant inter-dimensional slider death 'bot, he really felt that the girl hadn't done the thing justice. From the first narrowly dodged beam, sending clouds of steam and tracing a trench of molten sand across the beach, he wished he'd paid more attention - or at least asked for more details.

Still, Kanae had _also_ said that the horrible robot things came _last_, usually. Was this one an exception, possibly related to the other slider retreating after he lost his weapons? He desperately hoped so, as dozens of boulders larger than him suddenly flew free of the steep slope on the north side of the beach, helpfully slamming into the sand and creating barriers.

Kanae was curled into a whimpering ball behind one. With strange insight, he suddenly looked back towards that long-ago day when he only had to watch the cave cricket while Mikuru clung to him. And to think, he had felt powerless, wishing he could do more to fight that monster. Now he realized he wouldn't have terribly minded having the job of reassuring and comforting Kanae, as he was busily scrambling to fresh cover and hoping he was distracting the ... thing. Once he was behind a barrier - not that he expected it to stop more than a stray shot or two - he evaluated the situation.

Except to turn the primary canon feature, which seemed to be a single elongated gun barrel, the end glowing white with heat, the robot hadn't moved much. It was six-limbed, and each limb was incredibly slim - he guessed a handful of centimeters at the widest point. Each leg was segmented in five places, and the lines were strange, graceful arches. The body itself, probably a meter high and two meters around was an ovoid, shaped somewhat like a teardrop with the pointed end being the glowing weapon barrel.

It was silvery blue, incredibly shiny, and seemed to lack any writing, labels, or insignia. A handful of other spikes and protrusions surrounded the weapon barrel in a band along the thing's circumference on a single plane around the perimeter of the teardrop shape. If he had to guess - and at the moment, he did have to - he would assume they were lesser weapons, sensors, and probably a variety of tools designed to help inter-dimensional robot death spiders do ... whatever it was they did.

A glance showed him Haruhi and Koizumi, standing at the top of where the slope of jumbled stones used to be - in Kyon's mind, dangerously exposed to the horrible robot monstrosity. "Okay, Skynet," he addressed his PDA, hefting the new, larger gun that Kuyou had given him, even as the rocks behind him began to grow uncomfortably warm, "set all weapons to 'distract'."

He'd initially thought the slider's weapon was something he'd never need - something too powerful for most situations. That thought in mind, he _really_ wished that he'd set options up in advance for disabling robots, instead of a variety of creative electro-net launchers, sonic stun-weaponry, and other general settings that reached a level of power designed to irritate and stun organic beings.

Really, just a solidly dependable _cutting_ laser would be something, but he didn't have time - or power - to play with dozens of settings and energy types before finally discovering a vulnerability. Hopefully the 'distract' setting, designed to simply make an overwhelming amount of electrical noise would blind it. He'd initially thought it would be a clever way to disable security cameras ... until Yuki pointed out that an overactive camera was more likely to stand out, and he could turn invisible to conventional electronics _anyway_.

Well, at least, it wasn't a total loss, now.

If he could keep it busy long enough, hopefully someone who could actually _stop_ the thing would show up. He was just about to break from cover and take a potshot at the thing before rolling behind the next barrier when he glanced to where Koizumi and Haruhi were still standing. He couldn't make out the details, but it looked like they were arguing...

As exposed as they were, that meant he _really_ had to get out into the line of fire and distract the stupid robot thing.

* * *

Mikuru finally felt herself get closer to a relaxed stance as she watched the interplay between Tsuruya and Sasaki. She still really didn't like Kyouko, but it was foolish of her to get completely caught up in being afraid, even when she was surrounded by friends and allies. Mori had supposedly been the one to rescue her when she'd been kidnapped, but Yuki was the one who had woken her up after she'd been drugged. And _both_ of those people were with her, now ... so being scared was a waste of time.

She tried to tell herself that, anyway. Tsuruya was taking advantage of the opportunity, and while she was subtle, she could see the heiress digging for answers from Sasaki. The other girl was sharp, too, though, and was likely to catch on. Before Mikuru could contribute, she was startled by Kyon's sister's accusation.

"I was the one?" Sasaki asked Nonoko, cocking her head slightly to one side. "I'm not sure I understand...?"

"In middle school, something happened to Kyon-kun," Kyon's sister said stubbornly, frowning intently at Sasaki. "_Someone_ took away his smile, and he didn't find it until Haru-nee-san brought it back! That was _you_!"

"I ... made Kyon stop smiling?" Sasaki asked, nearly in a laugh. "Now, now... Don't be silly! Kyon wouldn't stop smiling just because..." Mikuru watched her eyes closely as she trailed off, and the amusement in her smile drained away, leaving a bitter mask behind. "W...well... It was probably a coincidence!"

"I think she's with the dark generals," Nonoko judged, nodding.

"Ah, see? That's the kind of stuff you think from watching too many anime, or reading too much manga! Kyon used to be such a dreamer, reading those stories all day and spending his time wishing it were real instead of focusing on the world around us! That's a more positive thing, I think. If I had an effect on Kyon it would be that- I wouldn't want to make him unhappy and stop smiling!"

For Mikuru, the alignment of facts was almost painful. Suddenly, so much more made sense... Kyon knew this girl in middle school ... and they had spent time together. Sasaki had made an impression on him, but she was both aware of it, and had actually tried to encourage Kyon to grow in a different way. Mikuru could easily imagine the scene. Kyon enduring all of Sasaki's unwelcome criticism, trying to reshape himself to be her ideal, to get close to her, chipping away at himself and slowly trading away the things he wanted to believe in, and in the end...

Did Sasaki know that Kyon had a crush on her? Realistically, seeing how it played out, and reading Kyon's 'romance' story... Did _Kyon_ even understand that was what happened? Maybe _that_ was why he was so generally passive, and just let the other girls kiss him with minimal resistance, even though she could tell he felt bad about it. He'd tried to start a relationship with Sasaki, but she hadn't really returned that affection or rejected him ... so he came to the conclusion that it couldn't have been real.

Then again, considering Kyon's own ignorance (or feigned ignorance) ... was that behavior he had learned from Sasaki? Did _Sasaki_ even understand that she had feelings for Kyon? Mikuru could tell that the girl wanted to speak to Kyon desperately. But as someone who didn't believe that time travelers, aliens, or espers were real, how much of the information from that realm could instill her with a sense of urgency?

And _that_ was what Haruhi had picked up on, and why Sasaki agitated her so much! Tsuruya was more correct than Sasaki would admit, asking if the supposed one-time friend were Kyon's ex-girlfriend.

"Um, Sasaki-san," she said, unsure why, but suddenly angry at the idea of the hurt that Sasaki had heaped on Kyon, "I know you're not close any more, but did Kyon-kun tell you the latest?"

"I think we're still close," Sasaki countered, shaking her head. "We just don't talk as much. He still calls me by my first name, after all!"

Mikuru exchanged a glance with Tsuruya, neither girl missing how defensive Sasaki had been. "Well, the thing of it is, he _has_ had a lot on his mind," the time traveler admitted, offering a disingenuous smile. "But then, you wouldn't have known that Kyon-kun is engaged to Tsuruya!"

Sasaki's reaction tore at Mikuru. On the one hand, she wanted to be pleased at the hurt in Sasaki's gaze, and validated that her theory were correct.

But on the other hand...

She cared about Kyon herself, so she didn't have to imagine the pain of seeing Kyon put beyond reach.

"I...is that ... so?" Sasaki managed, still forcing a smile.

"Yep!" Tsuruya confirmed brightly. "Our parents agreed and everything!"

"Tsuru-nee-san is good for Kyon-kun; she makes him laugh," Kyon's sister opined.

After a thoughtful pause, Miyoko nodded her agreement. "I like Mikuru-nee-san and Haruhi-nee-san for Kyon-nii-san, too," she added. "But Tsuru-nee-san is very good for him."

"W...well!" Sasaki exclaimed. "That's ... amazing! Ah, um... W...well, Kyon seemed to be busy lately, and I suppose I know why, now!" She shook her head, grimacing before she masked it with a smoother false smile. "Sorry, I'm a bit stunned," she allowed, collecting her wits. "Ah ... hum! So ... might I ask how this came about?" Sasaki hesitated the briefest moment, her glance darting to Mikuru before fixing on Tsuruya. "Though, now that I think of it, this engagement is arranged by Kyon's parents, isn't it? He wouldn't make such a choice on his own, I'd think."

Tsuruya laughed good-naturedly, seeming unfazed by Sasaki's verbal barbs.

"You know Kyon really well!" the heiress remarked, settling down a bit, though still chuckling. "Hum, you went to middle school with Kyon-kun ... and cram-school, too! You've known him for almost three years, and I've only gotten so close to him in just under a year... Since you know him better, tell me about how Kyon-kun was in middle school!"

Mikuru found herself simultaneously stifling a giggle at Tsuruya's counter and blushing sympathetically for the girl with the shorter hair.

Sasaki caught the subtle message, too, and gave a polite smile with a resigned sigh. At her side, Kyouko merely looked uncomfortable, toying with the edge of her towel. "Well, as I mentioned, in middle school Kyon was a dreamer," Sasaki allowed, shrugging. "He was terrible at study, and would gladly spend every free moment he had playing games or reading his shounen manga."

"Kyon-kun's quite intelligent, I think," Mikuru disagreed with a hesitant smile, feeling compelled to speak in his defense. "I...if anything, I think he only lacks strong motivation some times."

"Lately, Kyon-nii-san has been very motivated," Miyoko opined, giggling. "He was a bit mopey when he took me to see that movie last year, but now he seems much more upbeat!" She winced at a sudden memory and amended, "Well, until those boys shot him..."

Sasaki reeled back, blinking. "K...Kyon was ... shot?" she asked, disbelieving. "I read mention of it in the paper, but I thought- That was _Kyon_?!"

"That's right," Mikuru agreed, not particularly enjoying the memory either. "Um... But that... Well, you read about it, right?"

"Y...yes," Sasaki allowed, nodding uneasily. Rallying, she gave a very bright smile, saying with confidence, "Kyon never did anything to attract such attention when I knew him!"

Tsuruya caught the implication but seemed to dismiss it easily ... Mikuru envied her friend's composure concerning Kyon being injured. Then again, Kyon _himself_ dismissed it, so... "Mmm, so that's all there was to Kyon, then?" Tsuruya mused. "You saw him as a lazy dreamer, and...?"

"H...he was creative and clever, he just never applied himself practically," Sasaki explained, shrugging. "Naturally, I felt compelled to help him."

Unable to resist, though she worried at the fact she needed her friends around her to have the confidence to say such a thing, Mikuru asked, "Do you help all of your friends, that way?"

"I try," Sasaki allowed, nodding.

"So, then, have you helped Tachibana-san become less of the type of person who would abduct someone off the street?"

Tsuruya raised her eyebrows and turned to study Mikuru. Sasaki looked annoyed, and Kyouko covered her face with her hands. "I _really_ regret that," she grumbled. "Because I never hear the end of it!"

"I have to admit I find the question worthwhile," Mori chipped in, looking vaguely amused.

* * *

The essence of Koizumi's power in closed space - the key to accessing it, at least - had been to push aside his assured facade and reach for the real emotions he usually hid within. He'd been granted knowledge of the mechanics along with the power; part of the reason he'd wondered, initially, if he were losing his mind. By embracing his own emotionality, separate from the feelings that he picked up from Haruhi, he was able to grasp that ability and slip sideways ... and then, further, to take power and do battle in that strange space.

That space that didn't _exist_ anymore, thanks to Kyon. And lately, he realized, he actually had quite a bit to complain to Kyon about! Granted, Kyon _may_ have had some justification, and their awkward semi-role-reversal had been eye-opening, at least. But if it weren't for Kyon's meddling, Koizumi would still be an esper, would still be placed in the Organization in a role that trusted him with information, and most importantly, _wouldn't_ be plummeting towards the rocks below, now given an eerie red cast, as though foreshadowing the blood that would spill when he impacted.

Until Kyon's actions threw everything into disarray... As it was, he felt that sometimes he was the only responsible one in the lot, and everyone else was just playing around, not taking things seriously enough!

He glared at the rocks below him, still with their red glow, then up the beach, to where Kyon was alternately blasting the ... enemy ... thing ... with beams of energy... Well, really, it didn't seem much different from shining a flashlight on the robot, for all the good it did. Okay, so it did seem to distract the robot a bit, but it wasn't proving its value as a _weapon_.

Koizumi rolled his eyes as Kyon dove to yet another barrier, taking cover just as another blast melted his former hiding place into slag. The boy stole a glance at Koizumi, and for a heartbeat, Koizumi took solace in the fact that Kyon stopped to stare, evidently stunned by Koizumi's pending demise. If Haruhi hadn't just _shoved him off a cliff_...

The moment of staring dragged on, and Koizumi frowned, realizing that something was very wrong. The distraction grew, and Kyon squinted, as though not believing- Too long; until that moment, he'd been active, moving from cover to cover.

The hesitation grew, and this time, the beam of rock-melting energy ate through Kyon's protective barrier, making contact with the boy- Everything happened at once, then. Kyon's entire body illuminated, as though he were glowing within, and he suddenly launched along the beam's path, flying across the beach. From the cliff-top above him, Koizumi heard Haruhi's indignant cry of fury, as more giant boulders tore themselves free from his inevitable impact site, straight below and...

...and...

...and it was taking a very long time to fall, wasn't it? He stared with confusion as the boulders Haruhi had levitated were vaporized by the robot as they shot toward it, one-by-one.

It wasn't until the echo of Haruhi's anger through his connection with her reached him that Koizumi realized he was _floating_. Wrapped in a dim aura of crimson energy, just hanging in space and feeling _sorry_ for himself while his friends fought-

But he knew how to use his powers; aside from being granted knowledge on how to use them, he'd had years of practice.

With a sense of growing determination, he accelerated directly at the robot, allowing his body to explode into flame and light. As energy, when the next shot from the robot went not towards Haruhi, who had flung the boulders, but directly through him, he ignored it, feeling the surges of power through the red force that was his being.

A sharpening of will and intent; he deflected narrowly to one side of the robot, allowing the thinnest, keenest edge of his emotion to slash at the hulk in passing, almost as though he had banked and skimmed the surface of the splayed legs. With more resistance than a Shinjin, but not enough considering the thing's spindly limbs, he severed the three on the thing's left side and shot past it, curving away. He had already plotted out the next move, smoothly sliding into it; a short, hard arc up into the air before looping back to meet with the robot again.

At the apex of his flight, angling down, he felt joy - and then a resonance of the same, more intense, from Haruhi. Improbably, despite just being hit with a beam of energy that melted rocks and sand, Kyon emerged from a glowing indentation in the rock wall, his greatcoat smoking as it cast off excess heat energy. The robot awkwardly turned to face Kyon's next barrage of distracting blasts, scrabbling around with the three functioning legs remaining as the bulk of its mass dug into the sand beneath it.

Perfect, Koizumi realized, reshaping his energy into a piercing spike as he bore down towards the center of the thing's carapace.

He _felt_ the thing's innards as the carapace cracked, strange fluids and mechanical parts, glowing structures of pure energy right next to more easily recognized pistons and cables ... but it couldn't run with him tearing through it, crimson energy slashing and shattering as much as possible before Koizumi's awareness broke through the bottom of the defeated robot, spreading his volume out into a cloud and arresting his momentum just above the crashing surf.

Though his greatcoat was still smoking, he limped slightly, and he seemed to have a small nick over one eye, Kyon strode towards the robot with a scowl. Koizumi gathered the scarlet force that comprised his being from where it had billowed out around the fallen robot like a fiery crimson fog and re-assumed his own form. In his own body, he floated to one side of the fallen enemy's unmoving gun-barrel before he allowed himself to drift to the beach and dismissed his aura of power.

"Nice work," Kyon judged, his voice a bit raspy as he gave the esper a grudging nod.

"Thank you," Koizumi replied cheerfully. "I'm glad I can be of service to you." Trite as it might have been, he was, too.

"Hey!" Haruhi shouted, waving from the distant cliff-top. "Heeeeey!"

"I'll check on Kanae-chan, you help Haruhi get down here," Kyon decided, glancing at the network of molten sand channels on the beach.

"Certainly, vice commander!" Koizumi chirped. Somehow, despite all his previous frustration ... he really couldn't help but think that he would be happier with this latest development. Now, maybe, he wouldn't feel like he had been left behind; with that kind of reassurance, maybe he could see why the others didn't seem as concerned.

* * *

"I don't believe I'm accountable for the actions of my friends," Sasaki finally decided in answer to Mikuru's question. "I appreciate that Kyouko-chan and Fujiwara-kun believe I'm influential, but to be honest, I don't see myself like that. I'm occasionally _told_ that I have 'vast power and influence', but I find that unlikely; what could I influence that's beyond my reach?"

Nonoko thought that sounded like classic dark general double-talk, a very standard, "I can't be held accountable for things I've caused!" dismissal of responsibility if she ever heard one!

It was confusing, though, because even though she had determined that she didn't like Sasaki's effects on her brother, the older girl didn't feel _bad_, not genuinely. Then again, the forces of evil liked to prey on borderline cases ... it was _possible_ that Sasaki might be redeemed, somehow, but in order to do that, they would need to find out which dark force had corrupted her.

Then, Kyon could take down that enemy, and Sasaki's potential good could be restored! Of course ... in order to do that, they'd need to investigate. She wasn't certain where to start such a search, herself, but Mikuru and Tsuruya seemed to have a good idea, and Mori was helping, too.

While she and Miyoko were aware of the hidden messages in the older girls' words, neither could decipher them. Whatever they were, they stung Sasaki, though. Even though the mysterious dark-influenced girl smiled and laughed, Nonoko was confident that she wasn't nearly as happy inside.

That worried her, though... If Kyon were the only one who could redeem her, what if it was a trap? She'd need to think about that and make sure that Tsuruya or someone equally dependable was there to help him out when it happened. As long as she could warn her brother not to face Sasaki alone, he should be okay, she decided. Until they knew more, at least.

"Well, that's a differences between friends and subordinates," Tsuruya remarked, shrugging. "Though, you _do_ considers Tachibana-kun here to be a friend, and not a subordinate, so then, does that mean that while she's your friend, she's a subordinate of Fujiwara-san?" Nonoko noticed Tsuruya's more polite name for the servant of the dark generals; good, the heiress knew that he was more sinister than he even appeared.

Sasaki raised her eyebrows at that, giving Kyouko a contemplative look. For her part, the twin-tailed girl shifted her shoulders and looked very uncomfortable under the scrutiny - even more so than before.

"Why so nervous?" Mori asked, reaching into one of the nearby picnic baskets. "Hmm, Asahina-chan, shouldn't we offer our guests something to drink? Perhaps we're not being the best company..."

"Ah," Mikuru and Tsuruya breathed together, ducking their heads and giggling awkwardly.

"That's true," the heiress allowed, nodding. "Sorries! This discussions got a bit heavy, didn't it?"

"Y...yes," Mikuru agreed. "Um, I made watermelon tea; would you like some?" She pulled out a thermos, while Mori produced a small stack of disposable cups.

"Certainly," Sasaki allowed. "Thank you. But it only seems natural that as we become older, our discussions must become more serious, though."

Kasai suddenly snorted, then coughed, covering his mouth with one hand and dislodging a good portion of the sand pile he was buried beneath as he tried very hard to hide a grin. "Sand," he said, by way of apology, ducking when everyone turned to glance at him.

"So, how does one make tea from watermelon, anyway?"

Frowning at the distraction, Nonoko tuned out the other girls for the moment, realizing as she turned back that Yuki was missing.

* * *

Her eyes fluttered open, and the first thing she saw was her sempai's face. Her ears rung, and her back was slightly sore, like she had fallen recently. But the sun was behind his head, giving him a brilliant golden halo, and she could smell the sea.

This was easily her favorite dream, despite the less important details being off. He mouthed something at her, looking down in concern, but she only heard the ringing. She shook her head happily, knowing that here, at least, words weren't important.

So, she reached up and kissed him.

It wasn't quite right at first. For one thing, he was wearing his greatcoat, instead of no shirt at all. For another, instead of magically teleporting the pair of them to a shadowy wooded glade surrounded by bunnies and flowers, they stayed on the beach. He was holding her mostly right, but she could feel grains of sand in his hair from where she was holding his head... But the kiss was the stranger part; it felt firmer, somehow more real, but not nearly as good as she had expected.

Then something happened, as though her sempai were merely surprised at the kiss, and only just then remembered to kiss her back, and everything was starting to feel right - even better than alright. The outside world with Koizumi staring at her in amazement and Haruhi silently yelling at her began to melt away, and-

She broke the kiss suddenly, crying out, "Bwa~! Uh! Uh! Um, sorry!" She was curled in on herself, or trying to, still held in her sempai's arms. Her hearing abruptly returned, and she cringed even further at Haruhi's tirade.

"-idn't have a camera ready! That demands a do-over, and, and-"

"Wait, what?" her sempai interrupted, giving Haruhi an incredulous stare before suddenly shaking his head with a grimace. "No, actually, never mind that now! We just fought an inter-dimensional ... robot ... _thing_," he said, still holding Kanae close.

"Right, right," Haruhi grumbled, calming, crossing her arms over her chest and shaking her head. "Okay, I lost perspective there; the important thing was that you were trying to comfort Kanae-chan, which totally makes sense." She took a very deep breath, then turned to Koizumi, who was frozen at her side with a look of mild horror. "You, snap out of it," she commanded. "We need to hold it together."

"Yes," the esper rasped, shaking his head quickly and straightening his posture. "Yes," he said again, more clearly. "I'll- Ah, hello, Nagato-san."

He eyed the girl suspiciously. Wait, Yuki had been there, too, able to see Kanae's blunder? Oh, how many witnesses were there?! She had not only embarrassed herself by not pulling it off nearly as impressively as Mikuru, she'd done it with everyone _watching_!? They should have spied discreetly, with hidden security cameras, or clever use of amazing powers!

Haruhi stood not far away, between Kanae and the beach leading to the steep ramp - though, those boulders seemed to have been scattered around aimlessly, and many of them had evidently melted, some still faintly glowing. The brigade chief ignored the recent signs of battle, just tapping a foot with poorly concealed impatience and staring at Kyon expectantly. Koizumi was right next to her, recovering his bearings and surrounded with the faintest glimmering halo of crimson flame.

Closer to the tide line, Yuki stood, facing Kanae's sempai, but with her head turned towards the sea. Kanae was the merest instant away from shrieking in alarm and jumping from her sempai's supporting embrace when her eyes caught the remains of one of the strange curved metal constructs she recognized; the target of Yuki's focus.

She gasped in surprise, suddenly remembering; the first of her enemy sliders had appeared... But the same sempai that was still holding her in his arms had - somehow - fought him off. And with the aid of his friends, even beaten one of the horrible machines.

Her face overheating with alarm as everything caught up with her at once, she was strongly tempted to just kiss her sempai again. She managed to resist, barely, squeaking out, "I'm sorry!"

"It's not... No, that's fine, Kanae-chan," he replied, shaking his head, his face colored. "U...um, as long as you're okay."

"God, she's _cute_ like that, though," Haruhi exclaimed, grabbing Kanae away from her sempai suddenly. Kanae allowed another squeak of alarm to escape as the older girl held her tightly and twirled around. "I want to take her _home_!"

Kanae couldn't actually bring herself to complain; she knew she should have let go of her sempai, but she was reassured by Haruhi's embrace, too. Even if it was a bit of an embarrassing reminder, what with Haruhi's enviable endowments pressing into her back.

"Yes, that's very cute," Koizumi agreed. As her sempai climbed to his feet and dusted the sand from his greatcoat, the esper added, "Kyon, there's something I'd like to speak with you about when you have a moment."

"Before I forget," Haruhi remarked, settling down, but still clutching the smaller girl to herself, "after you got over your shock, that was some very nice work, Koizumi! As expected of an experienced esper!"

"Thank you," the boy allowed, inclining his head slightly, wearing his usual smile.

"You did alright, Kyon, but as it goes, you let yourself get completely outshone by your sidekick," Haruhi continued, shaking her head. "But, enough of that. Let's prioritize."

"Sidekick," Kyon said flatly, grabbing the edges of his greatcoat flaps and snapping the fabric once - instantly causing it to seem to shift color and shrink into the shirt Kyon had worn previously, as the skinsuit flowed into his wristwatch almost instantaneously. Improbably, he tucked the weapon he had gotten from the slider into the interior of his shirt. Except, it wasn't really a shirt, she supposed. Haruhi seemed somewhat impressed, too, right until Kyon fumbled the wooden sword handle from his coat pocket, anyway.

"U...um," Kanae murmured.

"Yes, of course," Koizumi said after a moment, nodding. "That only makes sense. So, then, Suzumiya-san, what's the first order of business?"

"Yuki-chan, any good salvage from the enemy?" Haruhi asked swiveling Kanae around to face the quiet girl.

Yuki nodded faintly, gesturing for her sempai to hand her the sword handle before he could tuck it back into his shirt. "Ah," he said sagely, surrendering the item to her. "I think I know where this gets used."

Reaching her hand into the giant remains of the robot on the shore, the small girl grabbed something and twisted- The mass of the thing folded away like some strange piece of silver origami, until nothing was left but a glimmering shard of light too intense to look at. A heartbeat later it was hidden in Yuki's closed fist. The machine was gone, and Yuki's gaze turned to Haruhi questioningly.

"Yeah, I think we agreed Kyon needed an energy blade of some kind," Haruhi said. Kanae didn't need to look back to see it; she could hear the grin in the other girl's voice.

Yuki nodded faintly in acknowledgement, bringing her closed fist together with the sword handle in her hand; there was another bright surge of light, and the sword handle was restored, now tightly wrapped with a metallic glinting silver cord. The small girl wordlessly offered the thing to Kanae's sempai, who accepted it cautiously.

"I already know how to use a sword, but I'll learn how this thing works tonight," he decided, tucking it away. "But I'm guessing that if we face another one of those, I can also tune some of the other weapons against them?"

"Hold up- Other weapons?" Haruhi asked, frowning. "I thought you had the gun and the sword! What all equipment have you collected while I wasn't in the party?"

"In a moment," her sempai countered, shaking his head. "First of all, we have to cover this beach up before someone else comes along."

"Good point," Haruhi acquiesced. "So we'll try and restore it to just like it was before the fight."

"Program loaded," Yuki acknowledged.

"Permission granted," Kyon agreed quickly.

Kanae was slowly spun in place by Haruhi as the sand cooled and flowed to its previous shapes, now softly rolling curves and dunes instead of scored trenches and gouges. The boulders rolled back to the slope, silently stacking themselves in their original formation. In the course of half a minute, there was no sign left that the battle had taken place - save for her sempai's weariness.

"Right," her sempai agreed, adjusting his shirt, flicking it back into a greatcoat. It looked a _tiny_ bit silly with his trunks on beneath, but Kanae could not deny the practicality; he'd needed it earlier, after all. Coughing, and then dropping into a faux movie announcer voice, he declared, "Skynet, my absolutely loyal and trustworthy electronic companion." As he named it, he flicked his PDA out, leaving it to flip in place in the air before him. "First and slightly smaller gun," he boomed, setting out one of the two metal cylinders, then saying in a more normal voice, "I really should name these two."

"Wah! Don't drop character!" Haruhi protested, squeezing Kanae. "That was just getting awesome!"

Her sempai quirked one eyebrow, then readjusted his stance, posing slightly. Suddenly, the bare-chest and open-coat look didn't seem _silly_ at all, and Kanae wondered if Haruhi was holding her more tightly to keep her from trying to rush him. The temptation was very real. Using the announcer voice again, he continued, "Other, newly acquired gun." Now two cylinders floated in the air, the PDA slightly to one side. "Beam-cutter-weapon thing," he added, contributing the sword to the pile.

"Ugh! You _do_ need better names for the rest of your equipment!"

"Just be glad I'm humoring you this far," he warned in his normal voice. "Actually, I think I should be a lot more alarmed by the fact that I was almost vaporized by an alien beam weapon."

Haruhi's embrace tightened the slightest bit. "Well, Kanae-chan helped you get your mind off that, but you look _fine_ considering how much you worried us! Except, you're really blowing the whole inventory. Anyway, what else?"

"The skinsuit and gravity thingies," her sempai grumbled, shaking his head.

"Well, that seems quite sufficient," Koizumi said, spreading his hands in a shrug. "Now, are there any objections to returning to our base of operations for the beach expedition? We've been gone long enough; we can discuss today's battle later with the others."

"Alright," Haruhi agreed reluctantly, while Kyon shifted his outfit out of combat mode, stowing all of his gadgets in the hidden pockets. "You know, Kyon, I did say you'd need a lot of tools, but I didn't intend to turn you into a lombax!"

"I don't have a wise-cracking robotic sidekick," he remarked, as Haruhi finally released Kanae. "I've got Koizumi."

The esper looked slightly puzzled. "I'm not sure I catch the reference?" he asked cautiously, falling into step just behind Kanae's sempai.

Yuki watched the pair in silence, then moved to walk at Kanae's side, Haruhi just behind them. "So, anyway," Haruhi said in a quiet voice while Koizumi listened to the other boy's explanations about some game, "did you manage to record the kiss, Yuki-chan?"

"Yes," Yuki answered without hesitation.

"Perfect!"

Just when things had finally calmed down, and Kanae had a minute to try and sort things out - Haruhi had brought up that embarrassing not-a-dream again! "Oh..." she whimpered, her face reddening.

* * *

She shrugged, still smiling politely, despite the cold reactions of Kyon's friends, and the inexplicable pain in her chest at the announcement of Kyon's engagement. It must be shock, she told herself, shock that something so unusual and unexpected would happen to Kyon, who had always longed for such strange events. She should be happy for him, but somehow ... she couldn't help but feel that something was not _right_ about the green-haired girl.

Aside from a suspicion that she couldn't prove that somehow it was by associating with _her_ that Kyon had gotten embroiled in violence. Her or Haruhi, at any rate. Though they had similar personalities, there was something _else_ she couldn't name that bothered her about Haruhi.

Was Kyon in trouble because of them? He let himself be pushed around so easily, Sasaki thought it was entirely possible he'd been deceived into getting involved with something more dangerous than he could handle.

That made it that much more important that she tried to talk to him. And lately, she'd had such a hard time getting through to Kyon, she had a feeling that if she put it off, he'd be married to Tsuruya, and then they'd _never_ get a chance to talk. She felt uncomfortable at the sense of urgency that inspired within her.

But all of that was allowing herself to be distracted from the current situation. Unfortunately, that mostly seemed to consist of being grilled by Kyon's new associates. Sipping at the cool watermelon 'tea' (really, it was just watermelon juice), she decided to try and change the subject. "So," she said, smiling at Kyon's presumed sibling. Kyon had mentioned having a sister, but Sasaki had never met her. Since Miyoko was a friend, that meant the youngest looking girl with her hair in a side-pony-tail was her. "You are Kyon's sister, is that right?"

"Yeah," the girl agreed, eyeing her warily. "Have we met?"

"Not yet! But it seems you have a bad impression of me, for some reason. I wouldn't want to come across as unlikeable, so, was it something I did that bothers you?"

"You took away Kyon's smile," she protested, pouting.

"You said that before," Sasaki said slowly, her own smile slipping. "That..." Had she inadvertently hurt Kyon's feelings that much worse than she had realized, with that final deconstruction? "Hmm. If I ever did, then I assure you I never meant to," she swore to the smaller girl. "Obviously I think highly of Kyon, or I wouldn't consider him a friend! I hope he still considers me a friend, as well, so I wouldn't want to do that!"

"But, you said you changed him," the girl countered, shaking her head.

Sasaki considered it, and realized the smaller girl's point of view. "Y...you think that was hurtful to Kyon? But, no," she insisted, shaking her head. "He never... I..." Ultimately, she would be lying if she hadn't considered the possibility of failing to meet her ideal of being a supportive, encouraging friend... And that was the same reason she could never accept the claims of her other friends.

Such power as her new friends claimed she had - it could only be possessed by a truly infallible being. It was inconceivable that it genuinely existed ... unless, somehow, only she had ever been given that power in the history of man. And that was so unlikely that she couldn't really consider it; it was on the level of gravity suddenly reversing for just one object. No, she was just a normal high school girl who had not been the friend she had tried to be, and then gotten entangled in something she shouldn't have.

Still ... even if things were strained, she was confident that with proper time to discuss things with Kyon and explain her side of the situation, she could at the very least apologize to him. If she was lucky, she could make things up to him - perhaps by helping him out with whatever his present difficulties were.

In the meantime, everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to finish her statement. "Ah, well, as I said, I never intended to have any negative effects on him," she told Kyon's sister. Straightening, but still focused on the little girl - though the words were more intended for Tsuruya - she added, "My intent has always been to help Kyon, perhaps protect him from the worst of the world."

Influence over reality indeed... Lately, Kyouko's strange associates had already given her enough trouble; sometimes, she wished she really _did_ have some power.

"It's always good to mean well," Tsuruya finally said, though it sounded faintly doubtful. "But this is heavy conversations again. So, anyway - Imouto-kun, don't be so angry at Sasaki-san for Kyon-kun; Kyon-kun isn't mad at her, after all."

"There's that, at least," Sasaki allowed, forcing a weak smile. Kyon was not a person who was prone to anger or violent action, in her experience - not counting the encounter with Fujiwara earlier that day, but Fujiwara and Kyouko had cooked up a scheme that explained that. Yet, for some reason, she was still afraid that he might be upset or unhappy with her. Surely their friendship hadn't somehow become that badly damaged?

"...and then, the planet blows up," his voice came suddenly, as though to underscore that thought. She managed a more genuine, if awkward smile at the sight of him walking back to the beach towels with his friend, the boy Kyouko had problems with. Kanae, Haruhi and Yuki - when had she left? - were walking behind the boys, the younger girl looking very nervously at the cell phone carried in Yuki's hand, for whatever reason.

"I see," Koizumi remarked, frowning. "I'm afraid I don't have enough time to play video games like that often, myself, but perhaps at some point..." He trailed off and shrugged.

"Eh, I've only got a decade old console myself," Kyon answered dourly, before he turned to regard the group still camped out beneath the beach umbrellas, and raised one hand in greeting. "Hey, everyone."

"We're back," Koizumi added, offering a polite wave.

After everyone echoed the greeting, as the returnees were sitting back down, Sasaki asked, "So, how was your mission to find something amazing?"

"I found something!" Koizumi said cheerfully. "But I feel that Kyon has made the greater discoveries."

"What did you find?" Sasaki prompted Kyon, curious, but wishing she could talk about the things she really needed to, instead.

"Got attacked by a slider," he answered, accepting a cup of watermelon tea from Mikuru. "Then a giant alien robot death thingy. Suou-san and your sneering bastard friend teleported in and helped out, and the enemy slider ran off, leaving the robot behind. Then I ran around and dodged like crazy until Koizumi used his esper powers to cut it up."

"Is that all?" Sasaki giggled, as everyone else stared at Kyon, evidently unprepared for his joke.

"Mostly dodged," Haruhi chimed in, suddenly, rolling her eyes. "Our clumsy vice commander let himself get zapped by an energy beam of some kind!"

"And that really stung, too," Kyon agreed, giving a weary shake of his head as he sighed.

"So, you're just a normal person, and your friends all helped out?" Sasaki asked. "Didn't you contribute anything?"

"Well, I distracted the enemy, and claimed spoils of war... But you know me; I'm the wit. I just stood around and made clever remarks, like mentioning that I did get a weapon that is similar to, but probably legally distinct from a light-saber," he said, nodding solemnly before sipping at his juice. "The melonade is excellent, Asahina-san," he added, turning to give the older girl something very slightly more than a grateful smile.

"Aw," his sister protested, frowning. "Kyon with a sword isn't as cute fighting the forces of darkness!"

"But swords are awesome," Miyoko noted, giggling. "And Kyon-nii-san is still a boy, after all, right?"

"Yes," Kanae added, her face coloring darkly. "Um, but then, that's obvious, and I'll just be quiet now."

"Ah!" Tsuruya exclaimed, eyes opening further, her grin widening. "Good for you, Kanae-chan!"

"What's this, then?" Kyouko asked, giving Tsuruya a doubtful look.

"Nothing, nothing," Tsuruya answered, shaking her head. "Hum, Haru-nyan, do you think anyone will beat Kyon-kun and Kanae-chan's discovery?"

"Probably not today," Haruhi replied after a thoughtful moment. "So, investigations were a success! Great job, everyone! That means the rest of our time is assigned to having fun! So, what should we do?"

"Well, seeing as it's the beach, I think we should at least go swimming," Kyouko suggested quickly.

"Me, I'm worn out from the exploration," Kyon demurred, shaking his head. "I might even try to take a nap."

Sasaki resisted the urge to sigh... Whatever Kyon had actually been doing, despite his stories of sliders and robots, he really _did_ look worn out. Talking to him today probably wasn't going to happen, especially considering how difficult it would be to arrange time alone with him. Well, she had her appointment with him, at least. "I'll see you around, Kyon," she decided, giving him her best warm smile and adding a tiny bow as she rose. "Kyouko and I are going to find a spot a bit closer to the water, and maybe find Kuyou, so take care!"

"You take care, too," he called, as she and Kyouko were heading away.

At least, despite what his sister had said, he didn't seem upset with her.

She thought that Kyon watched her until she lost sight of him, picking through the other spots on the beach until stumbling across Kuyou, standing in waves that reached to her knees, her expression curiously blank as she stared at a pair of children splashing in the water a few yards up the beach. The children seemed oblivious to Kuyou's scrutiny. Sasaki wondered why it was no one seemed to find Kuyou's behavior strange, or to notice her, really.

"There you are," Sasaki finally called, waving slightly to her friend. Hadn't it seemed that Kyon was on better terms with her? He didn't care for Fujiwara, though that seemed somewhat justified, and he was very wary of Kyouko, which was entirely justified, so... "You know, Kyon mentioned you being helpful to him in his quest earlier?" she teased, wondering what the quiet girl was thinking.

As Sasaki spoke, Kuyou straightened slowly and turned to face her, eyes darkening, but betraying no emotion, only greater focus.

"Are you at least getting on anyone's good side?" Kyouko asked, somewhat testily. "It seems the lot of them despise us, now, except for you and Sasaki."

"Us," Kuyou echoed, blinking once, very slowly.

Sasaki was slightly alarmed, wondering if that was the first time Kuyou had blinked since turning to look at her. Surely that couldn't be the case? It must simply have seemed that way... "Well, never mind about that," Sasaki said, striding into the water, gasping at the cold as it rushed up to her ankles and splashed along her legs. "Ah! Cold! Anyway, Kuyou-chan, I should warn you ... Kyon is engaged to that green-haired girl, Tsuruya ... I offer you my consolation!"

"Consolation," Kuyou repeated, tilting her head very slightly, then turning to look past Sasaki, towards where Kyon's friends were all still camped out. Not that she'd be able to see them through the other umbrellas and beach-goers.

"Sometimes I wonder how much she really understands," Kyouko sighed, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest.

Something in Kuyou's eyes changed, and her gaze went back to Sasaki. "Meaning of 'engaged'?" she asked.

"I...it means they're going to get married," Sasaki clarified, wondering what kind of sheltered life Kuyou must lead. "Um ... that they will try to spend the rest of their lives together, and probably have children?"

The focus in Kuyou's gaze seemed to change once more, though Sasaki couldn't quite gauge how. "Sympathy," she remarked.

"Yes, that's right," Sasaki agreed. "I'm sympathetic to you... You had a crush on Kyon, didn't you?"

"My luminosity curves to the well of his being; his presence quells the voids in the fabric of my awareness," Kuyou said, giving another of her incredibly slow blinks before turning to regard the two children again. Still oblivious to her, they continued splashing, a little boy and a girl, both giggling wildly while parents from the shore chatted and watched over them protectively.

Sasaki was positive that was the longest speech she'd ever heard from her friend, as well as the most elaborate thing she'd tried to put to words. "Um... Well, as I said, you have my sympathy, but Kyon's engaged to Tsuruya, now. Are you still going to pursue him, though, even in the face of that?"

"You know," Kyouko interrupted, shaking her head and giving Sasaki a wary stare, "I'm not entirely sure that it's a crush that Kuyou's talking about, here."

"His influence," she said, before making one of her strange pauses, "me to him. I am," and another pause, almost identical to the first.

Not for the first time, Sasaki suspected that Kyon could read more out of those silences than she could. Sighing, she said, "Well, as long as you don't mean to hurt him or make him an enemy, then you'll have my full support."

For some reason, Sasaki thought that Kuyou looked the slightest bit doubtful, but her attention shifted so some distant point in the sea, possibly beyond the horizon.


	33. Chapter 32

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Thwarted Lull Arc IV

Chapter Thirty Two: Debriefing

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Title: Fallible"_

_"A mistake is made,  
"errors perpetuated:  
"personal failure._

_"Apology is denied;  
"judgment, refused._

_"His analysis:  
"'it's fine, no one is perfect';  
"a comforting thought."_

_"Snow, Verses: A Compilation" - Committed to record: 2011.5.21_

* * *

Haunted by the experiences of the day, Kyon didn't really feel that the beach trip was terribly relaxing. On the bright side, even without proper planning, the brigade had been successful against one of Kanae's enemies. There was still a lot that he couldn't be sure about, things like when the next attack might come, but he doubted it would be instantaneous.

Of course, even with the small bits of good news, he couldn't really stop thinking about it. Being hit with the alien energy beam had been disconcerting; shields or not, armor or otherwise, being hit had _really_ stung. Especially since after the first moment of being struck, he'd gotten flung back the length of the beach into a stone wall.

He had already decided it was one of those experiences he was never going to forget, no matter how little he liked to. It hadn't hurt as badly as that time Asakura Ryouko had stabbed him, but it came close. Yuki alone remained from the girls, and of course, rather than take off his shirt and show his tattoos on the beach, Kasai was stuck on land, too. After glancing around, Kyon realized that Koizumi had gone to swim, as well. Or, possibly to chat with Mori quietly about what had happened while they were out of sight.

After a quiet moment, he glanced to Yuki, kneeling nearby. He had heard the turning of pages - slower than usual, for Yuki, and not quite as regular, but she wasn't reading. She was facing him, but her eyes tracked some point along the waterfront; Kyon guessed watching over the others instead of reading. Sitting up, he realized that the one reading was Kasai, who had dug himself out from the sand pile, and was now reclining against it while flipping through a small book.

Curious, he leaned forward to examine the title, raising an eyebrow when he read, 'The Gateless Gate'. Somehow, sparking up a discussion on eighth century zen koans didn't sound mentally relaxing enough to him, so he turned his attention back to Yuki.

Seeming aware of his gaze, her eyes swung to meet his, and he gauged that she seemed irritated or unsettled. He straightened himself up and asked, "Is something wrong?"

Yuki's gaze somehow became more contemplative. She hesitated and made a small gesture; the fingertips of her right hand moved an almost imperceptible distance. Kyon suddenly realized he couldn't hear the sound of the surf, or nearby people chattering. Kasai turned another page in his book, but it was utterly silent.

"There is ... distress," Yuki said at length, to his gaze looking even more troubled. "Several instances of threatening situations to yourself have occurred, while I have not adequately been able to protect you."

He frowned, not having considered it from that angle before. "You can't blame yourself," he said, shaking his head. "Sometimes it feels like we've got a lot to deal with. Is the entity giving you trouble?"

"Possibly," she allowed, her eyes going to the shoreline again. "Events may be manipulated such that they are invisible to me until inevitable. Regardless, I ... feel that I have failed in instances where you are at risk."

Aware that everyone around them could probably still see them, Kyon stretched his right hand out, allowing his fingertips to brush the side of her hand. She lifted her gaze to look up into his eyes. "Nagato, it's normal to feel a little down when something bad happens to someone you care about, like your friends and family. But it's not your fault that it happened.

"If anyone's at fault, it's really me, for letting myself get into these situations. Kanae-chan warned us that this could happen... And, anyway, you gave me the forcefield and armor that let me survive, even if you weren't there - and you help me learn enough to take better care of myself in fights, too. So don't let yourself feel _too_ bad about it."

Yuki nodded very slightly.

Looking into her eyes, Kyon gave her a weak smile. "You still feel bad, huh?" Yuki's next nod was more pronounced. "Well, I'm okay now, so we can both relax, right?"

"You do not," she replied.

He winced, nodding acknowledgement to her. "Fair enough," he allowed. "Okay. Well, it's still not your fault; I'm just worried about when we can expect to be attacked by Kanae's enemies again. And what Kuyou Suou intends. And Sasaki's intentions, and the fact that I'm engaged to Tsuruya-kun, how to deal with Haruhi about..." He sighed, giving her an apologetic shrug and what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I suppose it would be convenient if I could simply stop being worried, but since I can't, I have to do my best and be satisfied with that."

She contemplated this, but Kyon thought she didn't look convinced by that answer. And why should she? He wasn't really able to give her much more than vague platitudes. When he stopped to think about it, given her perceptions and ability to understand reality through the link with the IDSE, she probably felt practically blind in comparison. And if she hadn't let it bother her much visibly before, from her point of view being caught off guard as much as she had lately...

Aloud, he asked, "But through it all, there have been some good unexpected things as well, haven't there?"

He picked up the merest hints of surprise in her gaze. "Yes," she agreed, unhesitant despite the evidently unexpected question. "This is uncertainty."

"I wish it could be more than just empty words, but, if there's anything I can do for you, let me know," he told her.

Her familiar, hesitant way of making requests or speaking of things that were unfamiliar to her had slowly become an endearing trait, and he bit his lip at that realization. "A significant amount of junk data was created today," she said, which he realized made perfect sense. "Through an unknown mechanism, my capability of withstanding this is improved by your presence." He stared, surprised at the rarely seen tiny blush on Yuki's cheeks. "Tomorrow ... please visit my apartment."

"Um, you're saying that even though I can't do much to help you, you're reassured by me?" he asked.

She blinked twice, seeming to consider that, then gave her tiny, solemn nod, and a look that was almost, but not quite, a smile.

"Seeing you like that reassures me," he told her, relaxing as she made another tiny gesture, and the sounds of the surrounding beach-goers slowly came back to his perception. "I think I might try for that nap after all."

She nodded, shifting her sitting position slightly and pulling one of the Trope-tan manga that Haruhi had brought from a bag. Laying back down and closing his eyes, Kyon slowly dozed off.

* * *

After swimming, Tsuruya and the others returned to their base camp, where Kasai and Kyon were waiting. She realized that Yuki had stayed behind as well, probably to spend time with Kyon more than from an aversion to swimming. Well, that was fine...

Kyon was reclining against the large mound of sand left behind from Nonoko and Miyoko's early attempts at burying Kasai, not far from the burly man as he contemplated his book. At a glance, the boy looked like he was asleep. Tsuruya was pondering what to do with a sleeping Kyon, but Mikuru was ahead of her, quickly snapping several pictures on her phone while Haruhi watched on with amused approval.

To Tsuruya's surprise, before she could really join the others, Yuki's small form stood before her, the quiet girl's hooded eyes staring unflinchingly at her. In a voice that Tsuruya guessed no one else would hear, she said, "I surmise that he is distressed by this atypical arrangement; as in most cases concerning him, I wish independent verification of this supposition."

Tsuruya raised her eyebrows in consideration, then gave a judicious nod. "I agree with you, Nagato-chi- Ah, no... Yuki-chan. I'll talk to Kyon-kun about it tonight and try to reassure him," she decided. That could be arranged, she was certain. "I'll do my best to reassures him! You'll let Haru-nyan know, too?"

Yuki gave her solemn nod in response.

That thought in mind, even though it was time on the beach with friends, she had a hard time thinking of anything else except the prospect of spending time alone with Kyon. So in the late afternoon, when everyone was thoroughly exhausted from swimming and playing, the entire group returned to the Tsuruya estate.

"Ah, Kyon-kun," she called, while they were sorting through bags of beach supplies, "can you stay for dinner?"

"Is this about ... uh ... family business?" he asked.

She nodded, since it was close enough to the truth, and he shrugged. "Shouldn't be a problem," he allowed, twisting to one side and grabbing his sister before she could glomp onto him. "But you, Imouto, have to go home! Aren't you responsible for making sure that your friend Miyoko gets home on time?"

Nonoko's only response was a fierce pout.

"What would a defender of justice do?" he pressed.

The little girl relented, moving to stand next to her friend. Haruhi watched the exchange wordlessly, giving a grudging nod of her own understanding while Kyon was distracted. "I probably should have been more careful," the brigade chief sighed. "Well, that's okay. I'll start on making our plans for the next trip to Hinamizawa!"

"Another trip to Hinamizawa?" Mikuru mused, looking thoughtful. "Hmm, that might be fun..."

"I've never been," Kanae said enviously. "That's where Sempai is from?"

"Ah!" Haruhi exclaimed, putting an arm around Kanae's shoulder. "Kyon's family - at least, his family in Hinamizawa - is really awesome! You'll love them! Hey, why don't you, Mikuru-chan, and Yuki-chan come with me, and we'll work on the plans while Kyon is doing business with Tsu-chan?"

"As well, there are things that I must discuss with Mori-san," Koizumi interjected. "Might I request a meeting tomorrow to go over the events from today, however?"

"Good thinking," Haruhi agreed. "I'll leave scheduling that to you, Koizumi!"

"Understood," Koizumi agreed, bowing. "But in that case, I should be off to attend some paperwork."

And shortly after that, everyone was gone, except for Tsuruya and Kyon. "Huh," he mused, frowning, looking at the large gate to the estate's driveway as it silently closed itself. "If I'd thought about it, I probably would have asked Nagato to join us."

"That would have been okay," Tsuruya allowed, glancing around. Kasai was driving Nonoko and Miyoko home, her other driver was taking care of Haruhi and the other girls, and Koizumi had stepped into a car with Mori, driven by Arakawa. Shinobu stood near the walkway into the house proper, and Tsuruya nodded at her. "I've invited Kyon-kun to stay for dinner," she told her chief maid.

"Understood," Shinobu acknowledged with a bow. "I will notify the cook."

Kyon fell into step behind Tsuruya as she led the way into her home, and then through the corridors until reaching the recreation room. He lowered himself to one of the couches while she flipped on the television, more for background noise than anything else. The first show was a crime drama, some young female actress squealing in unconvincing distress as an eyeroll-worthy characterization of an organized criminal cackled malevolently. She flipped channels without hesitation, pleased to stumble across a program she remembered from her childhood, Pythagora's Switch.

Kyon perked up at the familiar tune as some Rube Goldberg contraption conveyed a steel ball bearing through a variety of obstacles before the show's name popped up on a tiny flag from some home-made block castle. "You likes this, too?" she asked, sitting at his side.

He nodded, looking away from the screen as a round of commercials began. "So, what's going on?" he asked, sounding strained, like he was trying to be patient, but was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Well, he _had_ just fought a slider-bot, but he was undoubtedly going to be asked about that at tomorrow's meeting. As much as she'd like to know, she realized he didn't need to talk about _that_ specifically at the moment. Aside from which, Haruhi and Kanae could probably tell the story, too. "Well, I agreed 'family business'," she told him with a wink, before leaning against him. He tensed slightly, as she made herself comfortable against his side, only shifting around to put one arm around her shoulders. "I really just meant about us."

"O...oh," he managed. Snuggled up to his side as she was, she could tell that he was still tense. "Um... L...listen, Tsuruya-kun... I know I'm not really the greatest guy around, but lately-"

She shushed him with the simple gesture of placing a fingertip against his lips. "You're too tense," she said softly. "You blames yourself for things that aren't your fault."

"Well... But-"

"So, let me guess, hum?"

"Alright," he allowed, sighing. "You're perceptive; you probably already know what I'm doing wrong."

"You blame yourself too much," she chastised him. "So, do you feel bad because you kissed other girls?"

"That, too... And, well... I meant what I said about our engagement, Tsuruya-kun, but lately, I feel like I'm really disrespecting you," he confessed.

"Silly," she sighed, straightening up at his side, and planting a kiss on his unresisting lips. He kissed her back, at first reluctantly, and then she felt that he surrendered to his desire, because the kiss was the same deep intensity she'd shared with him once before. When he finally released her, she felt her face flush. Guiltily, she realized she was very happy to have him all to herself. Well, for the moment ... but she shouldn't really let herself spend the entire afternoon and evening in that little daydream, especially if they were working together to make a brighter future for everyone.

More than her word - which was valuable to her - she was afraid of the cost to her friends should she try something so selfish. Except, thanks to the small privacy they had, and that kiss, she completely understood Mikuru's nearly desperate passion, and Haruhi's own reluctance to share. Yuki's stoic resolve and seemingly inexhaustible patience were remarkable, in comparison. She could console herself with the fact that even though she wanted Kyon all to herself for that moment, she wasn't actually _jealous_ of her friends ... in fact, she was pleased for Kanae, finally getting what she'd been hopeful for after so long. "Okay, sos ... we're really probably too young to worry so much about this, huh?"

"That's probably true," he allowed, giving her a rueful grin. "But that's hardly an excuse to behave irresponsibly for me, is it?"

"I'm older than yous by eighteen months," she reminded him, wishing that admission didn't make her feel like some naughty older woman preying on Kyon's relative innocence. Though...

She banished that temptation. Slow steps; the price to pay for trying to reassure Kyon like _that_ could be too high. "What I means is, we're all too young to worry so much about this; you're not ruining anyone for marriages. You're not trying to toy with anyones... Maybe it's only a guess for me, but you're trying your best to take care of peoples you care about!"

"That's the only reason I've let myself go this far ... but even then-"

She shushed him with her fingertip again, shifting her position around, pulling herself into his lap. She was a tiny bit surprised that despite his reluctance, he helped her position herself comfortably. Since she was already almost as tall as him, she found herself looking slightly down at him, their noses nearly touching. "Kyon-kun," she said sternly. "You're not allowed to feel bad about this! As long as you keep being responsible, and caring ... then I won't complain. I don't speak for the others always, but this once, I think they would all agree that it's okay..."

She dropped her fingertip from his lips and settled into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"H...how... Setting aside everyone else for the moment," he said softly, startling her slightly with the way his voice resonated through his chest while she curled up around him. "I mean... I...if that's really okay with you ... how is that okay? How does that not make you ... jealous or upset?"

"For the time being, let's leaves that a secret," she said, shaking her head slightly. The motion was really more like her rubbing her face on his shirt, but she liked the closeness. "Just know that it's okay for you to go on dates with and kiss a few other girls..."

"Specific girls?" Kyon asked. "I'm not really sure how to feel about this, but the idea of... I mean... Just the girls in the Brigade, right?"

She giggled. "I think Miyoko-chan likes you, too, but yes, let's leave it as things are for the moments. For now, just think of it likes ... building something stronger than just friendship."

He didn't respond for a moment, but she thought he felt slightly less tense. "I don't really understand," he confessed. "I don't... But if you say it's okay ... well, I could use one less thing to worry about. And if it's one of those things I'm really bad at figuring out, I guess, so much the better."

She didn't think that was the ideal answer... And she didn't really like the idea of Kyon only agreeing that it was okay because he didn't understand it. But if it would let them continue towards that goal without stressing him too much... "That's okay for now," she allowed, pulling away far enough to see his face, giving him her brightest smile. "I think you'll understands in time. But, for me, the most important things is that my friends are happy. Even if it's just a little bit ... do I make you happy?"

He nodded without hesitation, giving back a nervous but genuine smile. "I wish I could make you happy, too-" he began, before she silenced him with a kiss that was not broken until loud footsteps warned that a servant was approaching.

Sliding to sit at his side, feeling very satisfied with herself, Tsuruya ruefully reflected that Shinobu's uncharacteristically heavy step probably meant that she was entirely aware of what was going on. The chief maid trotted into the room on feet that were mysteriously silent again, bowing her head and murmuring that dinner would be ready within the next half hour.

"Right," Tsuruya declared, her face still slightly red from the intense kissing session. Or was it more than kissing? Kyon's hands hadn't really wandered much but she was reasonably sure that qualified as making out. "Um ... I'll take a quick bath before dinner - wash the sea out of my hair." While she would have loved to teasingly invite Kyon to join her again, she didn't know how well she could make herself behave, there. Instead, she winked as she rose to head to the bath, leaning close and whispering, "You do make me happy, Kyon-kun."

* * *

It wasn't until they were all squeezed into the elevator going to Yuki's apartment that Kanae realized that Haruhi's plan had been to constantly distract her. The moment the door shut, Haruhi backed up to the wall beside Kanae and demanded that Yuki play her recording of Kanae kissing her sempai for everyone to watch.

Kanae didn't know how to read Yuki's expression as well as she gathered the others could, but she couldn't help but feel that Yuki looked amused again, then produced the shiny new cell phone that her sempai had given the girl, playing the video back. "Wah," Kanae managed weakly, as Haruhi put one arm about her and gave her an unbalancing squeeze, nearly causing her to stumble. "Um!"

"So cute!" Haruhi reiterated, though her attention was far more on Kanae than the video. Her look wasn't pitying, or upset, outside of tiny hints of easily understandable jealousy. In a way, the look actually reminded Kanae of her sempai. Haruhi looked concerned and protective, but somehow, strangely confident. It was a look that made Kanae think that what Kyon said was true; Haruhi could bend the universe to her whim if she had to.

Thanks to her sempai, she wouldn't have to... But for all her fear and apprehension, her friends _had_ dealt with the enemy attacker. And now Haruhi was trying to boost her confidence and also distract her from her worries, while reminding her of all the reasons she had to stay.

Kanae sniffled, realizing she was on the verge of tears; how long had she spent running? The years blurred together ... which made her head hurt to think about; how many years could it have been? She had only just turned sixteen... It was four years, right? Somehow, it felt like so much more.

Before she could really ponder it further, or try and regain her composure, she found herself caught up in Haruhi's hug. Their surroundings seemed to shift or melt, and then they were in Yuki's apartment, and Mikuru was a soothing presence at her side, while Yuki walked to the kitchen to prepare tea. She settled down after what felt like far too long, managing to say, "S...sorry ... and thank you."

"I _told_ you that you were part of the brigade, and we'd look out for you!" Haruhi scolded her, grinning as Mikuru dabbed at her cheeks with a handkerchief. "Anyway, even if I was teasing you about it before, surely that kiss with Kyon helped to settle you on believing in us!"

"Y...yes," she managed, her cheeks warm. "Um... W...with all of you for friends, and Sempai..." She swallowed nervously, glad for the chance to hide her mouth behind the teacup Yuki handed her for a moment. After taking a sip, she admitted, "I feel a bit silly, now ... maybe guilty for being so hard to convince."

"Maybe a bit silly," Mikuru said gently, winking and touching the tip of one finger to Kanae's forehead. "But that's okay; you had to learn to cope with something that was very different from what you are used to. It's a jarring adjustment ... so believe me, even if it's only a small bit, I understand how you feel."

"Ah..." Kanae managed, uncertain what to say.

"Now," Mikuru said more briskly, rising to her feet, "if I can trouble Yuki-chan for some ingredients, I'll make dinner." With that, she strode into the kitchen. Yuki stared after her a moment, seeming torn between following and staying where she was, before drifting after the time traveler.

Haruhi released Kanae from the hug and said, "Though, I guess it was kind of scary ... I was worried for Kyon, but thanks to you, Yuki-chan, and Mikuru-chan, he can use the hyperbolic time chamber to keep up. You know, even if it doesn't feel like much to you, you're a big help to the rest of us, too! Ah..." She sighed, and shook her head. "Sorry, I'm a bit excited from the fight ... Kyon actually looked kind of cool, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Kanae agreed, blushing. "Um... Kissing is really something else..."

"I haven't gotten to kiss Kyon in over twenty-four hours!" Haruhi moaned. Then she shook her head abruptly. "Um... Man, for all I complained that I didn't believe in love, it sure hit me hard, didn't it?"

"T...that seems to suit you, though," Kanae hazarded, smiling cautiously. "If it's worth doing, it's worth going all out on?"

"That sounds about right," Haruhi said, frowning thoughtfully. "I mean, I can't say I regret it, though ... especially since it doesn't really get in the way of my main goal. At least, not so much that it isn't a worthwhile trade-off. Yeah, that sounds about right." She gave a judicious nod at that, then flashing the slider with a bright smile.

"So," she added, nudging Kanae with an elbow, her smile widening into a grin, "how about you, then?"

"I... A...after seeing him and..." Kanae swallowed nervously, then confessed, "I mean, this is where Sempai is, after all. So, I wonder now, if it might be okay ... for me to stay here? I don't ... really have a way to go back to where I started out, s...so..."

Haruhi swept her back into a reassuring hug. "Of course!" she cheered. "You're the club's first inter-dimensional transfer! Why wouldn't we want you to stay here? Except, really, isn't that something _you_ have to decide, not us? I know it's not quite what you were asking, but I think that I know Kyon at least well enough to say that he'd want you to stay, but it's your choice. I'd _like_ to say you _have_ to stay, really ... but it's not up to me!"

Kanae was stunned... She'd thought of the others as friends, especially since the core of Haruhi's plan was using that as a foundation to build an even stronger relationship. But she'd never felt such a strong connection to anyone other than her sempai ... and now from Haruhi as well. Was this the deeper friendship Haruhi was working towards? She felt herself grow teary with relief and happiness again as she hugged back as strongly as she could, and squeaked out, "Thank you, Suzumiya-sempai!"

"Eh?" Mikuru's voice came from the kitchen entrance. "Suzumiya-san? Are you alright? You look dazed!"

"S...something amazing happened," Haruhi said, her voice oddly faint. "I think I understand Kyon just a little bit better, now."

* * *

After recovering from an overload of moe that made her wonder if she should watch her blood sugar, Haruhi realized that it was already time to eat dinner. Even though Kyon had spent most of the afternoon napping, the others had spent some time in the water, so Mikuru's excellent cooking was just the thing. After they were done eating, Haruhi produced the collection of Trope-tan DVDs, proclaiming, "Look what I borrowed from Tsu-chan~!"

The rest of the evening was spent quietly watching the series. According to what Haruhi could find on the fan wiki, she'd read the manga up through the first season of the anime, and the second season suffered some amazingly divergent adaptation decay. There was a bit of a divided fan-base as to which continuity was better on-line, but as far as Haruhi could tell, everyone she knew in person was a bigger fan of the animation.

Though, she realized, she was trying to focus on that to distract herself from something. Somehow, even though Kanae had a habit of looking cute - much like Mikuru, but in a different way - all the time... Something about the slider being in her arms, looking up at her and calling her 'sempai' in that adoring, sweet voice...

"Um, that dinner was especially excellent, Mikuru-chan!" Haruhi exclaimed, trying to distract herself again.

"Thank Yuki-chan, not me," Mikuru said with an embarrassed giggle. "She's the one who taught me how to cook, after all!"

Haruhi turned to Yuki, but in response the quiet girl said, "There will be an extended maintenance session tonight."

For a moment, the brigade chief was bewildered, before remembering Yuki's training along with Kyon. "Ah, right," she realized aloud. That wouldn't be fun for her ... she'd be stuck all by herself. Well ... if she was going to have to be excluded for Yuki's sake, that was that. As much as she wanted to be part of that, and to be doing ... whatever it was they did with Kyon, she'd survive...

But, thinking of that... "I know I can't go," Haruhi grumbled, trying to keep the irritation from her voice as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And I guess that's how it has to be ... but, you could let Tsu-chan go too, right?"

Yuki nodded in response.

"Right!" Haruhi decided. "Last time she had a chance to go, I think she stayed behind because she would have felt like she was abandoning me at her place alone. Well, since she's not _here_ right now, it doesn't make so much of a difference, this time. Plus, maybe she'll give me a better report of what this training thing is really like! Kyon didn't explain it to me very well."

"Um... Yuki-chan erases certain parts of the training, so it doesn't feel like it's as long as it was," Mikuru noted worriedly. "It's not that Kyon-kun isn't trying, it's that... W...well, we've been having this sort of training for over a month now, right?"

"Right," Kanae agreed, nodding. "Wow, has it really been that long?"

"And, relative time, it takes a full year inside ... so ... would you really be happy if we all remembered more than thirty years of training, but only a single month spent here?" Mikuru asked, giving Haruhi an apologetic smile. "It's a bit different for me, because classified- Oh... A...anyway, I don't think you would be so happy about that, really."

Haruhi contemplated what Mikuru said, letting the reference to classified information pass for the moment. "Well," she allowed, "Kyon did mention once very early on that he really missed someone the first time he got the training..." Or some_thing_, but Haruhi was almost certain that it was a person. And, maybe a bit selfishly, she thought that person might be her.

"Aaah," she moaned, shaking her head. "Ever since Kyon told me the truth, I've had such a huge weak spot for him! Damn! I can't go training with you, so I just want to drag him to an empty room and-" She cut herself off without completing that statement, but judging by Mikuru's poorly concealed smirk, and Kanae's blushing smile, they both knew.

"Understood," Yuki replied, pulling her phone from her pocket and holding one of the buttons down. Haruhi stared as Yuki raised the phone to her ear and waited a moment, before saying, "Yes. Your presence is requested before tonight's training session."

There was a pause, while Haruhi wondered what kind of things Kyon said to Yuki when she couldn't overhear. Whatever it was, incredibly tiny sparks of blush appeared on Yuki's cheeks. "It is a request ... on behalf of a friend." She straightened very slightly, and her eyes flicked to Haruhi's, then quickly away - almost as though she were guilty, Haruhi thought. "I also look forward to our time tomorrow," she said, before disconnecting the phone.

An awkward moment of silence ensued, before Kanae hesitantly asked, "D...do you have a ... date ... with sempai tomorrow?"

Yuki didn't meet anyone's eyes, but quietly said, "Similar."

"I suddenly feel like I'm falling behind," the slider said in quiet realization, while Mikuru nodded her agreement.

"Arg... And yet, we really should try and avoid pushing Kyon," Haruhi groaned, rubbing at her temples. "Damn! S...so, I'm going to, um, tonight..." She trailed off and shrugged, feeling she didn't need to explain it in further detail. "Yuki-chan hasn't had an opportunity for a while, so tomorrow, after our meeting, I guess... Um, Tsu-chan, too, so..." She sighed. "This is going to be a bigger pain than I thought."

"B...but on the bright side," Mikuru countered with a hopeful smile, "we're having trouble with finding time, not, um, being jealous or something else... I...it seems to me that there must inevitably be some difficulties with an, um, arrangement such as this one. That this is the sticking point, isn't that in some ways a good thing?"

Haruhi couldn't resist. Kanae was in reach, and Mikuru wasn't much further away; she swept the pair of them into the same tackling hug. "That's right!" Haruhi cheered. "And you've figured out what I was missing, Mikuru-chan! Since we're not always going to be able to be with Kyon, we still have each other in the meantime!"

"Ah!" Kanae squeaked.

"Um!" Mikuru whimpered.

Haruhi struggled to restrain herself. "Making such cute noises ... if he ever tries to start something, those sounds will make Kyon unable to stop!" she chastised them, barely finding the strength to let go. If Kanae had released another one of those breathy 'sempai' whimpers...

"S...Suzumiya-san!" Mikuru cried. "Spare Kanae-chan! T...take me instead!"

Quite abruptly, before she could react, Haruhi felt a far-too familiar tug on the collar of her shirt, someone hefting her up and pulling her away from the older girl. "Eh?" Her heart stopped, and she thought she felt her entire body's concentration of blood flowing to her face as she twisted around to see who it was. "Y...you," she stammered, frozen in terror. "H...how long...?"

Yuki calmly repeated, "'If he ever tries to start something, those sounds will make Kyon unable to stop,'" in a calm monotone, though there was a glint of something... Was she _amused_?

"Somehow," Kyon said, shifting his gaze away, "I wasn't really sure that I should interfere..."

"L...let me go!" she shrilled, flailing wildly for a moment before twisting herself around, shoving herself free of Kyon's grasp.

"Oh!" Kanae exclaimed suddenly, eyes widening. "We have to take care of that ... thing in the kitchen, right Asahina-san?"

"R...right," Mikuru agreed, giving an oddly mischievous smile. "Um, Yuki-chan, ah... Well, I'm sure I can ask you to help watch over things with us in the kitchen?"

"W...wait!" Haruhi demanded, waving her arms in useless protest as the other girls trooped away. So, now she had that time 'alone' she'd wanted with Kyon, but there was no _way_ the other girls weren't using Yuki's powers to watch and record.

As if to underscore that point, Mikuru paused in the entry to the kitchen, looking back with a bright smile. "Unless you'd prefer one of us to stay out here with you? Maybe Kanae-chan should have a reprieve from washing dishes?" she asked, so innocently. She wasn't innocent at all! What revenge play was this!? Where had Mikuru learned such behavior?

Underscoring that thought, Kanae peeked out from the kitchen, both hands on the edge of the door frame, her eyes wide. "U...um, did you want me to stay ... Suzumiya-sempai?" she asked.

Kanae was in on it! This wasn't _fair_!

Both girls retreated into the kitchen a heartbeat later, not _quite_ giggling, but Haruhi could sense it anyway. Ooh... This was _mutiny_!

"So," Kyon began, crossing his arms over his chest and eyeing her. "What's this about?"

She suddenly felt very self-conscious in her pajamas. He'd seen her in them before, during the island adventure a year ago. Annoying as it was, she hadn't grown that much. His pajamas amounted to a thin light blue sweat suit, the unimaginative jerk. She repressed that frantically; no _way_ she was going to let herself behave like a stereotypical tsundere on _camera_! "I ... wanted to spend a minute alone with you," she forced herself to admit, her face still red.

"Er, okay," he allowed, nodding. "About the fight on the beach?"

"No, d...dummy," she managed, biting her tongue and trying what she hoped was a teasing smile. "I wanted ... y...you know..." She shrugged awkwardly, steeling herself. If she was going to be recorded, she might as well make sure the experience was worthy of it. What was the sense in just fumbling about? She reached up and put her hands around the back of his head, pulling him down to her with minimal resistance. After a moment of hesitation, before their lips touched, he seemed to try and take charge, closing the rest of the distance himself.

She gave as good as she got, she thought, some time later, when she finally surrendered and broke for air. She felt woozy and light-headed, burying her face in Kyon's shoulder to muffle her panting. Okay ... no sense getting out of hand. She _was_ being recorded, after all. Which reminded her of something...

As she was smoothing her hair back into place and retying her short ponytail, she gave Kyon a triumphant smirk, and he gave her a guilty smile back. Not as guilty as he'd been last time, which was a sign that either she had really improved her technique, or Tsuruya had done her part to try and reassure him.

Hopefully it was both.

A single second later, Mikuru walked in, humming, followed by Kanae and Yuki. "So," Haruhi said, clearing her throat, not quite meeting anyone's eyes. "What's the training plan for tonight?"

"A...actually," Kanae said hesitantly, "instead of practicing sliding, I'd like to try and learn something, um, more useful for staying around here... I... I mean, I can always learn the other parts later, right? I...if that's all right, Sempai?" For whatever reason, she still seemed to look to Kyon for encouragement.

He nodded quickly, looking slightly confused. "That's fine by me," he allowed. "I'm not sure what it is you want to learn, but I'm behind your choice to stay with us, at least for the time being. We are your friends, after all."

Haruhi couldn't help but approve of the fact that Kyon turned Kanae's request to him into acceptance from the group. "So, you're leveling up your energy sword skill, right?" she asked him quirking an eyebrow higher.

"That's the plan," he agreed.

"I'm happy with my training," Mikuru said, smiling softly. "I haven't needed it, really, but I'm glad for that, all the same."

"What, are you learning how to be a paramedic?" Haruhi teased, smirking.

Mikuru beamed her an even brighter smile and nodded enthusiastically. Haruhi was surprised; this from the girl who had fainted at Kyon being injured?

But then ... that seemed like a good way of dealing with that, ultimately. "Good for you!" Haruhi approved, nodding acknowledgement to the time traveler. "And then ... where's Tsu-chan?"

Yuki shifted her attention, and an empty space in the apartment was abruptly filled with Tsuruya, sitting on the floor with her arms stretched over her head as she yawned hugely. She blinked, looking around herself, then down at the soft robes she usually slept in. After scanning everyone else in the room, smiling despite her confusion, the heiress cocked her head slightly to one side, guessing, "I get that trainings you promised tonight, Yuki-chan?"

Yuki nodded in response. Before she could speak, Haruhi repeated her question.

Tsuruya pondered for a long moment, then decided, "Well, it may be a bit of a waste, but I'd like to be even a tiny bit as good at self-defense as Kyon-kun. But, you know, Haru-nyan, I don't mind passing on tonight if you want someone to keep you company. Yuki-chan mentioned you couldn't go, and you'd be all on your own, right?"

Yuki nodded again, and Kyon crossed his arms over his chest, looking between Haruhi and Tsuruya thoughtfully. While Haruhi wouldn't have minded having someone with her, she shook her head. "No, you go and try it out," she insisted. "I just want a report or something, since I don't know what it's like. I'm jealous, you know, but since I can't..." She shrugged, smirking, then patted her bag. "Plus, I've got a _lot_ of Trope-tan manga to catch up on."

"Understood," Yuki said, nodding, before everyone vanished.

Alone in Yuki's empty apartment, Haruhi couldn't help but shiver a little. At least Yuki had a television and DVD player now, but unless Haruhi missed her guess, Yuki had either only recently bought them, or just used her own limited powers to turn something else _into_ those devices. "More than a relative year of time," she mumbled, grimacing. "I wonder how long it'll be for me?"

Shrugging, she eyed the somewhat untidy piles of bags and discarded clothing from the other girls, finally crawling beneath the kotatsu with a comfortable pillow and a stack of manga. She'd have liked the opportunity to practice ... but she didn't have that much to complain about, really. After all, even if it _was_ recorded, she'd gotten yet another make-out session with Kyon.

* * *

Koizumi really tried to keep himself from grinning constantly, but it was difficult to deny his satisfaction at the most recent turn of events. Kyon hadn't been injured, really, thanks to Yuki, and Haruhi was in a good mood since Koizumi had been able to fight the enemy slider robot. Mori absorbed his report with a skeptical stare, until he produced a small bit of red energy in one hand, wavering like flame.

He banished it quickly, realizing it was unseemly to show off, but understanding Kyon's incredibly flashy entrance when he'd first intervened on Koizumi's behalf. Really, when the esper stopped to think about it, all he'd really done was return the favor with Haruhi's help. After an evening of explaining what had happened to him to Arakawa and Mori, the pair had congratulated him and suggested he rest adequately.

Arakawa had looked genuinely pleased ... but Mori seemed to be hiding some sign of worry.

He was too excited to have rested well, which meant that when the appointed meeting time the following day came around, he was far more tired than he wished. Tsuruya had offered her home as a meeting place, so everyone was to assemble there. Koizumi offered to give Kyon a ride, deciding to ask Haruhi instead of Kyon.

Haruhi answered her cell phone and decided that was fine, and then Koizumi called Kyon and explained what the brigade chief's orders were.

For his part, Kyon met Koizumi at the door with a dour expression, his sister dashing from the living room and sliding across the bare floor on her socks for a moment before grabbing the edge of the doorway and watching the pair expectantly. "Is this a secret meeting about the enemy forces?" she asked in a loud whisper.

"Exactly right!" Koizumi agreed, nodding.

Kyon nodded tiredly. "But this time," he said, patting his sister on the head, "it's not Haruhi's fault."

"Can I go?" she pleaded, clasping her hands together and giving Kyon her best puppy-dog eyes.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "You got to go to the beach trip, and I'm taking you out to dinner tomorrow; this is a secret meeting."

"Alright," she grumbled, sulking as she slowly plodded away, shooting a sniffle over her shoulder at him.

Kyon sighed and closed the door behind him, hiding her from view. "I'm guessing this is your way of arranging a moment for us to chat?" he asked.

"Precisely so," Koizumi agreed, walking to the car and opening a door for Kyon. Kyon looked irritated, then walked around to the other side, taking the opposite seat. Shrugging, Koizumi climbed in, sitting behind Arakawa.

The car rolled into motion, and Koizumi began without further preamble, expecting that Kyon didn't feel a need for pretenses, either. "Yesterday, Suzumiya Haruhi appears to have sidestepped your safeguards to use her ability to alter reality," he said, feeling very calm despite the remark.

"She unlocked your esper powers, or something?" Kyon hazarded.

"That is how it seems to us," Koizumi agreed. "Significantly, no other espers appear to have been granted the ability to use their powers outside of closed space."

"That puts you in a nicely unique position," Kyon observed, glancing at him sidelong.

"It's not problematic," Koizumi assured him. "I'm still assigned as a liaison, not a full member, so it has no real bearing; I just thought it was worth mentioning because it does serve as evidence to support our theory of Suzumiya Haruhi's abilities being utilized, even if it was on a seemingly subconscious level."

"It's not what I'd have hoped for, but I'm willing to overlook yesterday's esper ex machina," Kyon disagreed, crossing his arms over his chest. "The whole goal of Haruhi having limitations is that she learns to use her powers responsibly. I'll admit, if you asked me from a year ago, when our club was just forming, I'd have said that I could never imagine her behaving in a reasonable manner.

"But as things go, now, she-" He cut off suddenly, frowning, and shook his head sharply. "Alright," he amended. "As far as that goes, I'm aware of it, but I feel it's under control. I'll double-check with Nagato later; I'm sure she'll be able to tell us more definitively than us just guessing."

"As to control," Koizumi said, nodding, "would I be correct in saying that at around ten o'clock last night you were with Suzumiya-san...?"

Kyon colored, shooting the esper a sharp scowl. "That part hasn't changed?" he asked stiffly.

"No," Koizumi confirmed. "For any of the other espers, either. For what it's worth, we have determined that I do have the highest ... awareness, but all the same..." He gave Kyon a smile and shrugged.

"You should ask Haruhi about it yourself," he decided, shaking his head. "I'm sure if you ask, she'll change that."

Koizumi thought about that. "I suppose that would be more earnest," he allowed. "More to the point, while I trust your judgment, I'd like to note that it's possible that if Suzumiya can overstep her intended limitations in time of need, she may do this on accident at times, as well. The same influences that were a risk previously could easily become a reality if we are not cautious."

"As if we didn't have enough trouble, considering the whole slider invasion," Kyon sighed. "Mori-san, what's your take on this?"

"To be honest, Sir," she said in a respectful tone, ducking her head and twisting around in her seat to look back at him, "I'm out of my depth on the sliders. We have poor contacts at best with the IDSE, and while we've identified a handful of time travelers, they're very close-mouthed - as Koizumi assures me you know quite well. With regards to Suzumiya-san, as we've mentioned before, you are the expert."

"That's true," he agreed, forcing a smile.

"We have no slider contacts to question or try and establish communication with," she continued, shrugging. "So we know almost nothing of their goals, or how to deal with them."

"We can save that for the meeting, then," Kyon decided, glancing out the windows as they rolled up to the Tsuruya estate's gate. A minute later, they were all in a spacious room with a low, classically designed table. Koizumi tried to sit next to Kyon, but found himself between Yuki and Tsuruya; it seemed wherever Kyon chose to sit, everyone else wanted to sit, too.

Haruhi sat to one side of Kyon, and Kanae on the other, with Mikuru just past the slider. Or maybe, Koizumi realized, it was intentional that Kanae was between Kyon and Mikuru. He supposed he'd be reassured with that, too. Mori was there as well, exchanging guarded glances with Tsuruya's chief maid, until Shinobu quietly excused herself to prepare a tray of drinks for everyone.

"Okay!" Haruhi called, smacking one palm on the table to bring the meeting to order. "As we all should know, yesterday we ran into Kanae-chan's enemies. Koizumi-kun and Kyon were able to stop the attack. Kyon, you were there from the beginning, so what did you learn?"

"I believe there's some connection between the sliders and Kuyou Suou," he said, frowning. "The other slider - I don't know his name, but he was pretty rude - complained that Kuyou Suou was unintegrated. In fact, she reprogrammed the slider's guns. Fujiwara, the other time traveler, got one of them - but it's the one that I will eventually recover here." He set a pair of cylinders on the table before him.

Koizumi noted the way that Kanae shrunk back from the devices, and Kyon gave her a thoughtful glance before continuing, "That probably means that whatever Kuyou-san is, in other universes they're working with the sliders. Likewise, that's why she was able to hack the slider's weapons in the first place." He gestured to the larger cylinder, adding, "I don't know if it makes a difference, but if this has any kind of history you can try and read, Nagato..." He shrugged.

Yuki stared at the object fixedly for a long, tense minute, but then shook her head abruptly, determining, "No significant data remains prior to reset."

"Hmm, that sounds like a loose end, though," Haruhi noted with a frown. "Isn't the step where you actually get the Fujiwara to drop your other gun and then leave it for you to find later... Well, don't you have to do that?" Mikuru pursed her lips thoughtfully and gave Kyon a questioning glance.

"I'm putting that off for now," he said with another shrug. "I need to keep a time loop open to occupy the IDSE anyway."

"Hmm," Haruhi mused, before shrugging. "Well, okay... I'll trust that you know what you're doing. Koizumi?"

"My powers finally came in handy yesterday," he contributed with a slight incline of his head. "I was able to assist Kyon-kun, but the issue remains that myself and the other espers are still ah..." He trailed off and gave Haruhi an apologetic smile. "We still share awareness of your current state," he said, hoping that was put discreetly enough.

Haruhi's look was first quizzical, but slowly the color drained from her face, and he felt uncomfortably aware of just how embarrassed she suddenly felt. "Um," she managed. "Um, yeah, well... I'd really like to make it so that you would stop being stuck reading me! As brigade chief, I think I deserve mental privacy!"

"Program loaded," Yuki murmured.

"Permission granted," Kyon answered without hesitation, shaking his head. Koizumi felt the mental shift of his connection to Haruhi being severed, snapping back almost painfully. If he weren't seated at the table, he likely would have fallen over by the reeling dizziness that overcame him. After all of those years of being at least dimly aware of Haruhi's emotional state, it was strangely ... _quiet_, suddenly.

"Thank you," he managed, nodding at Haruhi.

She waved a hand at him, not meeting his eyes. "Just ... use those esper powers responsibly," she said, shaking her head. "Anything else to bring up?"

"W...we do need to know when they'll come back next, right?" Kanae asked nervously. "I mean ... that Kuyou girl, she might know. I ... only really know her as one of the other sliders that comes after me, but here, she seems to be friendly to Sempai..."

"Maybe I do something to get on her good side via time travel," Kyon suggested, giving Kanae a small smile. "But I honestly don't know... I mean, I'm grateful, but I still don't know if we should trust her. And if the sliders have some way to take her over, or control her, which the guy we ran into seemed to suggest... Even if she wants to help us, she might be turned against us."

"Probably too dangerous to just ask for helps, then," Tsuruya mused. "But, it really _would_ be nice to know when they'd show up next."

"Cross-dimensional rifts are energy inefficient," Yuki said quietly. "The resource cost of yesterday's attack is significant."

"However, we don't know their energy reserves to calculate how long it would take them to attack again," Koizumi noted.

An uncomfortable minute passed before Yuki replied, "The next encounter will most likely provide sufficient data to determine more."

"Well, we can guess that they'll take an interval of time that is less than the amount of time Kanae-chan was here, first," Haruhi reasoned. "We don't have a lower bound, but for now we've got less than a month, possibly as little as zero time at all."

Yuki nodded.

"Well, as encouraging as this is ... what should we do in the meantime?" Kyon asked.

"Aren't there defenses or plans we can prepare?" Mikuru asked worriedly. "Surely ... there must be something we can do, even if we don't know how much time we have?"

"Creating the dimensional rift causes a noise, similar to that of a Asahina Mikuru's method of time travel," Yuki said slowly. "Carrier-waves can be detected before the rift is opened; a program can be created which will monitor for these carrier waves and send notice when they are encountered."

"Ah, good!" Tsuruya cheered. "That sounds perfects!"

"I agree," Haruhi chimed in. "So, let's go with that defensive program!"

"Understood," Yuki replied.

"Now, if there's no more serious business, we should start planning our next event; the club's one-year anniversary is coming up!" Haruhi announced.

"W...what?" Kanae stuttered, wide-eyed. "B...but, I thought we had to plan...?"

"We do," Haruhi agreed. "But we're only fighting to make sure we can do what we want! Just because we have a strict organization at times doesn't mean we don't have fun! While it really bothers me that we can't do a whole lot about our enemies, we did prove we can handle them, and they're not here right now. We'll learn more about them the next time they show up, and some day we'll deal with them once and for all!"

Kanae's eyes were wide as she stared at Haruhi during her speech, allowing a tiny gasp of awe to escape as the brigade chief finished her statement by leaping to her feet, nearly upsetting the table as she did so.

"I'm happier when we don't have to worry about the serious stuff, too!" Mikuru chimed in, giggling softly as she and Tsuruya gave Haruhi's speech polite applause.

Koizumi thought that some things had gone unsaid, but suspected that the girls had discussed their observations with one another, choosing to leave himself and Kyon in the dark. Well, he thought, shrugging internally as Haruhi retook her seat, maybe that was for the best.

"If it's not too much trouble," Mori said, shaking her head slightly, "there is a slightly more mundane issue that I would like to bring up."

This surprised Koizumi ... what was it that she hadn't told him, first? Or brought up when it was just the two male members of the brigade in the car with Mori? Kyon glanced at her thoughtfully, but it was Haruhi who answered. "That should be fine," she allowed. "Hmm, this is about the investigation because of Kyon getting attacked by those Sumiyoshi-rengo characters, right?"

Mori nodded her head in confirmation, biting her lower lip as Shinobu swept into the room silently with a tray, wordlessly parceling out cups and pouring tea. "It's fine," Tsuruya said, shaking her head slightly. "Shinobu can be trusted."

"And would likely figure it out anyway, even if we didn't say anything," Kyon mumbled, earning him a sharp glance from Haruhi and a nod of agreement from Tsuruya.

"Alright, then," Mori agreed reluctantly. "Ah... As you may know by now, the Sumiyoshi-rengo members that we met with recently to apologize to Kyon have all been arrested. Through what seems like a coincidence, the Tamaru brothers ended up being given credit for the arrests and most of the investigation."

"If the Tamaru brothers works for us, and the Sumiyoshi-rengo knows that, this looks bad for us," Tsuruya warned.

"Do they know that?" Haruhi asked, crossing her arms over her chest after gulping down her tea. "Is there anything that the Sumiyoshi-rengo have to make them think that we're responsible?"

"We don't have intelligence on them," Mori said with a grimace and shake of her head. "It's possible."

"Words among the Yamaguchi-gumi is that the Sumiyoshi-rengo outside of this city are pretty upset with us," Tsuruya acknowledged. "The Fujiya-tachi and our own organizations are on good terms, or at least were. But the other Sumiyoshi-rengo may choose to act anyway. Even if there's no proofs, the timings makes us look suspicious."

"But this is all guesswork," Haruhi grumbled. "What's the upshot, here ... does this mean that Kyon's going to be attacked, again?"

"I believe there is less to fear on that count." Koizumi tried to look more confident than he felt. "There's little to point to Kyon-kun specifically, after all. Unless the Fujiya-tachi are released, or otherwise have a chance to get in touch with the other Sumiyoshi-rengo, but even then, I'm given to understand that they wouldn't be likely to implicate him, anyway."

"I...is it possible to try and calculate their odds of attacking, maybe?" Mikuru asked, shifting her shoulders. "Um, I know it's not quite enemy sliders, but they are enemies ... surely it's possible to analyze the pattern of their classified information and..." She trailed off, shaking her head, then sighed, "I suppose that classified information hasn't been discovered yet. I wish I could be more helpful, here..."

That raised all sorts of questions, to Koizumi, but he wasn't sure how to follow such a comment. Haruhi stared at Mikuru, looking thoughtful. Kanae looked between the other girls apprehensively. "You can't think like that," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "You're still one of us, and you're still an asset to the team."

"Well," Tsuruya finally said slowly, "it's helpful sometimes if you knows your enemy, to try and put yourself in their shoes and understands what they would do next."

"I can't do that at all," Mikuru said bleakly, shaking her head.

"However, that sounds rather like a game of chess, or poker," Koizumi posed. Smiling, he teased Kyon, "So, as you've always beaten me at those games, what do you think, Kyon?"

"I think you're playing against the wrong person," Kyon judged at length. "In terms of chess, the capture of the entire Fujiya-tachi is a pawn sacrifice. It drew out the Tamaru brothers, and left them exposed to the rest of the Sumiyoshi-rengo. But then, Mori-san already suspects this, or she wouldn't have mentioned that they got credit through seeming coincidence."

"Exactly so, Sir," she agreed, nodding at him. "While retaliation from the Sumiyoshi-rengo is a possible factor, I'm more concerned with the fact that someone in or above the police force has sent orders down that give the Tamaru brothers complete credit, and almost complete responsibility. They can't reasonably refuse those orders, so, as you determined, they captured the pawns and are left in the field ... most likely to try and draw _us_ out. In the meantime, because I suspect that they're being watched, it's also become much more difficult to communicate with them."

The woman shrugged with a glum smile. "Perhaps it's nothing, but it seems to me it's better to be safe than sorry," she explained. "I cannot prove anything at this point, but my suspicion is that an agent from the NPA - that is, the National Police Organization - thinks they're suspicious, and is waiting for them to lead the NPA to us."

"Awesome," Kyon sighed, drawing one hand down his face. "Rival gang members, the NPA, enemy sliders, the IDSE... Did I forget any enemies?"

"Sasaki-san's strange friends?" Haruhi chided him, elbowing him gently in the ribs. "Come on ... it's not _that_ bad. As many sources of trouble as we have, we're sitting around a table chatting about it, not going straight into boss-rush mode."

"Fair enough," Kyon acquiesced. "When you look at it that way ... I suppose all that's different is that I have a better idea of where the trouble is going to come from." He shook his head abruptly, straightening up in his seat. "And it's not like I regret getting caught up in this for my friends."

"Personally, I'd be happier if we could just crush them all and get it over with," Haruhi sighed. Koizumi exchanged a worried glance with Kyon. "But I can tell from the way you and Koizumi are looking at each-other you'll never agree to that. Well! If we can't do anything about it now, let's just be careful for the time being."

"Yes," Mori agreed, nodding. "I didn't expect immediate action, I merely thought it would be best to inform you. Sorry for taking so much of your time."

"Don't worry about it!" Tsuruya said, chuckling. "In the meantimes, we should check with Kasai. His father knows an NPA agents, so he might have some insight and advices. My father should be told about the Sumiyoshi-rengo; I mentioned it to him earlier, but a reminder will keep the Tsuruya-tachi ready in case they try anything."

"Then I guess we can go back to planning our next group activity?" Haruhi asked, looking across the table.

"Um ... I've been putting off my homework," Kanae admitted, looking guilty. "I ... should really do that..."

Haruhi looked at Kanae in surprise. "I'm sure Kyon didn't either," she allowed after a moment, sighing. "I guess we can have an emergency study session..."

"I did my homework on Friday night," he countered, shaking his head.

Haruhi's eyebrows rose. "Okay," she allowed. "But you've done enough lately, so ... hmm, Kyon, why don't you help Kanae-chan with her homework? I'm the brigade chief, so I can handle things from here."

Kyon looked doubtful, and on the verge of protesting, until he glanced at the young slider. "I can do that," he agreed.

Yuki's slow gaze went to Kanae, who was trying to hide her happy grin, and Kyon, who was giving Yuki an apologetic smile. "My apartment provides a quiet environment for study," she volunteered after a moment.

Koizumi bit his tongue... Well, he wasn't _directly_ aware of Haruhi's emotions, but she didn't _look_ jealous... To say nothing of her inexplicable behavior regarding Kanae kissing Kyon while delirious. Evidently Haruhi thought of it as a take for a movie, or something along those lines. It was the only rational explanation he could think of, at any rate, but now she was sending Kyon off alone with Yuki and a girl who had kissed him only a day ago?

"That sounds alright to me," Kyon said cautiously. "I do feel a bit bad about leaving the meeting, but I guess I do like the idea of helping out my subordinate, just like you helped me out before."

"Er," Haruhi managed, her face flushing red at the unexpected praise. "W...well, yeah! S...so do a good job! If you don't help Kanae-chan's grades improve-"

"Right, right," Kyon cut her off, nodding. "Death penalty. I get it. Nagato? Kanae-chan? Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, Sempai!" Kanae chirped happily, nodding.

Yuki's more subtle nod followed. Kyon chuckled ruefully and shook his head, commenting, "Well, I guess we should be off, then, so-"

Anything else he said was lost, vanished with him and the two girls as they disappeared into nothing. Koizumi stared very hard at the space they had occupied, while Haruhi shook her head. "A...anyway," she continued, shaking her head, "back to planning."

"Right," Koizumi agreed. Well, if Kyon wasn't concerned, and neither was Haruhi ... he supposed he shouldn't be either.


	34. Chapter 33

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Thwarted Lull Arc V

Chapter Thirty Three: Quiet, Uneventful Evenings

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Ten: Loyalty"_

_"The thing is to remember that loyalty is earned, not just given. And if you want to be given loyalty, you tend to need to earn it. If you've already done that, just make sure you ____deserve__ that loyalty!"_

_"Methods of Victory" - 'T.H.'_

* * *

After transitioning herself, Michikyuu Kanae, and her primary protection target to her apartment, Yuki sat down at her table. She had prepared tea before leaving earlier that day, slowing relative time down for the small area around the kettle. The seal released as soon as she reached a hand towards it, pouring a cup for each of her guests, and then a third for herself. Kanae sat opposite her, and Kyon sat on the side between them, facing the new entertainment center she had been given by Tsuruya.

She wasn't sure what to think of the kiosk's presence in the main room. Most of the small changes that had occurred in her home were negligible, easily attributable to the passage of time. Even the new clothing could be missed, tucked into her closet as it was.

Now there was a new piece of furniture intruding on her previous order. Then again, it did allow for group media review, which was valued time; she could compare her own emotive values to those of the people around her, and understand the small, easily missed changes in her _self_ more easily.

The slider set out her homework and sighed deeply, scooting a distance of a centimeter and a half closer to the boy at the table. "My math is kind of weak," she said apologetically, giving him a hopeful look. "Can you help, Sempai?"

While he turned to look, she decided that she could at least match the other girl, and approached the same distance. Kanae's eyes targeted her, and Yuki looked back, catching an intent, worried look. What was the slider concerned about?

Yuki pondered this while the slider edged forward another three quarters of a centimeter. There was the possibility of Kanae being afraid of her, but that didn't seem to be the case. Kanae's next glance was more worried, and she started to shift away from him when Yuki realized that the other girl was looking to her for approval.

She inclined her head a short distance, then tilting it towards him, as he leaned closer to her and explained a math problem to the slider. The slider grasped it a moment later and brightened instantly, turning to him and saying, "Um, Sempai, let me scoot around the table so I can see better..."

Before he could protest, she had scrambled around to sit next to him, turning her papers towards her on the table and spreading half of them in front of him. "Um," he said hesitantly, turning to look at Yuki as she moved to sit at Kyon's other side, the table making the distance between them very tight.

"I am helping," she explained, an inexplicable priority causing her eyes to orient away from his. An involuntary reaction? She contemplated rerunning a behavioral analysis on her current actions, but dismissed the idea immediately; Kanae had moved just as close already, so obviously it was okay.

On that basis, and since it was something she had done with him previously, she leaned against him, one arm going around the small of his back. Kanae looked across the boy between them with an envious smile, turning to look at her homework. "W...what's this all about?" Kyon asked hesitantly. "Not that I mean to complain, exactly, but just so I don't get myself in any trouble."

"Do not worry," Yuki responded, registering that he was demonstrating a high probability of being distressed ... though how much, she was unable to determine. "I will double-check your answers."

He chuckled at that, while Kanae began studiously reading the first paragraph of an imposing looking history book with a bleak expression. The slider shook her head abruptly, smiling brightly at him and saying, "But I trust you anyway, Sempai."

"I think that kind of answers that," he allowed, as she turned back to her book. "So, this is something I'm probably better off thinking about. Anyway, I actually needed to ask some serious questions, Nagato."

"Understood," she replied, uncertain if his agitation had settled, or if she could reassure him. There was a significant probability that answering his questions would help him. She wondered if Kanae were aware, or if she just considered it to be below a threshold of concern. Or maybe her homework was just a higher priority?

"So ... somehow ... did Haruhi do something with her powers yesterday to let Koizumi use his powers?" he asked.

Yuki checked all of her records. She hadn't been on the beach when the fight had happened; some effect of the portal that the other slider had used had evidently also shielded the area from her awareness. Still, she did have a link to Suzumiya Haruhi, and nothing had registered there. "Possibly," she acknowledged. Considering further, she added, "I observe no state change in the powers possessed by Koizumi Itsuki from before that time and the present, outside of severing his limited memetic link with Suzumiya Haruhi."

He frowned, considering this, while Kanae scribbled a note to herself and turned the page. "So, Koizumi's powers haven't changed?"

She nodded, adding, "Correct," in case it was difficult for him to see her, given their proximity.

"Have they changed from, say, before we all told Haruhi about who we really were?" he asked.

She considered, checking her references. Koizumi's power was not something she habitually checked on. She compared a known good record to her last update. "Yes," she confirmed.

"So ... Koizumi has been able to use his powers in the real world for a while, and just never tried?" he asked.

"There is a significant probability that this is so," she agreed. This did leave the question of how his powers had changed, though. She resolved to investigate that later.

"And now, math," Kanae said, shaking her head and shutting her history book. She stretched a bit, briefly hugging herself against the boy that was between the two of them. "You're good at math, right, Sempai?"

"Thanks to Haruhi, I'm alright," he allowed. "And I'm sure Nagato will tell me if we're both wrong."

"Okay!" the slider agreed brightly. "Um! Can we watch Trope-tan when we're done?"

"Sure," he agreed, nodding. "If that's okay with Nagato. I should probably be more familiar with it before the movie this Friday anyway, right?"

Kanae hummed happily, finishing her first set of problems and sliding the paper over to him for evaluation. "That series is ... enjoyable," Yuki murmured.

He started slightly, twisting slightly around to look at her, then grinned, squeezing her in a gentle hug as he relaxed. "I'm glad to hear that you think that," he remarked. She was pleased to observe almost no discernible stress cues from him; correspondingly, her own agitation was settled.

* * *

Lunch was a welcome reprieve from the tedium of class. Unlike Kyon, Haruhi actually applied herself and focused on her lessons ... though, that didn't particularly make them more enjoyable. Still, he had behaved reasonably, jotting down notes and not actually dozing off, no matter how tired he looked.

As she had been doing for a while, now, she prodded Kyon's back with one end of a bento before he could turn around after the lunch bell. He obligingly turned his chair to the side so he could turn to face her, nodding gravely and accepting the offered lunch.

"It's not up to Mikuru's standards," she said with a shrug, "but I think it's pretty good for a mere mortal chef like myself."

He looked amused for some reason at that, saying, "It's still better than anything I could get from home."

Haruhi felt a small flush of pride at that, and decided to say nothing, just enjoying the quiet time they had alone.

At least, that was her plan. Kyon's friends Taniguchi and Kunikida pulled a nearby desk over and made themselves comfortable, joining the pair without asking. She pondered giving them a death-glare to try and scare them away, but ultimately fought back the urge.

Kunikida started, noting, "You seem to be asking me for help with assignments less and less these days, Kyon! Have you found a new study partner?"

"That, and some motivation," Kyon agreed between bites of his lunch. After pausing to chew a morsel, he added, "It's not like I've improved so much that Taniguchi is begging for help from me, instead of you, though."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... I get enough of that from my dad," Tanuguchi grumbled around a mouthful. "And now from Yanagimoto-hime, too. So, what was your secret, Kyon?"

"Lately I've been studying with Haruhi," he said, indicating her as though to remind the boys that they were excluding her. "And for review, I've also been tutoring Kanae-chan."

"Well, like Kyon said, in his case it was more an issue of motivation," Haruhi offered, shrugging quietly. Kunikida offered a thoughtful nod, while Taniguchi merely looked annoyed. "In your case, Taniguchi, you should look for a tutor."

The boy looked about to protest, before Kunikida interjected, "You know, Taniguchi, couldn't you just study with Yanagimoto-san? You're spending all your free time with her anyway..."

"I guess," Taniguchi sighed, stabbing fiercely at a piece of broccoli, then staring at the speared vegetable moodily. "I mean... I want to spend time with her, you know, _with_ her, not _studying_."

"It could be an issue of motivation here, too," Kunikida sighed, shaking his head.

"Mm. I'd been meaning to ask about your study session with Kanae-chan, actually," Haruhi noted, turning her attention to Kyon. "Did that go well?"

"Er, yeah," he managed looking nervous and slightly embarrassed. "Um... Nagato suggested that we could all watch some anime once Kanae-chan finished her homework, so she was really enthusiastic about it."

"Anime is not enough incentive for me," Taniguchi remarked, setting down his chopsticks. "And Yanagimoto-chan only wants to watch slice-of-life stuff... Like Sketchbook Full Colors, which I can't get into, or Lucky Star, where the one kind of otaku girl's voice really creeps me out for some reason." He shrugged. "So, that's out."

"With a quitter's attitude like that, give up on study, enjoy every moment you have with her like it could be the last - because it very well could be!" Haruhi snapped, irritated with him. He flinched back, shooting her a scowl. "You're so pathetic! Do you _really_ think that Yanagimoto is going to stay with you if you don't mind your grades? What more incentive do you _need_?"

"Ah, um, you know," Kunikida interjected, trying to defuse the situation. "It's not completely pathetic!"

"Just mostly," Kyon chimed in. "But Haruhi's right, Taniguchi. If you're failing because you're not putting enough effort into it, whining about it without trying to change... Come on, you need to man up!"

Kunikida leaned back and looked between Kyon and Taniguchi worriedly.

For his part the taller boy shook his head abruptly, as though banishing some thought or another, and sighed deeply. "You're right," he acknowledged. "Whining never got anything done; besides, girls like guys who are gar, right? So, yeah, I _do_ have to man up!" With that, he leaped to his feet, sending his borrowed chair scooting backwards and drawing attention from the half of the class still in the room.

Among them were Yanagimoto herself, halfway across the classroom chatting with some other girls. She broke off at the chair's screech, staring at the boy in alarm as he stormed towards her, then dropped to one knee at her side and proclaimed in a voice that had to reach the neighboring classrooms, "Yanagimoto-hime! I will study harder to be the man you deserve! All I ask is that you study with me!"

"Ugh," Haruhi groaned quietly, hiding her smile. "That guy..."

"This is your fault," Kunikida chided with a shake of his head as Taniguchi began to spew a flowery speech about his renewed search for a proper education to his stunned target.

"Hey, why should our club be the only people who get to have fun doing things a little larger than life?" Haruhi asked, letting the shorter boy see her grin. "The goal is to save the _world_ by overloading it with fun, so this suits me just fine!"

"Perhaps so," Kunikida allowed, shaking his head with a weak, rueful smile. "Well-" He cut off suddenly, blinking in alarm and looking to Haruhi's side. "Ah, Sakanaka-san," he said, bowing his head slightly.

Haruhi kept her smile, toning it down a bit as she turned to look at the girl who was timidly approaching. "Hey," Sakanaka said with an apologetic smile, ducking her head slightly. "Um... Suzumiya-san, do you have a few minutes free...?"

"Absolutely!" Haruhi agreed, her smile fading. "Is this urgent? Oh! Is J.J. alright?!" She had liked the little dog... She kept meaning to visit Sakanaka to play with him, and then forgetting.

"He's fine, still," Sakanaka assured her, giggling quietly. "Um... Maybe a bit lonely? You should come over and visit him some time! Ah, but I'd asked to speak with you about ... well..." She giggled bashfully, offering another apologetic smile.

It must be something she didn't want to discuss in front of the others, so Haruhi shrugged, pushing her last few bites towards Kyon. "Yeah, okay, I have the club room free, and that area's private," she assured her friend, rising to her feet. Sakanaka beamed her a brighter smile and fell into step at her side.

She did worry about what was going on... Though Kyon had remained outwardly calm, she was sure he was anxious about the possibility of it being something he would have to deal with. Still, if she was careful and handled things well ... there was no reason she couldn't take care of it without bothering him. "Maybe tonight?" she suggested to Sakanaka. "Um, if you're free, that is; it would be nice to see J.J. again, and visit with you, too." And Kyon was taking his family out to dinner, so she could keep herself occupied.

"Um, that would be fine," Sakanaka agreed, stepping into the club room after Haruhi opened the door. Once they were inside and seated, Sakanaka nervously began, "I didn't want to give you a bad impression of what I wanted to talk about. It's not nearly as serious as last time, and ... um, well. I don't know Yanagimoto very well, but you seem to be getting along better with her, so that's seems good, too."

"Oh ... she was only ever mislead by Yamane Jun," Haruhi said in explanation, shrugging. "So what's the problem, then?"

"It's no problem, really, and maybe it's not any of my business at all, but um... I suppose because my own life is relatively dull, and maybe just a little bit because we're friends and I want you to be happy..." She took a deep breath, while Haruhi pondered what could be bothering the other girl. "What I'm trying to say is that if you're trying to pursue Kyon, it's not much but you have my complete support," Sakanaka said in a quick stream of words, not even pausing for breath as her face reddened. "Because I think that Kyon likes you," she added, speaking even more quickly as her nervousness increased. "Unless-I'm-wrong-and-this-is-none-of-my-business! " she finished hurriedly.

Haruhi stared, eyes widened in surprise. She hadn't really gone out of her way to hide the fact that she and Kyon were... What were they, exactly? "I think Kyon likes me, too," Haruhi agreed. "Um... And I like Kyon, but, it's ... complicated."

Sakanaka cringed as if she'd just discovered she were responsible for a house fire. "I'm sorry!" she began. "I shouldn't have-"

"No, no," Haruhi interrupted, shaking her head. "Your instincts were right! And lately I've been so caught up in club activities I haven't been very good about keeping up with you... Hmm, I guess to you it looked like after Kyon and Tsuruya uncovered that photography ring, I was trying to get his attention and it wasn't working very well, huh?"

The other girl's face was bright red as she nodded. "I...is it working then?" she asked cautiously. "Are you and Kyon..." She trailed off and made a vague gesture.

Haruhi thought that ironically enough, Sakanaka had defined their relationship almost perfectly with that motion. "I don't want a brief high-school romance," Haruhi said in answer. "I mean ... I like Kyon, so you got that right, but I... Well, I want to try and make something that lasts. I mean, if we were to jump straight into it, then have a falling out or a messy breakup a year or two down the road, then it'd all be over, and..." She shrugged, uncomfortable with how that thought made her feel. "A...anyway, an aunt once told me that friendship is the first step to finding more. Why skip ahead?"

Sakanaka blinked in surprise at this, then cocked her head to one side. "I would have thought that... I mean, that sounds a bit unorthodox, but it does also make a bit of sense," she allowed. "Ah ... now I feel silly for making all this fuss over nothing..."

"Nonsense," Haruhi disagreed as the bell warned that lunch was about to end. "You were trying to be a good friend, and I haven't been doing the best job of that lately." She winked at the other girl. "So, when we go to your place later tonight, you can tell me about the boy _you're_ interested in!"

The return of the other girl's blush caused Haruhi to smirk. "Y...you can tell?" Sakanaka asked with a nervous giggle.

Haruhi chuckled, shaking her head. "Come on, let's not be late to class."

* * *

"I suppose," Kunikida remarked, watching Haruhi lead Sakanaka out of the room, "that we haven't really chatted in a while?"

"Not really," Kyon agreed. "We should probably take advantage of this brief interlude, free of Taniguchi."

"You should be so lucky!" the boy in question exclaimed, clapping one hand on Kyon's shoulder forcefully. "Come on, this is an emergency!"

Grumbling to himself as he finished gobbling down the last scraps of Haruhi's lunch, Kyon reluctantly let himself be dragged off by Taniguchi and his not quite as eager companion, Yanagimoto.

Shortly enough, he came to a stop in a _very_ familiar stairwell, facing Taniguchi's best attempt at a stern expression, and Yanagimoto's doubtful gaze. "So," he asked, glancing between the two of them, "what's this about?"

"About you and Suzumiya," Taniguchi replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "What the hell, man?"

Kyon blinked, wondering where that came from. "What?" he asked.

"I know that Taniguchi doesn't have all the details, and with his perverted mind he'll never get them from me," Yanagimoto said, eyeing her boyfriend sidelong. "But never mind that. Despite his flaws, he really is trying to help. The question we have is, when you got a chance for an obvious setup with Suzumiya, why did you pass it up and run to a secluded location on the beach with a younger girl? She even mentioned you studying with that girl instead of her this weekend?"

The two of them had evidently hidden in the crowd and watched who he walked off with. "Well, that was..." He trailed off, realizing the situation. What could he really tell them? His normal approach of telling an outlandish truth wasn't likely to work, here. And mentioning the fact that he was engaged to Tsuruya wasn't likely to help, either.

"Don't be afraid of commitment!" Taniguchi chided. "Seriously, if you've lasted this long with Suzumiya, it's a _done deal_. You just need to face the music! And, anyway, weren't you just telling _me_ that more gar was the answer?"

"My god," Kyon realized, mildly shocked. "Haruhi's old crazy has infected you. She calmed down, and it leaped to the next target. Yanagimoto, I may have to go into quarantine; we've obviously mistaken my carrier status for immunity."

Yanagimoto considered this, looking between Kyon and her boyfriend sidelong. Taniguchi waved a hand dismissively, rolling his eyes. "Okay, yeah, I may be overstating it, but come _on_ man. You're only seventeen once! This will be your only junior year! Next year is going to be _all about_ prepping for college. There's going to be no time for any romance! It's spring - and the springtime of your youth! And if you're not going to commit to Haruhi, then at least pick _someone_."

"Yeah," Taniguchi's girlfriend agreed, nodding thoughtfully, recovering from her earlier surprise. "I suspect that I've got different reasons for saying that than him, though. You shouldn't lead Suzumiya-san on, if you don't care for her that way. Or those other girls, either ... especially that poor first year."

"Um," was all Kyon could manage to say in response. "It's ... technically summer."

"Look, just be honest with yourself and her!"

"For better or for worse," Taniguchi added. "In an anime, there'd be dozens of guys lined up waiting to fight you to make you pick a girl, you know."

"Don't get sidetracked," Yanagimoto snapped at him. "This is the real world, and no one's willing to mess with the school hero who dangles a certain nameless bastard out the window." She paused, huffing slightly, then crossed her arms over her chest, looking away. "Thanks, by the way."

"Um, no problem," Kyon mumbled.

Taniguchi grinned, leering sidelong, and began, "Any chance you kept some of the-"

"That's a little too obvious," she warned, shooting him a sharp look.

He swallowed, his smile fading. "I'll be good," he mumbled. Turning his attention back to Kyon, Taniguchi explained, "All joking aside, do the right thing, huh?"

"Got it," Kyon agreed, trying to pretend he had followed the bizarre exchange. "On a slight tangent, are you two considering careers in show business, or something?"

"I'm going to be a voice actor!" Taniguchi answered, nodding with conviction. "My cousin has a job lined up for me the minute I turn eighteen. It's going to be awesome!"

"You don't have to be eighteen to voice act," Yanagimoto said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously and giving her boyfriend another sharp look.

"Well," he said defensively, trying to hide a grin, "you do for this job."

Having heard more than enough, Kyon shook his head and slipped away. Next time, he decided, he was going to discuss academics with Kunikida and forcibly ignore Taniguchi.

* * *

By the time Mikuru reached the club room, Kyon and Haruhi were there, both standing outside the room, looking oddly tired, though Kyon looked worse off, to her estimation. "Is the key lost?" she asked cautiously, offering a worried smile.

"Yuki-chan won't let me watch her change," Haruhi grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. "She said something about the costume being just perfect."

Kyon shrugged wordlessly, mustering the strength for a small smile.

Mikuru realized that must have meant that Yuki was trying on _her_ costume, and thus, she was thwarted from having her chance to dress up for Kyon... She shook her head, rapping on the door. "Yuki-chan?" she called. "Do you need any help with your outfit?"

Kyon raised an eyebrow as the door opened, though Yuki herself was hidden behind it. Mikuru ducked her head at the other pair and slipped inside, Yuki closing it behind her once she was in. The smaller girl was already mostly dressed, except for the fact that the lacing in the back would naturally require help.

Giving Yuki an encouraging smile, Mikuru turned her around and began tightening the lacing. "This outfit requires some help to put on properly," Mikuru said apologetically. "Hmm... Perhaps we should save it for when you and Tsu-chan both dress up? Then you could help one-another!"

Yuki gave a small nod in answer as Mikuru finished knotting the last part of the lacing and turned Yuki around, adjusting shoulder-straps and petticoats, then producing a bonnet from the costume rack and pinning it into her hair. "There," she said in approval, smiling at the shorter girl. "Ooh, my, that's..." She hesitated, then shook her head. "U...um ... Suzumiya-san might not be able to resist you, Yuki-chan; maybe this isn't a very safe outfit?"

The shorter girl tilted her head back thoughtfully, though her expression didn't change much.

"You're going to risk that for Kyon-kun, anyway," Mikuru realized, unable to keep from smiling. Well, she wasn't certain she had Yuki's courage, but she could respect that. After all, she'd wanted to dress up like a maid for Kyon... She brightened suddenly in realization. "Um, if it's not too much trouble, do you think you could help me be the one who gets to dress up tomorrow?"

Yuki's gaze turned from the door to Mikuru, and she nodded once slowly.

Smiling, Mikuru ducked her head in gratitude again, then opening the door. The rest of the brigade burst in, Haruhi predictably already with a camera at the ready. Kyon was behind her, and the others had arrived while Mikuru was helping Yuki with her outfit. She stood in front of the table as though uncertain, not moving except to shift her eyes to the others as they came in.

"That's almost perfect!" Haruhi declared, not caring that Kyon had to squeeze around her to get in. He stumbled forward, eyes fixing on Yuki as his mouth dropped open and he froze.

Mikuru turned to admire the girl as well... She tried not to be vain about her own tailoring skill, especially since it came from Yuki in the first place. But the costume _was_ well made. She'd spent a bit longer working on it, compared to the one she had made for Tsuruya. Of course, Tsuruya's was mostly a very deep crimson with thick black trim - for Yuki, Mikuru had chosen just white, with an incredibly pale blue trim, so faint it could barely be made out, yet still left the trim distinct.

A flaring skirt with neat, orderly pleats went to just past her knees, where the white stockings that Mikuru had bought for the costume covered her legs. The skirt had a fine lace ruffle that ran a few centimeters longer, and at the waist the skirt came into a wide white belt. Above that, the blouse had been embroidered with a simple floral pattern than extended from the belt up and across the sleeves, which ran only a short distance past Yuki's shoulders before ending in another ruffle. White elbow-length gloves left a tiny band of her pale skin show through, and her hair was capped with a thin white bonnet, festooned with lace roses.

"Offer someone some tea!" Haruhi ordered, moving to one side and snapping more pictures as the rest of the brigade trooped in.

Yuki turned her attention to Kyon, who had recovered from gawking and was now just watching raptly. "Why don't you join me for a cup of tea?" she asked, blinking.

"Aaaah! Don't say it like a pick-up line!" Haruhi protested. "Come on, elegant, Gothic Lolita!"

Yuki pursed her lips very slightly, adjusting her posture and tilting her face up towards Kyon while curtsying gracefully. "Would you care to join me for tea?" she tried.

"Success!" Haruhi exclaimed. "Perfect, Yuki-chan, that sounded so sincere!"

"...it was," Yuki said softly. Mikuru couldn't help but draw a breath of air in at that - her sharp hearing aside, Haruhi seemed not to notice, just nodding happily with a wide grin, still taking shots with her camera.

"Er, yeah," Kyon said, shaking his head. "Um, that sounds great..."

With smooth motions, Yuki rose and turned about, walking sedately towards the tea set. "Mikuru-chan, another great costume," Haruhi added, snapping a few last pictures before handing the camera to Tsuruya, who was watching Yuki intently, as though studying her mannerisms.

"Adorable!" Tsuruya cried, throwing her arms wide and rushing to Yuki's side, taking pictures in quick succession as the calmer girl began to prepare the drink.

"Amazing work, Asahina-san," Kyon agreed.

"Let me see your phone," Haruhi demanded, prodding Kyon in the ribs. He handed over his PDA, but did not otherwise seem to take note.

"Thank you," Mikuru managed, giggling, then shaking her head. "But then again, that's all thanks to Yuki-chan teaching me."

"Yeah, but you _did_ it," Kanae remarked, reaching a hand out to trail her fingers across her own stewardess outfit. "And I appreciate that; the costumes not only look great, they're fun to wear because you worked so hard on them!"

"Unless I miss my guess, that's Kanae-chan's way of begging you for another costume," Haruhi noted, winking at the slider when she blushed darkly.

Mikuru suddenly realized that Kanae may have been reluctant to ask before, when she was uncertain if she were going to be able to stay. But now, she was confident enough... "I've got a sketch for a cute police-girl costume," Mikuru assured the slider, beaming her a bright smile. "It's based on the designs from 'You're Under Arrest'! I'm not sure if that's an accurate reference, but it was so cute I couldn't pass it up."

Haruhi nodded in satisfaction, scrolling through functions on Kyon's PDA while waiting for the computer to finish booting.

Koizumi shrugged and sat down at the table, producing a Scrabble board from the bookshelf. "Your English skills seem decent to me," he remarked. "Shall we give this game a try?"

"Sure," he agreed with a shrug.

"My English is terrible!" Tsuruya cheered. "I'll play!"

Kanae pouted, giving Tsuruya an odd look. "I was going to say that," she mumbled. "Except, I'm _really_ terrible..."

"I think I'm okay," Mikuru chimed in, "I'll try and play... If Kanae-chan's behind in her English studies, she can follow the game with a dictionary, and double-check all of us as a judge!"

"That sounds like a brilliant idea!" Koizumi agreed, offering Kanae a worn dictionary from the bookshelf.

"O...okay, that kind of sounds fun, too," the slider agreed, perking up as she accepted the book.

Haruhi hummed thoughtfully, tapping at some keys, her eyes glowing as she leaned close to the screen, reflecting the bright background of whatever she was looking at. Yuki finished preparing the tea and turned around, her measured pace stopping at Kyon's side as she set down a teacup and then carefully poured a cup for him. After sitting down in the chair next to his, she filled her own teacup, every motion smooth and practiced.

Mikuru took a seat herself, next to Koizumi, because all of the spaces near Kyon were taken. Tsuruya snapped a handful of additional pictures as Koizumi handed out game pieces. "Okay!" Haruhi called, looking up from behind the monitor with a wide grin. "Kyon, try that again! Don't just mumble thanks at Yuki-chan and nod your head!"

"What?" he managed, before Haruhi pointed his own PDA at him like a remote control. He blinked, looking down at himself in astonishment as his outfit shimmered, replaced almost instantly by what Mikuru recognized as an elegant Victorian-style suit with lace ruffles at the wrist and throat, and dark top hat.

"Hmm, not perfect," the brigade chief remarked with a frown, turning her attention back to the computer screen.

"Wait," Kyon said, blinking in alarm. "You can just scan pictures from the _internet_?"

Without even looking up, Haruhi chided, "You never even tried it? Well, your loss! Now come on, try accepting that tea properly this time!"

Yuki blinked slowly, raising one eyebrow in an elegant arch as she calmly sipped at her tea, giving Kyon what Mikuru thought was the most faintly expectant look.

Kyon dismissed a scowl and straightened, standing up with one hand rising as though to adjust his cravat. "Madame Yuki," he began in stately English, bowing, "it is an honor to be invited to tea." He reached one hand out to take Yuki's gloved hand in his own, raising it nearly to his lips, but not actually kissing her before releasing her and standing straight again.

Mikuru gripped the edge of the table and swallowed, forcing down the urge to squeal in delight... But she was absolutely getting copies of those pictures Tsuruya was furiously taking later! The green-haired heiress was bouncing around excitedly, capturing every moment from at least two angles while humming energetically.

"The privilege is all mine," Yuki replied, bowing her head slightly, her eyes fixed on Kyon's. And ... was that the hint of a blush on her cheeks?

"W...wait!" Haruhi complained, waving her hands frantically. "Um, here, try this one!" She pressed another button on the phone, changing his costume to a slightly more sophisticated aristocratic outfit, still suit-like, but with more classic lines, and a slightly more rounded hat.

Kyon blinked, one hand going to his face. "A monocle," he said in a flat tone. "Really? Good thing it's just a hologram, that would be so annoying..."

"I take it that this means you're wearing your coat?" Koizumi asked, sliding Mikuru's pieces towards her, startling her out of a Kyon-induced daze.

"This is a really small price to pay for being bulletproof," he answered with a slight shake of his head.

Koizumi nodded sagely at Kyon. After that, he held out a bag, and everyone in the game drew pieces to determine who would go first. Not having a role in the game, Kanae sat on the edge of her seat, swinging her legs excitedly as she stared at Kyon, her eyes wide with delight.

Haruhi punched a few buttons, staring intently at the PDA as the monocle vanished.

After finding that he would play first, Kyon turned his attention back to Yuki. "Thanks for the tea," he told her, shaking his head and sipping at it. He flinched back slightly at the taste, turning to look at the cup in surprise. "Oh, English tea," he realized, grinning ruefully and then sipping again. "It's good."

"Ah! Yuki-chan, you didn't make tea for anyone else?" Tsuruya protested, just then realizing that, and finally lowering the camera.

"I'll do it," Haruhi interjected, shaking her head. "If I keep browsing the internet, the extreme cosplay potential is going to make me pass out!"

Mikuru swallowed nervously, eyes tracking to Kyon. "C...can anyone use your phone to change your costume?" she asked timidly.

"No," he said absently, shuffling his letter tiles around after lowering his teacup. "Haruhi insisted that Yuki had to make her a user account." He stared intently at the board for a minute, then parceled out tiles, spelling, 'tempers' across the center. "Is there a bonus for using all your tiles?"

Koizumi made a thoughtful noise and turned to the instruction manual, while Kanae struggled to bring her attention to her task and thumbed through the dictionary.

Mikuru's eyes tracked directly to Yuki's. The shorter girl sensed her gaze and turned to look at her. There was an instant communication; they didn't need augmented reality messages or any form of mechanical telepathy for this. Only a wordless understanding between both of them that Mikuru would have an account, too. For some reason, she felt very satisfied with that.

* * *

After getting home from school, her usual plan of avoiding her homework until she could play with Kyon fell through. She'd only skipped through the doorway before being instantly snagged by her mother and bundled into a taxi headed downtown. What followed was a tedious two hour trial in putting on different dresses - or trying to answer her mother's questions when she tried some on.

By the time they actually got home, Kyon was already there, chatting with his father in low terms about one of the few goals that Kyon seemed to pursue on his own: a learner's permit to drive. "Like I said before," her father said with a chuckle as she stepped into the kitchen where they were standing. "If you can get into the top ten, then I'll help you get it this summer."

Kyon sighed at that, grimacing and then finishing the last of a glass of milk. Her plan was to charge him and glomp on, nice suit or not, but her mother snagged her and hauled her into her bedroom. Nonoko couldn't help but settle down a little; her parents' room was a mostly secret place, and she was curious to see more of it. Ever since she was four years old and had accidentally flushed one of her mother's favorite necklaces, her parents had seemed reluctant to let her spend much time there.

She was re-clothed by her mother in the dress that they had finally picked out for her - a blue dress that in her mind wasn't terribly different from the ones her cousin Matsuri wore. After that, her mother redid her hair, replacing her usual hair-tie with a clip, warning her not to lose it, or get her dress dirty. "After all," the woman said, "if you want to spend time with your brother and his fiancee, you'll need to be well behaved!"

Thus admonished, she was ejected into the hall, free to charge her brother and glomp on. He didn't even flinch, one hand going to ruffle her hair before he paused, catching himself, and patting her on the shoulder instead of mussing her mother's work. "Anyway," he said, shaking his head slightly and checking his phone - though it looked shinier than she remembered, "Tsuruya-kun suggested the place, and I had Sky- Er, I checked the reviews on-line, too. She placed some reservations for us, but said there's no rush; they'll hold the table for us all night."

"That was very nice of her - you should probably do something nice for her, too," their father suggested, offering Nonoko a glass of milk of her own.

She reluctantly peeled away from her brother to drink her milk. "I'm taking her to a movie premiere on Friday, actually," he confessed. "Miyoko-chan and Imouto are invited, too."

The man laughed at that, shaking his head. "My son, the player," he teased. "All those girls!"

"But no Haru-nyan?" she asked, frowning.

"Er ... probably not," her brother answered, shaking his head. "Say, do you know how long mom's going to be?"

"She probably needs help zipping up her dress," the man said, finishing his glass of milk and setting it down before moving to the stairs. "I'll be back in a bit."

He vanished out of sight, and Nonoko riveted her attention to her brother. "Is there a secret meeting going on tonight?" she asked in an excited whisper. "Or are we scouting out an enemy site to invade later?"

"We're going out to dinner," he told her with an amused smirk.

She couldn't help but pout at how boring that was... She still wasn't trusted enough to be told more?

Though he seldom gave in to her best attempts, he relented, whispering, "Well, the place we're going _is_ actually owned by allies. Don't blow anyone's cover, though, because they're trying to blend in, okay?"

"Okay!" she said, excited by the fact that she'd finally gotten some small measure of trust. This time, she _would_ keep the secret for him!

She was so excited, she didn't let herself speak until their father brought their mother down the stairs, and then drove them quietly to the restaurant. It was pretty, she thought, with thick red curtains hanging everywhere. The waiters were all wearing what looked to her like tuxedos, or just very pretty black and white dresses, and all of the other guests were dressed up like her family...

They had a square table, and each of them got a side - she was between her mother and her brother. She had to sit up as straight as possible in her chair, and even then she felt a little short. Worse, the menu had some complicated characters she didn't know yet, without any helpful side notes in more common characters. There was a 'children's menu' page, but she sensed that this was a rare opportunity, and she didn't want to waste it.

Then again, she didn't want to embarrass herself by not ordering something reasonable. She looked between items worriedly, wondering which incomprehensible characters meant what... Her brother, sharp as he always was, caught her agitation and looked at his menu studiously. "Hmm, what are you thinking of getting, Imouto?" he asked.

She thought about that for a minute. She could identify enough characters to pick a few things out, so what would be a good choice? Something mature and elegant? Something grown up?

"Do they have noodles?" she asked curiously. Spaghetti was tempting, but she didn't think she could eat that without making a mess. Still, as far as she was able to tell, noodles existed in every culture, so surely there was some noodle dish here. Really, this was the kind of thing she should ask Haruhi or Mikuru about. They'd know for sure.

"I think you might like the ravioli," he suggested, as their mother looked up, glancing between the pair.

"No-chan," she said, giving her a curious, amused smile, "on the last page-"

"Ravioli sounds good!" Nonoko said quickly. She already knew where the children's menu was!

Her mother was slightly taken aback and opened her mouth to comment, but hesitated, glancing to where her husband had put a gently restraining hand on her nearer forearm, giving her a beseeching look. Nonoko held her breath. "Actually," her mother said, settling back into her chair, "I was thinking of getting the same thing. What about you, Kyon?"

"I was thinking of the lasagna," he answered, looking up from the menu. "What about you, Dad?"

"The carbonara," he commented, glancing to the restaurant entrance and blinking in surprise. Nonoko turned to look, and spotted a swarm of at least a dozen men in nice suits, slightly louder and rowdier than the usual guest. "Oh, dear..."

Kyon glanced at the men, his eyes flicking across them briefly before dismissing them. Even though it was behind her, Nonoko turned around and looked too. The men all wore the same pin as him. They must be the allies he had mentioned! Obviously they were worn out from fighting for good and justice; a few were even wobbling in place. They must be exhausted!

This wasn't just a restaurant, she realized, it was a hideout where heroes like her brother could rest between critical struggles. It was a safe haven! She restrained her delight at the realization that she was allowed to come to such a place.

"Hey!" one of the men in the crowd said suddenly, pointing at Kyon with a grin, then staggering towards him. "Aniki!"

The entire restaurant fell strangely silent.

"Aniki!" the man said again, stepping forward and clapping Kyon on the shoulder companionably. "Hey, hey, everyone, a cheer for Aniki, here! And our brother deserves a drink!"

"Um," Kyon said in answer, looking slowly over his shoulder at the man, his expression anxious.

Another pair of men stepped forward anxiously from the group, quickly grabbing the man who was speaking and hauling him back. "He's had too much to drink," the first said quickly.

"So sorry to bother your family; an honest mistake, Kowa-Kei- Er, I mean, young man," the second chipped in.

The best dressed of the group stepped forward, as the two grapplers hauled the first man back, to vanish into the knot of men who had entered as a group. "Apologies again," he said with a deep bow. "Allow us to cover your bill to make this up to you." He bowed again, pressing a small fold of bills into the greeter's hands on the way out, along with a meaningful glance to Nonoko and her family.

"D...did a group of..." her mother began, her eyes unfocusing slightly.

"Were they calling Kyon..." her father echoed, turning to look at Kyon in confusion.

"They were just strangers," Nonoko said insistently. "They even said that it was a mistake!"

"Y...yes," her mother allowed, shaking her head. "Yes, of course. It's inconceivable that the boy who's engaged to Tsuruya Haruka-chan could be involved with anything so _questionable_ as that!"

Nonoko suggested, "I'm sure those people are all from a chivalrous organization, anyway!"

Kyon pretended not to hear, looking up as a very pretty waitress in a very nice black and white dress approached, bowing to the table and asking everyone what they would like to drink. Nonoko was happy, though, even if she couldn't talk about it. After all, she was already doing a better job of hiding her brother's secret identity than some of his allies!

* * *

The entire operation to date had been a success by a slim margin. The NPA justified the expenses Miyuki had incurred against the fact that a number of suspects had been cleared off the streets. There was concern among her higher-ups that she had made the way much clearer for the only remaining crime syndicate in the area to take over.

Based on what she had seen, that was exactly what had happened anyway, but for the moment she hadn't caught any heat for that. The Sumiyoshi-rengo that had been arrested hadn't fronted any businesses or crime rings that competed with the Tsuruya-gumi. That seemed natural enough to Miyuki; she'd seen the larger and elder criminal organizations pretend to be oblivious to smaller groups. It let the smaller group think they were actually independent, but really, they were just a smoke-screen.

Inexperienced and overconfident youths who could be captured singly or in groups, giving the public the perception that crime was being stopped. Of course, crime _was_ being stopped, but the public had grown comfortable, almost used to the comparably more respectable thieves.

The greater part of the Sumiyoshi-rengo had lost enough face, anyway. As well as the fact that thanks to the uniform lack of cooperation they had received from questioning the gangsters, she didn't have any evidence to implicate them in gun smuggling. That meant that the lot of them were just petty criminals, ultimately.

Watanabe remained the only potential link to the smuggling ring, which was ostensibly her target. If she couldn't produce evidence or enough information to at least implicate someone, she would be recalled to NPA headquarters. And if that happened, depending on her fate there - promoted to a desk, sent back into the field - she could end up having to give up before she could find out what Kyon was up to.

She knew now that the boy met with Mori with relative regularity. She still hadn't been able to determine what they were up to, but she'd slowly expanded her knowledge base. She had tried to learn more about his friends, to see if there were any other leads, there. Not many surprises, though. The boryokudan task force had heard a rumor from several sources that said that Kyon was now engaged to the heir of the Tsuruya-gumi...

Which made him a potential family head in his later years, should Tsuruya Haruka ever choose to step down. This did explain what his connection was to the crime family, but even with his eventual possible rank, what reason did anyone have to arrange for him to be shot?

She stood up in her small office and paced thoughtfully. The bulk of the Sumiyoshi-rengo prisoners wouldn't speak. The wiry accountant might eventually be broken, but if her suspicions were true... What she needed was for the two officers she was using as pawns to get the information on the gun smuggling ring out of Watanabe.

But how to arrange that? They weren't even detectives, so unless she had them transfer Watanabe somewhere, and he happened to confess just then...

No, the officers wouldn't go out of their way to get a confession from the man. They'd do their jobs exactly as they were supposed to, already aware of the extra scrutiny on them for their recent accomplishments.

Having one or both of the officers sit in during an interrogation? Possibly, on the grounds of giving corroborating facts to any admissions that the men made... But there would still be lawyers present, ready to deny anything, if the discussions were by the book. The only person who could get answers from Watanabe was likely to be Fujiya, but with both of them in custody, that wasn't likely to happen.

She sat back at her desk, smoothing her skirt and arranging her timetable on her laptop. She had just under fifty hours to get her required evidence or lead - any longer, and she'd have to return to headquarters. Interviews had been arranged for every single members of the Sumiyoshi-rengo, as well as both of the teenagers.

Eyeing the interview schedules, she slowly began to smile in realization. It was a bit of a stretch, but she'd managed to come this far without revealing herself to any of the other players in the field. With just a little bit of luck, she could get the Tamaru brothers back into the spotlight of Sumiyoshi-rengo awareness. And maybe, if she were to arrange things just a bit more carefully, she wouldn't need that much luck.

Smiling once more, she adjusted the schedules before reaching for her phone.

* * *

Masao was not a happy man. Having his entire operation crashed by the police was among the least pleasant experiences he'd ever gone through, right up there with having his entire force beaten up by a trio of high-school students. On the other hand, they'd walked away from that.

As it was, it was only due to the fact that a good number of his men were still recovering from their injuries that any of his men escaped arrest. A whole slew of petty crimes had been thrown at them, probably racking up to several centuries of served time among the men, should all the convictions go through. Thankfully, they'd narrowly avoided an extra stack of charges, all of their systems recently purged of questionable materials involving area high-school girls.

In fact, all things considered, if it weren't for that beating, he'd be even worse off.

For the time being, he endured an unpleasant litany of interrogations, limited discussions with the lawyer his boss had sent from Osaka, and endless fantasies of revenge concerning Watanabe. There was no question in his mind that if his unreliable underling hadn't gone out on his own - and then tangled up additional members of the syndicate _and_ drawn down the inevitable NPA heat...

He roused from his contemplations when a guard strode past his cell hurriedly. He frowned at the realization that a carefully folded origami flower was drifting through the air, spinning as it descended. Dismissing the urge to run to the bars and see who this mysterious guard was, he rose from his seat on his cot and collected the paper, unfolding it.

The message was short, and very simple: "The NPA are chasing the gun; if Watanabe talks, you can walk."

He refolded the origami flower, pressing it flat and folding it carefully into his pack of cigarettes. He could burn it the next time he was allowed into the yard. While it was nice to think that some NPA watchdog was willing to let him and his men slide in favor of unraveling the greater crime, the note was a far cry from a solid promise.

On the other hand... He resolved to discuss it with his lawyer. Unless they changed his schedule, he would need to wait for that afternoon-

That thought was interrupted by a pair of guards at his cell door, one rapping the bars with his nightstick while the other opened the door. "Fujiya," the first guard said sourly. "Your appointment with your legal counsel."

Masao pursed his lips, forcing a smile away. Obviously, there was some impetus behind this theoretical NPA watchdog, after all. A short time later he discussed with his lawyer in what was ostensibly a private room. After outlining the situation, the high-powered lawyer pursed his lips.

"As you know," the lawyer said slowly, "while I am your attorney, I also represent the greater interests of the Sumiyoshi-rengo. While this seems like a ploy for you to get out of here, I can tell you what it truly is. If Watanabe talks, then those who sent _me_ are implicated. While the heat may be off you, the cost to the organization..." He trailed off with a shrug, and Masao nodded his understanding.

Either get his men out and break with the Sumiyoshi-rengo, or remain loyal, and have him and his men remain imprisoned and silent.

He was being led back to his cell, hands cuffed behind his back when he found himself in a long corridor, a single guard behind him, and another prisoner ahead, walking towards him, also attended by a single guard. He vaguely recognized the other guard - one of the pair that had arrested _him_. The guard behind him was the other one.

He was pondering which way he should go, knowing that either way, Watanabe was getting off much easier than he deserved. Should he be loyal to his friends and brothers? Or to his superiors?

As he and the other men were nearly shoulder-to-shoulder, there was a flicker in the lighting before an alarm sounded, and the gates at either end of the corridor sealed in lock down mode.

Both of the yakuza men stopped, looking at one-another warily. The guards drew away from the pair, consolidating themselves and watching the prisoners. Masao took a deep breath, realizing what he was going to do, ultimately.

Hopefully his NPA watchdog was telling the truth. Masao knew that Watanabe was a skilled fighter - he had been one of the top three enforcers, without a doubt. As both men had their hands cuffed behind their backs, he opened discussions with an abrupt shoulder-check, slamming into his former enforcer and sending him to the floor with a choked cry of alarm.

He stumbled, but managed to twist as he fell, twining his legs around the other man's throat before he could recover his bearings. Watanabe's chin caught in the crook of Masao's knee. The two guards ran for the pair, but Masao didn't pay any attention to them; it would take at least a minute or two to pry them apart, and that was probably enough time.

Choking the other man, even as he thrashed around, Masao yelled, "Who gave you the gun?"

Watanabe choked and sputtered, his face turning red as the Tamaru brothers reached them, trying to pull the two apart. "Talk!" Masao shouted, clenching his eyes shut in anticipation of pepper-spray, or even a stray eye-gouge.

As he was finally pulled loose of Watanabe, Masao heard him wheeze, "Daitokuji ... Gendo ... Osaka..."

Masao let himself smile, wondering if the two guards who had heard the entire exchange would report directly to the NPA watchdog, or if they were just pawns. He may have been no more than a pawn himself, but his men had been loyal to him ... and even if he'd made a personal enemy, at least he had rewarded those who followed him to the best of his ability.


	35. Chapter 34

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Calm Before the Storm Arc I

Chapter Thirty Four: Whispering Winds

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Three: Field Training"_

_"Once you've established your basic level of competence, there's nothing to remind you of how far you have to go quite like trying to do something by yourself."_

_"Training and You: The Eternal Nightmare" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

For the most part, Kyon's schedule had seemed to fill up. Before, he was so reliably idle (except when he was with Haruhi) that Koizumi could expect to request his time, and get it. Now, he was so busy with his suddenly adopted responsibilities that Koizumi found himself struggling to get some of the other boy's time.

Take the current situation, where Koizumi was uncomfortably certain that he'd only managed to get Kyon's attention for the length of the lunch period because Haruhi seemed to want to round the other girls up to discuss something. What, Koizumi wasn't certain. While he had once prided himself on his ability to predict Haruhi's behavior, at this point Kyon was the expert, and that was that.

No longer being so directly ... _connected_ to Haruhi had gone a long way towards allowing the esper to take a less ... involved viewpoint. He didn't understand what her plans or outlook towards having a relationship were, but it seemed to satisfy her for the moment, and Kyon likewise seemed to have the situation well enough in hand.

But the two of them took seats outside, where other students seldom bothered to show up. Kyon glanced around, shifting his shoulders, then unwrapped the bento that Haruhi had presumably made for him. "So," Koizumi said, unwrapping the lunch he had made himself, "I suppose I'll open the discussion?"

"That's how it usually works," Kyon agreed after swallowing a mouthful of sliced carrots. "But I already know what your first question is. I checked with Nagato last night, and she said that she didn't catch any sign of Haruhi trying to use her powers to change how yours worked at the beach."

Koizumi blinked, turning that over. "So, Suzumiya-san goes beyond Nagato-san's control?" he posed cautiously.

Kyon shook his head in sharp negation. "It happened the last night there was closed space, I think," he ventured. "Nagato thinks you just never tried to use your powers since then."

"W...well," Koizumi managed, shaken. It couldn't have been that he'd been empowered for more than a _month_ and just never tried to use his powers? But then, why would he? "T...to be fair," he followed up, smiling unsteadily, "my powers originally came with the knowledge of how they worked. When modifications occurred, well, I suppose as Suzumiya-san might say, there were no new patch notes!"

"And I guess you don't have much of a community for support," the other boy agreed, smirking. "Next order of business?"

"On the subject of Suzumiya-san and the fact that her powers may still work around whatever limitations that Nagato has imposed," Koizumi began, pulling his chopsticks from their case, "I have some concern that she may still have the ability to influence the greater scale of events."

Kyon pondered that while chewing his next mouthful of food, swallowing before he asked, "Meaning?"

"I think that it's possible that her subconscious mind may actually still be able to manipulate reality. Consider that as soon as you introduced Suzumiya-san to the very things she desired to meet, our dynamic began to change? You presented information to her that in some ways made it seem that an adventure novel, or a science fiction movie were happening, all just barely concealed from her perception."

"That precept doesn't strike me as false," Kyon countered. "In fact, it seems wholly defensible on my part: in reality, some days _were_ science fiction movies, adventure novels, and so on!"

"And more so now," Koizumi noted. "Or, as I'm beginning to suspect, it is because of the expectations that you have set for her that things have turned out this way."

Kyon froze mid-chew, and Koizumi took a moment to have a few bites of his own lunch. He noted that at least Kyon had stopped to seriously consider the implications. As it was, despite no longer being able to read the girl, the esper was still fairly confident that things were going to work out alright.

"Strangely," he continued, setting his chopsticks down and sipping from his canned juice, "I find that I'm not actually greatly concerned about it. I said once that you and Suzumiya-san believed in one-another, that it was a mutual confidence that I was envious of. Ultimately, the fact of that trust is the safety net that makes me so confident about the situation at hand."

After taking a sip from his own drink, Kyon prompted, "How's that?"

Koizumi shrugged again, giving the other boy a relaxed, amused smile. "You believe that Suzumiya-san doesn't actually intend harm, so you're not afraid of what she might do. She believes that as long as you are at her side, she cannot be defeated. As long as you two are together..." He trailed off, deciding that the rest did not need to be said.

Kyon stared into his bento with a thoughtful look. "I actually considered this possibility some time ago," he relented. "It's difficult to determine, really, if this is happening because that's what Haruhi wants, or if this is just a side-effect of opposing the IDSE."

The esper sat back slightly, considering that. "So, are you saying that ... the IDSE has caused you to become involved in the affairs of the Tsuruya family?" And thus caused him to become engaged, along that line of thought. "That's very subtle."

Kyon shook his head. "They are in general, though. Really, it's the sliders who are showy. And maybe the sneering bastard. I wouldn't be surprised if they're behind whatever provoked the Sumiyoshi-rengo, or they're trying to help the mystery operative who's trying to use the Tamaru brothers as bait," he noted. "After all, the original incident was prompted by remnants of data from another interface ... which are now stored securely in this indestructible container." He set his new PDA on the table.

"Quite so," Koizumi agreed, glancing at the shiny black and chrome object. "At any rate, while I don't mind working with you, especially now that I know I'm better able to keep pace with you, as it goes, I would like to discuss a title change."

"Sounds like something Haruhi's going to have to approve," Kyon said with a shrug. "But, what's on your mind, then?"

"'Sidekick' sounds a bit dated, doesn't it? In this day and age, wouldn't 'personal assistant' be more apt?" the esper suggested.

"I guess," Kyon answered doubtfully. "Well, it's not like we're superheroes, going out and fighting crime, or anything like that."

"All the same, I'd like to be more than just a decoy on the battlefield."

"Since you took apart that thing on the beach, I think we've safely established that I was significantly more of a decoy than you," Kyon retorted.

Chuckling, Koizumi ducked his head. "True enough," he admitted. "All the same..."

"Ask Haruhi," the vice-commander reiterated, shaking his head. "Anyway ... what are your thoughts on this invasion?"

"It's frustrating not being able to do anything but wait," the esper said after a thoughtful minute, while Kyon polished off the rest of his bento. "I believe Suzumiya-san is annoyed, too, but not enough to try and push for any change. After all, should we not savor these calm, quiet moments when we have them?"

"I don't like the idea of them being so rare that we must, but you're probably right," Kyon grumbled. "Alright, then, any other business?"

"Nothing in particular," Koizumi assured him, shaking his head. At least that much was certain. "Unless you wish to goad Suzumiya to act first..."

"Let's not throw rocks at that beehive," Kyon suggested, smirking. "Alright, well, let me know if anything changes, then. Thanks, Koizumi."

"Glad to help a friend when I can, Kyon-kun," Koizumi returned, pleased at the honesty of the remark. Kyon's expression didn't betray much, but the esper could tell the other boy had caught that as he nodded farewell.

There were significantly worse people to work for, he thought, wrapping his leftovers up.

* * *

Somewhat distracted by the time she had spent visiting with Sakanaka the previous day, Haruhi's steps as she strode towards the club room were slower than usual. The excitable little terrier was just as energetic as the last time Haruhi had seen him, and Sakanaka's mother had seemed more relaxed at Haruhi's presence than before.

Then again, Yuki and Mikuru had basically enacted some strange occult-seeming ritual involving a dog and a cat, with the time traveler dressed up as a shrine maiden. Or maybe she was just leery of letting her daughter alone with a group containing boys.

Either way, she ducked into the room to give the girls a tray of snacks and a pitcher of iced tea, and then seemed too busy with her own project in some distant corner of the massive house to do more than check in occasionally.

Sakanaka had asked a few shy questions about Haruhi's relationship with Kyon - which she had awkwardly evaded, not enjoying concealing things from someone she wanted to call a friend. It had gone easier once she managed to ask Sakanaka who she was interested in.

The other girl had blushed very deeply and admitted only that she liked someone who she thought was very intelligent, though, lately had seemed to be a bit stressed. Haruhi wanted nothing more than to demand to know who it was Sakanaka liked and then pressure her into confessing to him - or her, she supposed.

Of course, she restrained herself. Pushing Sakanaka to achieve some more definitive form of relationship than she'd managed to cobble together wasn't fair to either of them.

Still, the realization that she had limited herself - all of them, really - from being able to define what they were...

That would not do long-term, even if it did help settle Kyon down. By the time she reached the club room, she roused herself from her thoughts; she'd already had a planning session at lunch with the other girls, anyway. All she really needed to do was get Kyon to agree to her proposed trip to visit his uncle and aunts in Hinamizawa next month.

She turned to look at him before opening the door to the club room, realizing he seemed a bit less energetic than usual. "What's got you down, subordinate?" she chided, finding a smile for him, anyway. "You didn't tell me how your family dinner went last night, either!"

He snorted, shaking his head. "Just generically tired, I guess," he answered, glancing down the hall as Koizumi approached, Yuki a step behind him. "I used to be able to nap during class ... I miss that sleep."

"Give me a week," she replied resolutely. "Then I'll be done figuring out the assignment patterns from all of our teachers, and we can start doing classwork and homework a few days in advance."

He stared at her, eyes widening. "That's how you can sleep through the last part of every term?" he asked. "I knew you could calculate impossible things things with your unreasonable genius, but that far?"

"It's not rocket surgery," she chided as she felt her face heat up, scowling as she opened the door to the club room and turned to face Kyon. "It's basic psychology, plus the fact that almost no teacher in all of Japan deviates from an approved lesson plan! Haven't I called every single pop quiz this year, at least two days in advance? I thought you could read people! Come on, it's easy, right Yuki-chan?" In fact, she believed wholeheartedly that even Kyon could do it, if he could just muster the willpower to focus for the duration of his classes! Only his laziness held him back.

Yuki gave a tiny nod of agreement, though her gaze was somewhere past Haruhi's shoulder. So was Kyon's. Koizumi was staring, too, so Haruhi turned around quickly, chagrined to realized that somehow, Mikuru had gotten to the club room before them and was in the middle of changing. She lunged through the door towards the time traveler and slammed it shut behind her. "Sorry!" she called, turning to face the crimson-faced Mikuru. "T...that was an accident!"

"I...it's okay," Mikuru mumbled, taking a mincing half-step backward and then quickly squirming the rest of the way into her outfit. Haruhi was sorely tempted to help her out, but knew that the older girl was still a bit nervous around her. In fact, when she stopped to think about it, the distance between Haruhi and Mikuru seemed the greatest between any of the girls of the SOS Brigade...

Mikuru finished pulling the outfit on and straightening it out, giving Haruhi a worried glance and putting one hand to her hair. "I...is something wrong?" she asked anxiously, her face still red.

"No," Haruhi said quickly, shaking her head. "I just thought that you looked really cute in that outfit." Given Mikuru's recent lessons, the brigade chief personally thought the nurse outfit would have been more appropriate. Still, if she wanted to wear the maid outfit, that was up to her. "Hmm, Mikuru-chan, I think you're falling behind, so why don't you ask Kyon to do something with you tonight?"

"Eh!" Mikuru started, her eyes widening as she blinked in surprise. "R...really?" she asked hopefully. "T...that's okay?"

"Of course!" Haruhi insisted, opening the door again and motioning the others in. "Consider it my apology!"

"What's that?" Kyon asked, stepping in with the rest of the club members, Tsuruya and Kanae having arrived while the door was shut.

"To make up for your trying to peep on Mikuru-chan while she's changing, you're sentenced to manual labor for her," Haruhi explained, going to the computer and turning it on. She could hardly expect to demand time alone with him if she wasn't allowing the same for the other girls. "We'll call it community service."

"Oh, right," Kyon said with a nod. "That makes perfect sense."

"Um ... if it's not too much trouble," Mikuru asked him meekly, managing a shy smile, "c...could you help me with some shopping tonight, Kyon-kun?"

He glanced at his PDA, then nodded. "Of course," he agreed.

"Ah! Thank you, Kyon-kun!" Mikuru began to hum contentedly as she turned her attention to the tea set.

"Say, Haruhi, Koizumi wanted to ask you for a favor, too."

Haruhi blinked and glanced up from the computer's loading screen. "What's that?" she asked the esper, curious.

"Ah," the boy said, ducking his head as Kanae began to spread her homework across the table in front of her, "well, I asked Kyon-kun about this earlier and he seemed agreeable. I was hoping for a title change from sidekick to personal assistant, if that's not too much trouble...?"

She blinked, considering that. "Well, you're still technically a sidekick," she warned him. "But, yeah, that's an okay title. I think it'll fit in better for some of Kyon's 'business' with Tsu-chan's family anyway, right?"

The heiress nodded enthusiastically. "You betcha!" she agreed. "Speakings of which, meeting on Wednesday, Kyon-kun. My father wants to discuss somethings."

Haruhi gave a satisfied nod, and turned her attention back to the computer. As annoying as it was, she would try resisting her inevitable need to drag Kyon off to her favorite stairwell ... for a while, at least.

* * *

After club had ended, Kyon had waited outside for Mikuru to change before the pair of them left the school together. Koizumi had gone with Tsuruya, to discuss some bit of their work - something the time traveler suspected would reach Kyon shortly. Haruhi had found out about yet another poor test score (history, again) from Kanae and announced an emergency study session at Yuki's, and the slider was reluctantly dragged off.

Not that the time traveler begrudged any of the others, and wouldn't have minded having any of them along, but time where she could be with Kyon by herself... Of course, technically, she _was_ allowed to 'date' Kyon, according to Haruhi. She hadn't bothered asking any of her superiors; the anonymous, mysterious bosses from the future, or Kyon, who she was subordinate to, technically. After all, if she considered that Kyon's superior was Haruhi, that meant that if she didn't think about it too hard, Mikuru could pretend that the 'date' override had come from Kyon himself.

He didn't need to know that, of course...

So she walked side-by-side with him through the same shopping district where she had gone looking for new clothes with Yuki, and once, just earlier that year, asked Kyon to help her purchase the sewing machine that had allowed the creation of such nice costumes. "I need some blue cloth for Kanae-chan's costume," Mikuru told Kyon, who was scanning the crowd thoughtfully, both of their bags held in one of his hands by the straps.

He broke from his surveillance to give her a smile. "I'm glad for this chance to go shopping for small things like this," he told her. "And I think it's great that you found something to do in the club that you really seem to enjoy."

She felt her face warm up slightly and managed a giggle, heading into her favorite supply store. The clerks looked up as she entered with Kyon in tow, smiling and waving, but holding their distance. She hadn't come very often, but the women who worked at the store seemed very friendly, and having only seen Kyon once before, referred to him as her 'boyfriend'. Probably it was for the best they were keeping their distance today; she hadn't exactly gone out of her way to correct them.

"I've enjoyed things we've done with Suzumiya-san," she finally said, looking back at him with a smile as they reached the cloth she was looking for. "Like ... even though it was very difficult, and I had to learn some new things, working on the literature club's anthology! And I like the company of everyone, especially when we don't have something urgent to take care of! And lately, things seem to be going quite well!"

He gave her an appraising look, and she tried not to blush under his scrutiny, doing her best to deflect it with a happy smile.

"In a lot of ways, that's true," he admitted, while she began collecting the bolts of cloth that she needed. "But I still like spending time with you..." He seemed to hesitate, as though he might have said too much, then shrugged, not quite meeting her eyes.

After buying everything she thought she would need to make Kanae's next costume, and a few extra things she was confident she would find a use for soon, the pair left the shop, Kyon now carrying both of their schoolbags and a load of sewing supplies. "Um, Kyon-kun," she asked, as they headed through the market district, "i...it's a bit late, so would you like to have, um, dinner with me?"

"Would you like me to take you somewhere?" he returned, giving her a small smile.

She felt her face redden and shook her head minutely. "I wanted to cook, actually, if that's alright..."

He had already looked happy, but at that he immediately brightened further. "If it's no trouble," he allowed.

She gave him a hesitant smile, admitting, "I'm still not very used to how the marketplace here works, so ... would it be alright if I were to ask you for help with gathering what I'll need?"

"No problem at all," he assured her.

Her smile widened; she couldn't imagine the day getting much better than it had been so far. Now, all she needed was to gather her ingredients and cook, then she could see about maybe being a tiny bit naughty and trying to kiss Kyon again. Or, maybe, if she did a really good job of preparing for dinner, _he_ would kiss _her_!

Distracted by those thoughts, she almost collided with someone, restrained only when Kyon's hand circled around her wrist, pulling her back. She squeaked in alarm, flinching back from the cold glare of the time traveler who called himself Fujiwara. Her retreat left her to stumble into Kyon for support, who absently released her wrist and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, his gaze fixed on the other boy.

Fujiwara's angry stare went from her to him, and Mikuru thought for the merest second she saw the hint of horrified realization before his scowl deepened. "So," he growled, "you've chosen your alliances, I see. Your predetermination versus my free will, is it?"

"Oh, save it," Kyon retorted in a clipped tone. "I'm not in the mood for all of this posturing. I know you're not actually trying to hurt us, already, or you would have tried using the damn weapon you stole last Saturday!" Mikuru was only able to resist flinching from Kyon's curse by the reassurance she got from leaning against him.

Fujiwara's glower faded, and he looked pensively thoughtful. "I could have motives you cannot fathom," he muttered. "You can make assumptions based on my previously observed behavior, but you can't prove my free will doesn't exist! However, if you're going to be such an arrogant mercenary, I'll tell you this much; you can't hurt me right now."

Kyon's feet shifted slightly, though he didn't move, and his hand was still a reassuring weight on her shoulder. "You say that like I randomly attack people," he countered. "The only reason I would have to hurt you is if you tried something stupid. Like whatever you got Sasaki into!"

"Oh, a weak spot?" Fujiwara retorted, crossing his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow. "Too bad! It's predetermined that I run into you last Saturday ... nice to know I'm effectively immortal until then! I think I'll go back to just before then and do something fun - maybe invite your friend along to the beach!" He grinned, shaking his head. "But then, maybe I'll wait a little while, since every moment between now and then, I'm predetermined to survive. So, tough guy, what do you have to say to _that_?"

In answer Kyon produced his PDA from his pocket, pointing it at Fujiwara.

The other time traveler looked unimpressed, merely noting, "Unless you want to try and violate the way that predetermination works, you know that you can't do anything to me."

Kyon scanned Fujiwara and stored the image. "My PDA right here now has a perfect image of you in it. I have a pretty good holo-disguise, too. It's not predetermined that _you_ arrive at the beach last Saturday. Realistically, I could go back disguised as you; it'd be indistinguishable to the me from back then, wouldn't it?"

Fujiwara's sneer vanished, and he narrowed his eyes.

"So, self-proclaimed champion of free will," Kyon said dryly, "be free, and accomplish nothing, or jump through my hoop of predetermination like a good dog, and maybe you'll get a tool you can use for a while."

"Alright," Fujiwara growled. "Alright!" This last shout was so loud that Mikuru couldn't help but flinch, and several nearby people turned to look, no longer pretending not to eavesdrop at the very public - and to them, cryptic - conversation. "I'll accept the mad precept that you tried to sell me before; _you_, not Asahina Mikuru are the champion of predetermination and the enemy of free will," he spat sourly. "All of those encounters against her may have been meaningless, but at your request, until we can settle our dividing issue, _you_ are my singular foe!"

Done with that declaration, he turned around, marching away through the quickly parting crowd. Mikuru turned to study Kyon's face; he gave a minuscule shake of his head to someone in the crowd, then turned and gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that," he sighed. He grimaced, bowing his head. "I feel like an idiot, though; I just engineered his involvement in last Saturday by opening my mouth and assuming. I should have remembered he's a time traveler too..."

"Y...you aren't worried about making him your enemy?" she asked him in uncertain surprise.

"If some jerk wants to cause you trouble, then I would gladly be a wall to block that person's progress," Kyon told her, shrugging.

"T...thank you, Kyon-kun," she breathed, feeling guilty. "Um, but, for what you said ... I don't think you can blame yourself too much; I have special training, and I make mistakes, too! And, really, wasn't it predetermined that Saturday went the way it did? You just made sure it happened as it was supposed to."

"You're right," he realized, brightening, gesturing her forward towards the store they had been headed towards. "But if I had kept a cooler head and not snapped at him, then last Saturday..." He trailed off, considering something. "Well, I had to make this mistake," he finally decided. "But it's also a good lesson to me to pay more attention next time."

She wasn't certain what to make of his ideas of challenging predetermination... But something about what he had said - using the disguise to fill Fujiwara's role without him... Since predetermination was set by observation, was it possible to manipulate history, and therefore, reality, by changing events outside of the observational scope?

Of course, history, and her agency's records, left little question as to what happened in most cases. How to make a change without causing trouble?

That thought kept her from speaking much, outside of small talk with Kyon, until after they'd reached her tiny apartment and he was seated at the kotatsu. While she cooked, he did his homework, giving her some time to consider the implications. He looked up from his papers, gladly pushing them all away to make room for the dinner she'd prepared once it had finished.

"This is amazing," he swore after a handful of bites.

"I...it's the best I could make, here," she told him, blushing happily. "Um ... but, I did add some things from outside of the normal recipe..."

The realization hit her so abruptly she nearly tipped over in her seat. "T...that's it!" she exclaimed suddenly, her eyes wide as she stared at Kyon in amazement. All she needed to do was add some ingredients to history from outside of the recipe ... it would avoid violating causality, even if the end result was more seasoned to her tastes!

"Asahina-san?" Kyon asked her worriedly.

How brilliant was he, to not have had proper training, and yet understand innately that there really _was_ a loophole to allow a time traveler change history!? The implications were _staggering_! This would change time travel as her people understood it! No wonder her superiors had said she was subject to his orders; if she hadn't given him the freedom to discover that for them...

Mikuru swallowed and shook her head, giving him her brightest smile. "Y...you don't need to call me that when we're alone, Kyon-kun," she reminded him.

"Um ... Mikuru-chan? Are you oka- Woah!"

Some small part of her mind told her that aggressively launching herself at Kyon might have been a bad idea, but he'd caught her and let her momentum bear them to the floor, so she dismissed it and kissed him excitedly before he could remark on the same. She didn't care that they were missing dinner; it would be there for them once she and Kyon stopped kissing, and she could always heat it up again if she had to.

* * *

Since the meeting had been arranged by her father, Tsuruya had asked Kyon and Koizumi to meet with her at the school entrance once club activities had let out. The entire day had been more fun than usual; Tsuruya couldn't get over the fact that Kyon could change his outfit at will. Not that he tended to.

Luckily, Haruhi couldn't get over it either; they'd spent most of the meeting trying different anime character costumes on him. He'd accepted random costume changes without complaint, much to Kanae and Mikuru's barely concealed delight. On the other hand, he was still dominating everyone at Scrabble by a ludicrous margin, finally drawing even Haruhi into a game.

Kanae obligingly did her job as the referee, slowly reading out the English definitions for words she didn't know the meanings of. While it wasn't as one-sided as the previous matches, Kyon was still the clear winner. Haruhi seemed incredulous, and managed to narrow the gap, but still not beat Kyon, even when she finally insisted on a match between just the two of them. When the time for the meeting came around, Haruhi had immediately swept Kanae into her arms and rounded on Yuki, insisting that _she_ needed to study and giving Kyon a warning glare.

The two boys rounded the shoe lockers, Koizumi looking more relaxed than usual, and Kyon as implacable as he almost always appeared. Tsuruya smiled and waved at both, before they stepped out of the vestibule and started walking towards the waiting limousine. She really didn't mind that the esper was going to be there, but she had to admit that she also really enjoyed stealing private moments where she could cuddle up to Kyon and maybe kiss...

Koizumi wasn't going to help that mood - though, to be honest, her father's presence was a bigger concern. And that probably meant that she should really focus on the task at hand.

Kasai, already standing outside the vehicle, inclined his head and opened a door. The three climbed into the back seat of the car together, Tsuruya sitting between Kyon and Koizumi. The bodyguard and driver closed the door and walked around the car, climbing into the front as the engine started up.

Opposite Tsuruya was her father, sitting facing her and Kyon, but brooding over what his assistant Aida was showing him on his almost eternally present PDA. Tsuruya glanced at Kyon, not really surprised at the way he glanced at the device, as though comparing it to his own, but smirked at him anyway. He caught her glance and looked the slightest bit guilty before shrugging.

Next to Aida, sharing the long bench-like seat, was Mori dressed sharply in her usual business wear, though Tsuruya was glad to see that she too now sported the family pin. The vehicle smoothly pulled into motion and Tsuruya's father grunted, Aida stowing his PDA and bowing his head apologetically.

Still in a distracted funk, the Tsuruya family patriarch pulled a cigar from within his coat, absently clipping one end before fumbling for his lighter. Even then, he was completely absorbed in his heating ritual, turning the tip of the cigar over above the flame until it heated evenly, concluding by taking a long draw. It was only then that he seemed to realize he wasn't alone in the car. Tsuruya shoved down a tiny surge of worry; her father didn't usually get distracted like this unless something had gone very wrong.

He thumbed a button from the cubby at his side, rolling the window nearest to him down a short distance and expelling a long plume of smoke towards it. Vents steered the vast majority of the smoke away, through the gap, and he settled his eyes on Kyon, nodding. He gestured with the smoking brand towards the woman past Aida. "Mori-chan?" he rumbled.

"Yes, well," she said, nodding as she turned her attention to the youths in the back of the vehicle. "Tsuruya-sama has been monitoring our reports on Sumiyoshi-rengo activity in town lately. Over the course of the last two days, we've tracked about a dozen of their known men moving into the city, and now we know why." She paused, turning her dark eyes across the three.

"I'm not up to date on the latest of the Tsuruya-gumi's actions, but I do have a suspicion, here," Koizumi remarked, crossing his arms over his chest thoughtfully. "Considering that we suspect some NPA hand of moving chess pieces from behind the scenes, so to speak... Well, as we've heard from the Tamaru brothers, they unintentionally allowed one suspect to coerce a lead on the case involving Kyon's shooting."

"That's right," Mori agreed. She produced a folded newspaper from a cubby at her side and unfolded it enough to reveal the headline. "'Hundreds of firearms seized in secret NPA raid'," she quoted. "This was released to the presses this morning, but it seems the actual raid happened some time yesterday."

"Aah," Tsuruya realized, grimacing and shaking her head. "Sos, now the entire Sumiyoshi-rengo is hurtings, not just the Fujiya-tachi. And they're itchings for revenge against whoever they blames?"

"That's the speculation," her father agreed, nodding.

Kyon leaned forward a short distance, frowning. "I'm not sure I get everything," he began apologetically, "but do I understand that someone is trying to pick a fight between us? I mean, with the Sumiyoshi-rengo and the Tsuruya-tachi?"

Tsuruya couldn't help but grin at how comfortably Kyon included himself in the group. Her father seemed to take it in stride, just nodding in answer.

"Well, chess master," Koizumi prompted, turning to look at Kyon, "what strategy do you suggest?"

"Information is power," Kyon answered without hesitation. "In go, chess, shogi - it doesn't really matter - in all of those games, you can see the entire board. Here, this is maybe in places like chess, and in other places more like poker - we can't see the other guy's hand, so we don't know what cards they bring, or what strategy they're pursuing. If I were like Nagato I might be able to figure it out, but I'm not."

"No plan, then?" Koizumi asked, his smile fading.

"I didn't say that," Kyon countered. "I'd like to collect more information without revealing too much of our own hand to the enemy. Any move I made right now would be to play dumb; don't betray anything by acting rashly." He frowned and shook his head. "But the rules of this game... Hell, right now, we don't even know who one of the players is."

Tsuruya nodded in sympathy; her father was only peripherally aware of the other things Kyon was weighing. Koizumi's jokes aside, the board was a lot bigger than he could probably handle alone. Luckily, it was a team game; she knew she wasn't ready to grasp a lot of the details of the current situation herself. But she could handle quite a bit.

In fact, that had been her eventual responsibility. While she was going to be the next family head, her father had good decades of life left, at least. She didn't intend to sit by idly and wait to inherit, and she could advise Kyon on how to handle the ninkyo dantai aspects in the meantime. "Oh, politics," she sighed, smiling. "Usually, to avoid bloodshed in this situations, we would sends someone to meet with the Sumiyoshi-rengo and discuss what happened. With luck, we could explains things peacefully."

Her father nodded and puffed on his cigar again. "The Sumiyoshi-rengo have lost thirty eight men from their forces, including the oyabun of three separate groups in that NPA raid," he intoned gravely.

Tsuruya swallowed uncomfortably at that. Aida glanced at the man in mild surprise before shrugging, adding, "In terms of holdings, they lost a major smuggling operation - and nearly forty billion yen in seized vehicles, property, and contraband."

Mori contributed, "On the organizational front, it was a perfect storm of NPA activity. The information got to the NPA in the nick of time for them to stage a last-moment raid. Moreover, for the Sumiyoshi-rengo, an additional high-profile group was involved in this particular smuggling operation. Despite not having their customary time to train for the encounter, the SAT team - under NPA supervision - suffered no fatalities in the raid."

"A stinging loss, a major insult, and significant financial damage," Tsuruya's father concluded. "So. I'm leery of sending a messenger over."

Kyon frowned. "Okay, so they're angry; what can we do to keep ourselves safe?" he asked. "Until we know what's going on, at least."

"If it's not out of place for me to make this observation," Mori began hesitantly, shifting her gaze to the Tsuruya family head, one fingertip rising to trace across the pin on her coat, "I felt that Fujiya Masao was honest when he wished for peace."

"I thought so too, though," Kyon noted, shrugging glumly.

Tsuruya's father raised his eyebrows, nodding before he took a long draw from his brand, expelling it slowly. "What we really need," he said, chewing absently on his cigar, "is a way to speak to Masao. It's entirely possible at this point that he's not connected with the Sumiyoshi-rengo. So, as angry as the newcomers in town may be, it's possible it's not with us, as much as them. Either way, for the cost to pride, I wouldn't be surprised if we made more viable targets than the NPA, and they need a show of strength for morale."

"What, you mean recruiting him?" Tsuruya asked, startled.

"Not likely," her father countered, shaking his head with a mild smirk. "But an alliance; it would be best if they could somehow survive, and continue to be the convenient distraction they were."

"First things first," Kyon put in. "If we want to talk to Masao, I can do that."

Her father's eyebrows rose as he studied Kyon. "You think so?" he mused.

"I got in before; I talked to Jun - one of the guys who shot me," he confirmed, nodding.

Tsuruya took a deep breath, shaking her head in admiration. Well, she wasn't going to be left behind, anyway. "Good thinking," she encouraged him. In the meantime ... she would have to talk to Haruhi about setting up a meeting with the Sumiyoshi-rengo anyway. If they needed more information, she wasn't about to neglect a source. And she was positive that with some help from Yuki, they could even do it safely.

"Alright," her father allowed, studying Kyon curiously. "Tomorrow, then, if you still want to do that, Kyon-kun... But be careful."

"Yes," Tsuruya agreed, turning to face her fiance and realizing there wasn't enough traffic to give her the time she really wanted before they would part ways. "Haru-nyan and Nagato-chi will be furious with me if you get dinged up!"

"I'll be careful," he agreed, quirking his lips in a smile. "Besides," he added, jerking a thumb at Koizumi, "if things get really bad, my personal assistant can bail me out." After looking mildly surprised for a moment, Koizumi smiled and nodded, spreading his hands in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

"Goods, goods," her father sighed, stubbing out his cigar, his smile widening. "I'm glad that my daughters attracts competent people to her!"

Tsuruya giggled into her sleeve, thinking he didn't know the half of it.

* * *

After meeting up with Miyoko for most of the walk home, Nonoko was delighted to see her brother waiting at the gates. "Kyon-kun!" she chirped, launching into a tackling hug, which he caught her in effortlessly.

"Kyon-nii-san!" Miyoko called out, waving with her free hand before stooping to collect Nonoko's dropped bag. "You're out of your club early today?"

"Yeah, I have a mission today," he agreed. "So I had to come home early." He took Nonoko's bag from Miyoko, admonishing, "Imouto, you didn't thank Miyoko-chan properly for picking up your bag. You should carry it yourself."

Nonoko pouted at her brother. "Okay," she grumbled, accepting her bag before she brightened. "What's your mission?"

"You won't be in any danger, will you?" Miyoko asked worriedly.

"You know, I can honestly say it's nothing I've never done before?" he remarked, grinning. "I have to go speak to someone who's very difficult to get to."

She could imagine it easily; he was probably breaking into a military base - or a high security prison. Somewhere that some unsuspecting mortals had managed to restrain a dark general, or just kept one who had decided to stop following their evil ways. In any case, her brother would have to watch out. "If you've done it before in the same place, then you should watch out for government secret agents," she warned him in a hushed voice, covering her hand with her mouth, just in case there were any spies around. "They mean well, but they don't understand your job!"

He nodded thoughtfully at that. "It's amazing, but I have almost no fear for your ability to survive in the world, Imouto. Somehow, you're starting to act so much like Haruhi did when I first met her, I'm confident you'll be invincible."

"I just need my magical girl powerup!" Nonoko exclaimed cheerfully. "I _know_ it will come some day!"

"With Shamisen as your magical spirit guide?" Miyoko asked, giggling.

She considered that; it was a good question. "No," she decided after a moment. "I think I want a pixie, or a fairy. And, anyway, Shami is a boy cat!"

Kyon and Miyoko laughed together at that. "Well, if you ever need help fighting dark generals of your own, let me know," Kyon told her. "I'll help you out."

"Silly," she chided her brother. "Boys are super-easy to mind-control! I don't want to have to fight you, too."

"Darn, I guess I'd better stick to my own genres," he sighed, shaking his head. "Speaking of which," he added, as they reached the corner where Miyoko would split away, "Tsuruya-kun got tickets for both of you; will you be able to come to see the movie tomorrow, Miyoko-chan? I'm not sure Imouto remembered to tell you that you were invited."

She felt her face redden as Miyoko's eyes widened. "O...oh, okay!" she said cheerfully. "Right! I'm sure it will be fine with my parents - will Haru-nee and Mikuru-nee be there?" She swallowed, looking bashfully away for some reason. "O...or ... Koizumi-san?"

He shook his head slightly in negation as they stopped, quirking one eyebrow higher. "Um ... no, Tsuruya-kun and Kanae-chan. I have a feeling I'm going to end up taking everyone else to see it later, though."

Miyoko's excitement diminished slightly, but she nodded. "Okay, well, it would be nice to see a movie with you that went, um, well... So, yes, okay! We'll meet tomorrow?"

"Sure, just walk home with Imouto. Tsuruya-kun said she would come by to pick us up after gathering Kanae-chan," he agreed.

The other girl nodded excitedly, then waved goodbye and skipped away, humming. "I think," Nonoko said slowly, frowning, "that Miyoko-chan has a crush on Koizumi-kun!"

"That may be," her brother allowed, resuming the walk home.

"But he's so boring," she mused. "I wonder why she likes him?"

Kyon blinked, then looked at her sidelong. "I'm not sure I want to touch this one," he answered, after a long, thoughtful pause. "This is starting to be the line of discussion I'd rather inflict on Mom."

"What's that mean?"

"Mom's the expert in this stuff," he clarified. "You should ask her."

"Okay!" she decided, as he opened the door. Their mother was inside in the kitchen, calling out a greeting after they announced themselves in practiced tandem. "Mom! Oh, guess what they announced at school today?" She hopped out of her outdoor shoes and landed in her slippers, bouncing again up the short step into the house proper, out of the entryway. In the hall, she skipped from one foot to the other excitedly, rifling through her bag before pulling out the permission slip she had been given earlier. She slid to a halt before she lost her balance, halfway down the hall.

"What, do you need a signature to attend a certain class?" their mother asked, mildly intrigued as she walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands with a small hand-towel.

"Better!" she crowed, as her brother more sedately slipped off his shoes and put on his slippers, incidentally picking her own shoes up before her mother noted. She belatedly realized that she was getting too excited ... no reason to jeopardize this, after all. Settling down, she held the paper out to her mother like an offering. "Field trip!"

"They're doing field trips in elementary school now?" Kyon asked, intrigued. "Is it to a library or hospital? Something like that?"

"No~ope~!" she cheered, grinning and shaking her head. "We're going to Gokoko... Uh, it's Gukuku..." She stifled a gasp of despair. Her magical-girl trip depended on this! How could she not remember how to pronounce where she was going?"

"Gokoku-ji," her mother said, reading from the paper. "Hmm, that sounds familiar..."

"It's the name of a temple," her brother said authoritatively. She remembered the same thing being mentioned by the friendly, unfamiliar teacher that had joined the roster, sharing the opening minutes of class with her usual home-room teacher. "It's located in-"

Her mother abruptly snapped the paper down, looking sharply up at Kyon. "You had tests back today, didn't you?"

"I got a ninety eight in math, and a perfect score for grammar," he answered, reaching into his coat and pulling out two folded sheets of paper. "Oh, I also promised that I was going to go out and do errands for Tsuruya-kun. I might not be back until late."

Nonoko shifted from foot to foot in agitation as her mother was distracted from the all-important field-trip form to glance at Kyon in surprise. "Is that so?" she asked, impressed. "Well, then, by all means!"

"Mo~om!" Nonoko whined. "My permission slip!" It was all well and good that Kyon's career was working out, but she deserved to go on this field-trip. Kyon had gotten to go on an amazing island adventure, after all, and she'd been left out, despite her best efforts. This was her chance to go somewhere remote and special, where she would have her once-in-a-life-time encounter that would give her the much-needed magical-girl powerup!

"I'm not sure about this," her mother said doubtfully, while her brother took advantage of the opportunity to slip away upstairs. "Really, three days ... and that fee..."

Nonoko bit her lip, thinking of something else the pretty young teacher had mentioned. "The trip coordinator mentioned that they're looking for additional parent chaperones," she volunteered. "They would get to join the trip at the same rate!"

Time outside of the hallway should have stopped by all rights due to the gravity of the situation, but surprisingly quickly, her brother trotted back down the stairs, dressed in a very sharp dark blue suit, adjusting his cuffs as he reached the hallway. A pair of dress shoes dangled from his fingertips as he stepped around her, disrupting the quiet moment.

"Where will you be going?" her mother pressed Kyon, looking away from the paperwork again.

"Well," he began, before the house's doorbell rang. He shrugged sheepishly and went to the entryway, opening the door. Tsuruya stood outside in a formal kimono, waving one hand and grinning as cheerfully as ever. "Hello, Tsuruya-kun," he greeted her, stepping out of his slippers and tugging on his shoes. "My mom was just asking what we'd be doing tonight."

"Oh, well, Kyon-kun here is working for my father part-times, just like I am," Tsuruya explained with a giggle. Her eyes drifted from Nonoko's mother to the small girl, and she blinked, her smile fading slightly. "Imouto-kun? What's wrong?"

Nonoko could have sniffled, if she weren't braver; trust Tsuruya, reliable as always, to notice her distress. She launched herself at the taller girl, glomping onto her in a hug. "I want to go on a field trip!" she cried. "But I don't think we can!"

Tsuruya caught her easily, giggling and twirling. "Silly Imouto-kun!" she chirped. "It's not decided yets, is it?"

"No," she admitted ... though, realistically, her mother seldom changed her mind once she seemed even slightly opposed to something.

"This is about that field trip?" Kyon asked, running one hand through his hair. "Imouto..."

"I didn't rule it out absolutely," her mother said, suddenly contrite, putting her hands on her her hips. "Nonoko, you should be better behaved! Especially around your brother's fiancee!"

"She's fine, she's fine!" Tsuruya insisted, setting her down back inside the doorway of her house. "I like to see Imouto-kun's smiles!"

"Then, I can go on the trip?" she asked, looking at her mother hopefully.

She sighed, looking pained. "Nonoko..."

"Is there anythings I can do to help?" Tsuruya asked earnestly.

"Ah, n...no," her mother relented, "it's in hand ... fine, alright, we'll go, Nonoko, but I expect you to keep your grades where they're at! If you slip, it's off!"

"Yes!" she exalted, cheering. "I will, I promise!"

"Alrighty, then," Tsuruya said brightly, waving, "we'll be back later; gots to make up for lost time!" She linked her arm through Kyon's and dashed to the waiting limousine.

"Thank you, Mom!" Nonoko cheered, scrambling up the stairs to her room to finish her homework before her mother could change her mind.

* * *

After reviewing a map of the compound, pointing out the route that he and Yuki had taken to the cells, Kyon had gotten dropped off at a train station a few miles away. Slipping into a restroom stall, he changed his outfit to match a salary-man he had scanned earlier with his PDA. He thumbed through a few options and improved the illusion so that his face and body would appear to match the same man, then stepped out and ambled through the throng of people in the station to the waiting traffic circle.

Fifteen minutes later, he had gotten himself on a taxi headed towards the station - and a sizable traffic jam. Three blocks from his target, he told his driver he'd just get out and walk, tipping the unsurprised man what he hoped was a standard sum.

Near the station, he checked the PDA's power monitor, which tracked the reserves of all his tools. Conveniently, they shared their energy, so the greatcoat had no trouble maintaining the image. The power usage didn't change noticeably when he ducked into an alley and became completely invisible. Alone and unseen, he paused, taking stock of himself and considering what he was doing.

This wasn't much crazier than anything else he had done before, save that he'd decided to try and avoid bothering Yuki, for a change. And, he admitted to himself, this had become a much more personal issue than some of the other things he'd dealt with. Deciding he'd wasted enough time already, he double-timed it out of the alley and down the street, slowing to a quick walk as he slipped through behind a pair of policemen returning to the station.

The wide doorways slid shut behind the officers, and he consulted his mental map, turning to a long hallway and marching down its empty, quiet length. Attached rooms betrayed undecipherable buzzes of conversation, or occasionally nothing at all. As he approached the end of the hallway, where a pair of double-doors stood, he froze, flinching as another nearby side-door abruptly clicked open.

A woman in a dark brown skirt and coat backed out of the door, carrying a clipboard with a small sheaf of papers attached, and then tugged it shut behind her. She glanced both ways down the deserted hall, then strode purposefully directly towards Kyon.

He hopped away, muffling a belated curse as he realized she wasn't charging him, merely heading swiftly towards the double-doors. He stepped behind her, following her closely enough to slip through when she paused and fished a card from her coat pocket, passing it over a reader and causing the door to unlock with a loud click and a resounding buzz.

The room beyond was the same one Yuki had brought him to, once before. He saw the door they had used, then, and watched the woman he had followed as she approached a desk and rapped her knuckles on it. The white-haired man behind the desk glanced up from a bank of security monitors and smiled politely. "Akasaka-dono," he greeted the woman, inclining his head to her. "Is there something I can help you with?"

She nodded back, handing over the clipboard. "I need these forms to be signed," she explained, "concerning interviews with our current captives - based on the recent arrests in Osaka."

While Kyon didn't particularly care for their small-talk, he was stuck in the room until someone else opened a door - a serious oversight. He mentally berated himself; Yuki wouldn't have made a careless mistake like that. And, he pondered, he had no way to deal with a locked door, either. Pulling his PDA from his pocket, he made a reminder for what he needed to learn that night.

In the meantime, his mission hadn't been a total failure yet. The doors to the cell-block opened, an unfamiliar pair of detectives and a uniformed officer striding together. "We'll get back to the interview in about an hour," one of the detectives said, rolling his head, one hand on the back of his neck. "But, man, talk about tight-lipped."

Kyon slipped through the doorway again as the detectives began to discuss where to get their mid-shift meal. While his PDA was in his hand, he also added a timer for when he could expect the detectives to be back to open the door again. Pocketing the device, he slipped down the hallway into the cell-block and then stopped before yet another locked door.

He turned around just in time to watch the entrance door slam shut. Okay, he thought to himself. First solo mission progress ... less than optimal.

Since he had nothing better to do, he studied the corridor he was in. A pair of empty holding cells were on either side, their bars forming walls, with another secured steel door, locked, but with a keyhole. Glancing around revealed a video camera, so forcing the door was out of the question ... but probably picking the lock would have been, too.

The air duct was heavily barred, but very tiny. There were just four of them in a row atop the overhanging concrete wall. Kyon gauged that he probably wouldn't fit through the vents, even if he did remove the grate. It did look like they might be out of view of the camera, at least.

Muffling a sigh, he sat down on the floor and pulled out his PDA. Still plenty of power, so... He realized in a worse case scenario, he could just follow the detectives. Unless they happened to be planning on talking with Masao, at least. According to the clock, he had only to wait forty more minutes.

He flipped to his notebook and had the PDA turn his training note into a wish-list, adding 'spy skills', and filling in a list of things he'd probably need to know. Some way to get around cameras with regards to doors, at the very least. Probably something to hack computers ... retrospectively, he'd gotten lucky on that count the first time he'd helped Tsuruya fight off the Sumiyoshi-rengo.

After compiling enough items to become bored, he flipped through the menus and played chess, beating the AI soundly twice. He was debating a third game when the application quit, spontaneously loading minesweeper instead. He eyed the field of potential digital explosions, leaning slightly away from his own PDA.

Taking a hint, he pocketed the device and checked the time on his watch. The second hand slowly ticked away. Another two minutes passed before the doors to the lobby abruptly slammed open, and he hopped to his feet. The two uniformed officers came down the hall, evidently in the middle of an animated discussion.

"Every time, though," the first officer grumbled, holding the door open, one hand adjusting his hat over his short gray hair. "It's been at least three times now, right?"

"I'm not saying you don't get sick every time we go there," the younger officer with him commented, his own hat tucked in the crook of his arm. He stepped through the doorway into the corridor with Kyon, looking back over his shoulder and asking, "But why do you always order the same thing? None of us get the-"

"Officers," the woman that Kyon had followed earlier snapped, visible in the lobby that Kyon had last seen her in. "If I can just ask you to focus on the task at hand? You _are_ escorting dangerous men from solitary back to their holding cells, aren't you?"

"Hey," the younger officer began, scowling as he turned, ready to march back into the lobby, before he was suddenly cut off. The older officer placed a palm on the other man's chest, shoving him backward and out of the woman's line of sight.

"Yes, Akasaka-san," the older man agreed, bowing as he hurriedly backed into the corridor. "We're all business through these doors."

The bareheaded officer scowled, tugging his hat on properly. "Takahara, I don't see why I can't just tell that NPA bi-"

"Enough, Toji!" the older officer barked at his young colleague. "Don't piss her off, and don't badmouth her - that's what we call a career limiting move. You want a promotion? Behave yourself!"

Stung, Toji recoiled from the other officer. Kyon shifted his shoulders uncomfortably at being made an unintentional eavesdropper, and waited for Takahara to fish a large keyring from his belt and unlock the inner door. "So," the young man said in a subdued voice, "we're moving Fujiya, first?"

"That's right," Takahara agreed. He opened the door and slipped through, Kyon following immediately, and Toji a moment later. He followed the pair through a number of security doors before they finally opened what had looked to Kyon like an armored closet door. He realized it was Fujiya's solitary confinement cell as the still-proud Yakuza tottered out, standing stiffly and presenting his wrists to be handcuffed, staring challengingly at Toji.

For his relative youth, the officer was unfazed, cuffing him swiftly and then leading him down the hall as his partner closed the cell, then moved ahead to the cell block. "Watanabe gets out too?" the man rasped, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

"Yeah, your good friend is being transferred as soon as he gets out of medical."

"Where?"

Toji snorted in response, rolling his eyes. Kyon followed the group in silence until they reached a cell-block, almost every cell filled with the somewhat familiar members of Fujiya's gang. After the small-time gang leader was locked in his cell and unbound, the older man said, "Now, enjoy yourself, but not as much as last time, alright?"

"I want to talk to my lawyer," Fujiya grated in response, tottering to his cell's small sink, filling his cup and drinking thirstily.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll put out the word," the officer said dryly. "But don't hold your breath for a miracle at this hour - I doubt your defender is as devoted as Odoroki Hosuke."

Fujiya merely filled his cup and drank again, ignoring the officers as they walked away. Kyon pursed his lips thoughtfully and glanced around, realizing that at least half a dozen other men could see where he was standing from their cells. He nervously checked his PDA, but the power was still fine. Now, he hadn't thought this part through, either. How to talk to the man without causing a huge ruckus?

He went to the cell door, looking around. The men in the adjacent cells were quietly complacent, while the man directly across softly played a harmonica - or tried to. Leaning close to the bars, Kyon cupped a hand to his mouth and whispered, "Hey!"

Fujiya grunted in response after his third cup of water, turning around and glancing at his surroundings blearily. Seeing nothing, he filled his cup a fourth time.

"Hey!" Kyon whispered again, slightly more loudly. "Fujiya-san!"

The man jerked slightly, but finished drinking his cup before turning around, hesitantly ambling towards the cell door. "Where are you?" he mumbled, casting about.

"Outside your cell," Kyon answered very quietly.

The man nodded slightly, and the harmonica player abruptly cut off. "Sorry, Boss," he said, apologetically. "Didn't mean to bother you."

"No," Fujiya answered, shaking his head and leaning against his door. "Play it. Louder, even."

"Y...you like 'Never Did No Ramblin'?" the player asked in surprise, naming the song in English.

"Yeah, sure."

"Do you prefer the Folksmen version, or the way the New-"

"Just play it," Fujiya growled.

"Uh ... okay, right." The warbling harmonica began again, louder this time, and Fujiya mumbled, "Kowa-Keigo Kyon, eh? So you really do have mystic powers."

"Something like that," Kyon allowed, just as quietly. "I'm here as a representative of the Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi."

"Damn, your branch is something else, sending a messenger in here," Fujiya mumbled dubiously. "Well, what's the deal, then? I'm guessing that more Sumiyoshi-rengo are showing up throughout town?"

"That's right," Kyon agreed, quickly outlining the facts of the raid and what they knew of recent Sumiyoshi-rengo losses. Fujiya looked at first unsettled, then disgusted, until he finished.

"This is still all actually Watanabe's fault," Fujiya sighed. "Not that it matters; none of the Sumiyoshi-rengo have spoken to us, except through the lawyers they've sent over."

"However that works out," Kyon replied, shrugging. "There's a strong suspicion that the folks in town these days may not be your friends..."

"Well, you can call that suspicion a fact," Fujiya confirmed, shaking his head and leaning it against the bars of his cell. "Now, what else did you come here for?"

After a breath to settle himself, Kyon said, "While we can't go through the formality here, I've been asked to extend what may be a mutually beneficial offer."

"You're recruiting us to join the Tsuruya-tachi?" Fujiya asked sourly.

"No," Kyon replied quickly, shaking his head before he realized the man couldn't see it. The harmonica player hit a high note and coughed, apologizing before he restarted the song again. "We're recruiting you to join the Yamaguchi-gumi."

Fujiya's lips curled in a smile and he nodded slowly, understanding. "Well, then," he mumbled, smirking, "you want an alliance? I'm about to need a new lawyer."

Kyon remembered not to nod. "I'll see what I can do," he agreed.

"If you can, take this," Fujiya murmured, glancing around anxiously and producing a flattened piece of origami through the bars of his cell. Kyon took it, though he could tell by the way the other man's eyes stopped tracking it that it vanished inside his greatcoat. "We're being played. Keep your eyes open, youngster."

Kyon blinked in surprise at that as the officers returned to the corridor. "No dice, Fujiya, your lawyer says you fired him," Toji called, shrugging. "You can start looking for a new one in the morning."

Shaking his head to himself, Kyon followed the officers out of the cell block.

The woman from earlier was still there, speaking of something to the older officer behind the desk. Remembering that the officers had mentioned she worked for the NPA, he absently took his PDA from his pocket, raising it to snap a picture of her with a digitized shutter click.

She abruptly looked up, scanning through the space he occupied, and he realized that for whatever reason, the sound had been audible. No one else seemed to have heard; the woman - Akasaka, the man had called her - studied the two officers Kyon had followed briefly, frowning, then shook her head and turned back to the desk.

Deciding he'd pushed his luck more than far enough, Kyon swiftly followed the two officers back to the building's public lobby, slipping through the door as the detectives he'd seen earlier returned, and his PDA chimed a soft reminder.

He scowled, fumbling for the device and shutting off the alarm, but no one else noted. It wasn't until he was outside, his heart hammering wildly that he remembered that all cell phones and cameras were required by law to make a sound, ostensibly to make things harder for voyeurs. Not that this had slowed Jun and his gang down much - had Yuki just been making a device that adhered to the laws, or was that another of her ideas of a joke?

Shaking his head, he pocketed the PDA again, grateful for the chance to bound out of the building and move around more freely. Alone in the cool dark air, he found a series of warehouse roofs and when they ran out, he engaged in a gleeful bout of roof-hopping, all the way back to Tsuruya's place.


	36. Chapter 35

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Calm Before the Storm Arc II

Chapter Thirty Five: Tedious Politicing

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Seven: Gaining Strength"_

_"When you devote yourself to getting stronger and more able to do things ... don't forget to practice being careful with your new powers, too..."_

_"Mirror, Mirror" - T.K._

* * *

Tsuruya was sipping tea quietly near her father in one of the sitting rooms in her house - the ancestral Tsuruya home. Koizumi sat at the same table next to Mori, his phone sitting on the table near his teacup, not ringing. Tsuruya's father nodded thoughtfully at something on one of the stacks of papers before him, then made a note and shuffled it to one side.

Aida paced softly in the back of the room, quietly punching things into his PDA and looking distracted - but he stopped and was the first one to notice Kyon's return. The boy stepped in from the door leading to the porch, and Tsuruya instantly perked up. She had every faith in Kyon, but somehow, that didn't keep her from worrying.

Her fiance was walking next to Shinobu, looking at her slightly askance, his shoes dangling from the fingertips of one hand. Tsuruya's maid took Kyon's shoes before he could protest, then gently motioned him into the room properly.

He shrugged and stepped over the threshold, bowing politely to Tsuruya's father as the man turned to look. For her part, Tsuruya eagerly bounced up from her seat on the floor to traipse to Kyon's side and give him a kiss on the cheek. Though he colored, Kyon didn't remark or complain, and Tsuruya made a note to herself to make sure that she got to spend at least a few minutes alone with Kyon some point soon.

Well, maybe with Kanae, too... Hmm, that might end up being awkward, though. She filed that thought away for later consideration.

"I'm back," he said, managing a nervously happy smile for Tsuruya, and a more neutral nod for everyone else.

"Excellent!" the Tsuruya family patriarch crowed, grinning widely, gesturing Kyon to take a seat. "How did it go, then?"

Mori and Koizumi also watched expectantly, though they remained silent. Kyon took a seat at the side of the table nearer to Koizumi, and Tsuruya unhesitantly took the space directly at his side. Her father raised one eyebrow a fraction of an inch, then just scooted over, not particularly minding having one entire side of the table to himself. "It ended up taking longer than I originally planned, but I was able to reach Fujiya Masao-san," Kyon answered, bowing his head and giving Tsuruya another of his smiles when she poured him some tea.

She felt momentarily sad that she couldn't actually prepare tea very well, and that Shinobu had made the drink for everyone. Maybe she could learn? She dismissed the thought almost instantly, crushing it with cheer. So what if she couldn't make tea outside of the tea ceremony, or cook at all? She was a ninkyo dantai heiress, and she could do other things for Kyon. Why try and edge in on one of Mikuru's sources of pride?

"And?" her father prompted, while Mori picked up her teacup in both hands, not sipping it, but only holding the beverage.

Setting his own cup down, Kyon straightened slightly, pulling a flattened, somewhat crumpled origami flower from within his coat. "Fujiya-san said that he has broken ties with the Sumiyoshi-rengo, and is considering the offer to join the Yamaguchi-gumi," he answered. "He also mentioned that he thinks there's someone behind the scenes trying to pull strings, too, and that this note may be from that person."

Aida was at the table instantly, seating himself from his anxious pacing opposite Kyon and looking at the paper with undisguised interest. Tsuruya's father gave no indication that he noticed, just picking up the paper and turning it over, examining it closely. "Tawny daylily," he determined after a moment, not trying to straighten it out or unfold it. He then handed the paper across the table to Mori, who accepted it curiously, unfolding the paper carefully and spreading it across the table.

Aida glanced quickly between his PDA and the picture, frowning intently. "Interesting," Mori remarked.

"'The NPA are chasing the gun; if Watanabe talks, you can walk'," Koizumi quoted. "Would it seem accurate to infer that this is the note that set our current bout of issues with the Sumiyoshi-rengo into motion?"

"I would guess so," Aida agreed, looking up.

"This was hand-painted," Tsuruya remarked, studying the characters.

"No pen or printer," Mori agreed. "If it were printed, there might be a chance of tracking it to the source. If it were written with a pen, it might have left an impression somewhere. While it's possible that whoever wrote this was trying to appeal to classical sensibilities, my speculation is that the writer was merely trying to avoid being traced."

"A caligraphy kit seems somehow more notable than a printer or a pen," Aida opined, frowning thoughtfully. "But I suppose a brush, inkstone, and paper can be hidden easily enough... Well, what else would you guess?"

"I think the writers is a woman," Tsuruya added, noting the incredible neatness of the text - there were no stray drops of ink, and the brush was meticulously groomed. No stray hairs had trailed extraneous tiny marks across any of the writing.

"I think you're right," Kyon replied, producing his own PDA and flipping through some options before handing it to Tsuruya. She blinked, looking at a picture of a woman in a smart, if somewhat drab, brown business coat and skirt combination, her hair neatly styled as she turned, mid-word, to look towards the camera. "Her family name is Akasaka; I don't know her given name."

"For some reasons, that sounds very familiar," Tsuruya's father murmured, as she handed the PDA to him to examine her picture. After a moment of study, he passed it to Aida, shaking his head. "She doesn't looks familiar, though."

Aida studied the picture intently, until Kyon's PDA made a quiet, muted buzz, and changed images to a dark screen that Tsuruya couldn't make out from across the table. Somewhat chagrined, the man passed it back, saying, "My apologies, Kyon-dono."

Tsuruya realized with some amusement that the PDA had locked itself, until Kyon touched it and pressed a fingertip against the screen. "It probably just caught your fingerprint," Kyon explained, shrugging. "If it doesn't match... Did you want a copy of that picture?"

"If you don't mind," Aida agreed, nodding, tapping some keys on his own PDA. "By the way, what model is that...?"

"It's, uh ... custom," Kyon answered, shrugging. "Where should I send the picture?"

After a brief minute of technical chatter, Aida had the picture and excused himself with a bow, promising to return after he submitted a few queries.

"Impressive, though," Tsuruya's father remarked after a minute, draining his teacup. "How did you manages to get that picture?"

"Ah, well ... you know, if you do it right, people kind of just look right through you," Kyon answered, somewhat evasive as he chuckled nervously.

"I've learned it's better not to ask," Mori said quietly, when Tsuruya's father looked intrigued. "Sir, may I see that picture?"

Kyon nodded, handing the phone over for her to study. "She could be the one who's pulling the strings, or she could just be an NPA agent working on anything else," he warned apologetically.

"She's not familiar to me in any case," Mori sighed, shaking her head. "Well, at least I'll know who she is if I see her."

Accepting the PDA as Mori handed it back, Kyon shrugged slightly. "Anyway, back to Fujiya Masao-san - he mentioned that he was going to need a new lawyer," he said, tucking the device into his coat pocket and turning to face Tsuruya's father.

The green-haired man raised his eyebrows, his smile returning. "Good," he decided. "We have many lawyers at our disposals; I will try to arrange for the best ones!"

Tsuruya looked for something to add, but couldn't find anything else at the moment, so glanced at Mori - incidentally leaning against Kyon a tiny bit. He maintained his posture, his eyes flicking briefly to hers as he gave her a tiny a smile, otherwise still facing her father. Well, Kyon had just done the syndicate at large a huge favor, and helped fortify their positions.

"Right," he continued, furrowing his brow and giving Kyon a calculating look, his smile fading slightly. "Kyon-kun, to be honests, I'm quite amazed at your capabilities, here." He tapped the unfolded origami with a fingertip. "And it's thanks to you that our organizations has had Mori-chan's help in some recent matters."

Koizumi shifted slightly, putting on his implacable, smiling mask in the face of the man's speech. Mori looked uncertain, but Kyon remained politely attentive.

"That being said," the man said, lacing his fingers together on the table before him, completely enveloping his teacup in his hands. "I have every faith that you can works effectively as your own syndicate for a while."

Mori blinked in surprise, a pleased smile coming to her lips. Koizumi nodded thoughtfully, while Kyon looked to Tsuruya, who tried to keep her laughter in check, but let a wide grin blossom. "Who's the boss?" she asked her father, expecting that it would be Mori, but wanting to be certain.

"You, of course, Haruka-chan," the man said mildly. "I'm going to be very busy for a whiles with the Fujiya-tachi, especially with the new Sumiyoshi-rengo still in towns. But don't worry! I'll take care of that, and Kasai will helps you out - I won't have my future son-in-laws getting attacked again!"

Then he raised his hands and clapped them together, grinning fit to match his daughter. "So! Kyon-kun here should eat somethings after his mission! Why don't we have dinner?"

Shinobu swept into the room, kneeling betwen Tsuruya and her father in a smooth, practiced motion. She bowed her head respectfully from her kneeling position. "A...actually, Tsuruya-sama," Mori interrupted apologetically, "Itsuki-kun and I already had dinner. And there's some paperwork I really have to take care of..."

"Homework, myself," Koizumi said with a mournful smile, shrugging his shoulders helplessly. The pair both rose and bowed politely to Tsuruya's father.

"Well, good luck, then," the man allowed. "I supposes it's just the three of us then, eh? Why don't-"

Shinobu coughed, very quietly, and Tsuruya thought she caught the most fleeting glimpse of the maid shooting her father a warning look. He sat up straighter at the table, patting his suit coat pockets before picking up the unfolded origami. "Uh, hum, actually, I need to discuss some business with Aida - you two will have to have dinner without me." He rose from the table and quickly strode away, pulling a phone from his pocket as he did.

"Take care, Tsuruya-sama," Kyon said politely, rising from his seat to bow to the patriarch.

"Bye, Father!" she called, waving. "I'll see you on Saturdays for dinner, alright?"

"Yes, yes," he agreed, looking back over his shoulder to shoot a smile at his daughter and her fiance. "And you two have a nice evening! We shall have a meal together another times!" After that, he vanished through the doorway, already pressing a button on his phone.

"Hmm," Kyon mused, sinking to sit back at the table with a curious glance to Shinobu.

She returned an innocent look, and Tsuruya decided that warranted investigation ... later. For the time being, she said, "I'd like dinner for Kyon-kun and I, please!"

"Understood," Shinobu agreed, bowing even lower before she rose and smoothly began to glide away.

"So!" Tsuruya exclaimed cheerfully, reaching beneath the edge of the table and fishing out the remote. "Let's catch up on some Trope-tan before the movies tomorrow night!"

"Sure," he agreed, giving her an almost concealed smile of amusement before turning to look at the wall partition that slid quietly away to reveal the television behind it. "I think I saw through the end of season two with Kanae-chan and Nagato."

After punching in the first episode of season three, she confided, "I don't like this openings song as much as season two, but the endings are better." Stretching out to lean against him comfortably, she rested her head on his shoulder. "Hey," she wondered suddenly. "Haru-nyan is 'Haruhi', Kanae-chan is 'Kanae-chan', I get to be 'Tsuruya-kun'..." She trailed off and giggled, thinking about Mikuru, then skipped ahead to her main point: "Why is Yuki-chan still 'Nagato'?"

"Um," Kyon mused, frowning thoughtfully. "That is really not the question I had expected. It might be nice to call her something else, but I guess I'm just afraid of overstepping...?"

Tsuruya nodded thoughtfully at that. "Well, I thinks she wouldn't mind," she assured him. "But, you can always asks her!"

"That's true," he admitted, sighing softly.

She smiled ruefully, realizing she had worried him more than she had managed to calm him. "Well, don't worry about that! You did a great job on today's missions; you can handle anything!"

He pulled slightly away from her, enough to give her a smile that told her she had cheered him back up again.

Grinning back at him, she closed the distance between them for a kiss. It might be time for dinner soon, but she was confident that Shinobu would cough in warning... As their lips touched, she wondered if the maid might instead just cover the dishes and wait. She knew she wouldn't mind, and doubted Kyon would, either.

* * *

Kanae's police-woman's costume was almost complete; Mikuru was positive she would be done with it after one more good session of work. In the meantime, the first year girl had agreed to let Mikuru wear her maid costume again, as Kanae and Tsuruya were both heading to the Trope-tan movie with Kyon that night. So, humming to herself, she pulled the bow tight just as Haruhi opened the door explosively, looking momentarily chagrined at the realization that she had almost exposed Mikuru - again.

"Ah," Mikuru managed, slightly startled by the sudden appearance of the brigade chief. "Um! I'll make the tea!"

"I should have dressed up today," Haruhi sighed, shaking her head. "We have to figure out a better rotation for costumes."

"So far, I like pretty much all of them," Kyon mused. "Though, I have to admit that I've only ever seen Haruhi in her cheongsam once."

"Suzumiya-sempai has a dress like that?" Kanae gasped, eyes widening. "Ooh, those are, um, mature outfits!"

Mikuru felt her face redden, wondering what it meant that Haruhi had said the outfit wouldn't be good for her. Haruhi's own face was a bit red, too. "I just thought it stood out and was very pretty ... but I don't think that the cheongsam is a moe outfit, like a maid's costume, or a nurse's uniform!"

The rest of the group trooped into the room and took their seats while Mikuru prepared tea. At some point, Tsuruya and Kanae had gotten their own teacups added to the collection - Tsuruya's a handmade traditional piece with her family crest on it, and Kanae a factory-issue hot-pink mug with a cheerfully waving Trope-tan.

After the door shut, while Mikuru was still quietly humming to herself and pouring, Haruhi rapped on her desk, surveying the collected brigade, her gaze settling on Kyon. "Okay!" she called, smiling, leaning forward. "So, I hear you had a mission last night, Kyon?"

He raised an eyebrow, looking up from where Koizumi was setting up a Stratego board. "That's right," he agreed.

"All the details!" Haruhi demanded cheerfully. "I want to hear about everything, since I didn't get to go!"

"I've pre-emptively classified the majority of my mission details," Kyon countered smoothly, turning to his school bag and producing a small stack of papers, the top of which read 'Confidential' in large characters. "I'm afraid this file is sealed to my rank and higher."

"Is that so...?" Haruhi mused, raising one eyebrow speculatively. "There must be incredibly sensitive information in this report - hand it over!"

He shrugged, letting go of the papers as they flew through the air and into Haruhi's hands. The brigade chief began excitedly shuffling through the papers, reading them line-by-line. "Phone," she added, not looking up from the report, one palm extended expectantly.

Kyon rolled his eyes, setting his PDA on the table and turning his attention to the board between himself and Koizumi. Kanae watched excitedly, her sketchbook close at hand, and Tsuruya was sitting next to Yuki, the pair of them reading the Trope-tan manga. As the PDA began to drift towards Haruhi's hand, Mikuru smiled, serving out the tea.

She started with Haruhi, then went around the table, setting Yuki's cup down last. "There you go, Yuki-chan," she said cheerfully.

The smaller girl looked up, blinking once, and Mikuru got an odd sense of reassurance, that somehow, Yuki was more relaxed. "Thank you," she returned quietly.

Smiling, she stepped quietly behind Haruhi, freezing in alarm when the brigade chief suddenly extended a hand towards her, offering Kyon's PDA. In the meantime, Haruhi was still reading the papers, floating handily before her as her other hand toyed with her hair. As it was, the brigade chief's hair had grown surprisingly over the last month or so, probably a good six or seven centimeters at least. Mikuru fought back the urge to try and braid it, instead accepting the phone with an initial moment of confusion before realization set in.

She managed to keep herself from squealing in delight as the PDA immediately flipped to the 'wardrobe' function. Taking a breath to calm herself, she took her seat near the tea set, smoothing her apron down before taking the first sip of her own drink. That done, she skimmed through the recent costumes, scrolling back to the selection that Haruhi had scanned earlier.

With a single touch against the screen, Kyon's clothing had been replaced with the more classically refined outlines of the garb of Himura Kenshin - a worn but clean samurai's garb. He merely glanced at himself for the briefest moment before playing a piece against Koizumi. Swallowing, Mikuru reached into the pocket of her maid's outfit, producing her phone and quickly pulling up her copy of the picture of Kyon in his apron. The PDA had no problems scanning the picture of Kyon himself, and adding it to the collection.

Her finger hovered over the button, and she realized that Kanae was watching her shyly from across the table. Swallowing, Mikuru forced herself to resist pressing it, and put her own phone away. The important thing was, it was part of the collection. Some day, her dream of a totally domestic Kyon would be realized.

Until then... She smiled at Kanae and flipped to another costume, dressing Kyon in the outfit of Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist. He spared another glance for his cornflower blue military uniform, corded with gold at the shoulders and bearing mysterious emblems of rank, then flashily snapped his fingers when it was time for his next move, bumping the board and causing a single piece to flip into position perfectly. "Showoff," Haruhi accused, unable to keep from smirking as she glanced briefly up from reading the report. "Especially after these so-well-detailed 'minor technicalities'!"

"I didn't hear about these?" Koizumi remarked, glancing between Kyon and Haruhi curiously.

"That's classified," Kyon said without apology, making one last move. "Not bad, Koizumi, better luck next time."

"Yep," Haruhi agreed, folding the papers together. "But those are some surprising limitations on your abilities, Kyon."

"Thanks to Nagato, it's already been dealt with," he said with assurance, pulling the handle of his energy blade from his coat. "Now this has other modes."

"Like what?" Haruhi asked, intrigued. "It's a laser blade and...?"

"Sort of a harmonic key-simulator," he answered, frowning.

"So, a Swiss-army beam saber?" she teased, grinning.

"Sure," he agreed, tracing his fingertips across the handle. "It's mostly sound-based in tool mode ... I think of it like a sonic screwdriver!"

"A name like that would never catch on," Haruhi determined, shaking her head. "You'll need to work on that."

"I'm sure," he answered dryly, turning to Kanae as she produced a different board game.

Haruhi watched for a moment, then turned to Yuki, tapping a fingertip against the stack of papers. "Yuki-chan, what do you think about making a secure filing cabinet? Something we can store Brigade paperwork and important documents in?" she asked.

Yuki looked up from her Trope-tan manga, blinking as she met Haruhi's gaze. To Mikuru, she looked somehow uncertain, hesitant before answering, "It can be done."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Haruhi gave the shorter girl a doubtful look. "Really?" she pressed.

"Security is ... interesting," Yuki admitted. Mikuru cheered internally, glad that she had aknowledged such a thing, but aware of the way everyone else had turned to look at small girl with that remark. Her pale hair shifting as she tilted her face, Yuki turned her gaze to the low two drawer filing cabinet the brigade room already held.

Mikuru was positive that the tiniest hints of pink had come to Yuki's cheeks, and everyone else in the clubroom had turned to watch her. Kyon and Tsuruya had the decency to do it covertly, despite knowing that Yuki was undoubtedly completely aware. Koizumi was watching with mild interest, and Kanae was staring with a wide-eyed smile, blushing in sympathy.

"In that case, would you like to design our secure vault?" Haruhi asked, grinning.

Yuki gave a very solemn nod, raising one hand towards the filing cabinet, freezing the merest distance away from touching it. She turned to look back at Haruhi blankly.

"Go ahead!" Haruhi encouraged, nodding back. "Go all out!"

Yuki turned her gaze again, this time to Kyon, and Mikuru bit her lip, an unexpected message from her superior causing her to nearly fumble the PDA, her thumb jabbing the screen randomly before she caught it. Kyon's costume swapped to a gleaming suit of elaborate armor - the outfit of some knight from an RPG that Haruhi had scanned previously. A billowing crimson cape filled the space behind him, and he looked at her sternly.

"I think," he said cautiously, "that it's time for you to trust your own judgment, too. You don't need my permission for this ... Yuki."

A squeak escaped Mikuru at that, and her eyes flew wide. Haruhi turned to stare at him in surprise, and Tsuruya's quiet giggle began building up into something even louder. Yuki froze, the tiny hints of pink in her cheek intensifying slightly, developing into a genuine, if mild, blush. Her lips formed something wordlessly, then she nodded at Kyon and turned her attention back to the filing cabinet.

"Augh!" Haruhi yelped, diving for her schoolbag and tearing it open, sending schoolbooks and papers everwhere. "Camera! Where's my camera!"

An instant later, a brilliant blue glow enveloped the entire cabinet, flashing blindingly for a moment before fading away into nothing. The cabinet looked exactly the same, except for the updated interface on Mikuru's augmented reality. She realized with a jolt of annoyance that the update had been what had made her press functions on the PDA at random. Scowling, she turned to the device, wondering what she'd done...

Strangely enough, she realized she'd somehow accidentally recorded Yuki's blush on Kyon's phone when the message had come through. "Um, Suzumiya-san," she called, holding the phone out for Haruhi's inspection. Instantly, Haruhi was at Mikuru's side, half glomped onto the older girl as she crowded close to watch the replay.

"This is going into the archives," she said momentously, watching the way Yuki's blush had been perfectly captured on the PDA's larger screen.

"In the meantime," Kyon noted, glancing down at himself, "how long am I going to be count Kyon von Tada-"

"Oh, hush," Haruhi overrode him, eagerly watching a second replay. "Did you, or did you _not_ just see the most amazing explosion of moe within this room ever just now?"

Kyon's eyebrows rose and he gave Haruhi a challenging stare. The fact that he was wearing gleaming plate armor and a still-billowing crimson cape lent real gravity to his normally implacable look. Somehow, instead of being silly, he really just looked like he was some feudal lord, stepped forward from an ancient time and only somewhat amused about the entire thing.

"W...what?" Haruhi demanded, slightly defensive, still clinging onto Mikuru. "What's that stupid look mean!?"

"Nothing," Kyon relented, looking away, giving Yuki an apologetic shrug.

"Say, Kyon-kun," Tsuruya interjected smoothly, grinning, "do you knows any German?"

"Just a few words here and there," he allowed, shrugging, one gauntleted hand going forward to grab the dice and roll them. "Mostly from movies. I know Japanese best."

"It's easy!" Tsuruya said cheerfully. "They use grammars very similar to ours!"

Mikuru bit her lip with a smile, handing Kyon's PDA back to Haruhi. The brigade chief released her, sending a copy of the precious video to her own phone, while the time traveler busied herself preparing a second round of tea. Was it possible to have a gift for languages, but to be unaware of it? He had already established that he had a better knowledge of English than Haruhi, much to her annoyance.

He insisted it was all just a combination of luck and simple strategy, but Mikuru knew better. It was because he'd memorized such an extensive vocabulary... Really, she was starting to suspect that Kyon liked to play dumb - especially after how easily he figured out how to coerce that Fujiwara character into cooperating with the time loop.

Tsuruya, fluent in German, began drilling Kyon in the basics; Mikuru's augmented reality provided translations, and she giggled as she refilled Kyon's teacup. Kanae initially looked bewildered, but Haruhi leapt to her rescue: "It's perfect, Kanae-chan; Tsu-chan will distract Kyon with German, and we'll study enough English to beat him in Scrabble next time!"

"As much time as we have," Kyon allowed, poking at one plate-wrapped wrist with a frown before glancing to the clock. "Imouto and Miyoko-chan are going to be waiting for us to take them to the Trope-tan movie tonight."

"Ooh!" Tsuruya cheered, brightening. "That's right! Kanae-chan, you'll have to come home with me, so we can dress up together! Kyon-kun, you'll make sure that Imouto-kun and Miyoko-chan are ready?"

"If I don't, my mom will," he agreed, giving a lopsided smirk.

Haruhi grimaced at that, before remarking, "Okay, fine. Yuki-chan, Mikuru-chan, we should meet up tonight, anyway."

"Okay," Mikuru agreed cheerfully. She envied Tsuruya and Kanae a little bit, but she'd gotten to see movies with Kyon before; she couldn't really begrudge them that much. "Does that sound fun, Yuki-chan?"

Yuki nodded, not looking up from her manga, but adopting her tiny almost-a-smile expression.

"Good!" Haruhi cheered, clapping her hands together.

* * *

After walking home with Kyon's sister, the two had finished their weekend homework together, just settling down in the living room to play a game when the front door opened, Kyon calling that he had returned. Miyoko was a step behind Nonoko in the dash to the hall, both of them beaten by Nonoko's and Kyon's mother.

"You're going out with Tsuruya-chan again tonight, aren't you?" the woman fussed, studying Kyon's clothing as though he were going to the movie in his school uniform.

"That's right," he agreed, nonplussed as he switched his casual shoes for his house-slippers. "Kanae-chan, Imouto, and Miyoko-chan are going to be with us, too." He slipped around the woman as she pursed her lips and turned to watch him in thoughtful silence. "Oh, hey, you two," he added when he saw the smaller girls, tousling Nonoko's hair when she glomped onto him.

"Trope-tan movie tonight!" Nonoko barked, grinning up at Kyon.

"I missed you, too," he replied, rolling his eyes.

"Um, thank you for inviting me, Kyon-nii-san," Miyoko managed, feeling her cheeks pinken slightly. Now, if Koizumi had been going, too, then it would be a perfect evening...

"Any time, Miyoko-nee-chan," he replied, winking before he turned to jog up the stairs.

"Kyon," Nonoko's mother began, too late, as he was already out of earshot. She stared after him thoughtfully, then turned to Nonoko. "You know, your brother's growing into a fine young man, but sometimes I wonder at how quickly it seems to happen..."

For her part, Miyoko's friend gave her mother a blank, confused look before shrugging and turning a questioning look at Miyoko. "Um," Miyoko managed, giggling nervously, "I think that Kyon-nii-san is just doing his best. Isn't that admirable enough?"

The mother of Miyoko's best friends didn't have an answer for that, just turning to the door when a knock sounded. "Tsuruya-chan!" she greeted the girl standing outside in surprise. "Ah ... how good to see you again! Kyon's just upstairs, changing."

Miyoko felt her mouth dropping open at the sight of Tsuruya in a sleek, very classy black dress - a slinky affair that seemed to magically cling to the older girl. It came down to end mid-thigh, belted with a thin golden chain, and showed just enough pale skin across her chest to be enticing without being what Miyoko thought was trashy; she immediately wished she had one, and that it would look nearly as good on her the next time she ran into Koizumi.

"Okies!" Tsuruya said cheerfully. "Kanae-chan and I are ready as soon as everyone else is!"

"Pretty hair!" Nonoko remarked, in awe of the way that Tsuruya's long hair had been painstakingly braided, a woven cord that ran to her knees, even bound up with the pretty dragonfly clips at the end.

"And a lovely dress, too," Nonoko's mother agreed.

Tsuruya giggled, ducking at the praise, then shook her head. "I just hopes Kyon-kun likes it- Oh! Kyon-kun~!"

The boy in question stared at her, slowing as he trotted down the stairs to come to a full stop in another of his nice suits, right next to Miyoko. "Ah, Tsuruya-kun," he managed after a moment, trying not to stare. "You look great!"

"Thank you, Kyon-kun!" Tsuruya chirped, twirling in place and then winking at him. "I thoughts about a pony-tail, but decided a braids would be better for tonight!"

Kyon gave a very rare puzzled look at that, then shook his head. "Um ... is it time already?"

"I'd likes to get there a bit early," Tsuruya admitted. "The premiere was last nights at midnight, but this is a special showings. The directors and staff of the movie and seasons three and five will be there!" She bounced excitedly on her toes, which Miyoko thought a bit jealously caused some interesting things to happen beneath her dress, then twirled perfectly in place on one toe again before stopping, one arm extended towards Kyon.

This time, her skirt spun around her with her momentum, giving a brief flash of her long legs before it settled, only just missed by Nonoko's mother as the woman fussed over both of the younger girls, making sure they had everything they would need for the evening. "I'll take good cares of them," Tsuruya promised, as Kyon crooked his elbow for her to take in her own arm. "And Kyon-kun, too!"

"He really should have gotten her some flowers," the woman muttered, too quietly for the couple up front to hear as they trooped away. Miyoko shook her head, wondering if Kyon's sister had noticed any of the things she had. As it was, she suddenly had the worried notion that she and Kyon's sister were interfering with what might have been a romantic evening.

Shortly, they were in the limousine, much to Miyoko's amazement. She'd never been in such a vehicle before, until the last weekend's beach trip, though both Kyon and Tsuruyra seemed to be familiar with it; Kanae was in the back, looking a bit nervously uncomfortable, herself, dressed similarly to Tsuruya. Miyoko tried to give the other girl an encouraging smile, even while taking solace in her presence. Surely it couldn't be a date with two other girls closer to his own age...? Miyoko wondered why that thought seemed so very familiar.

Shortly enough, Kyon was seated on the long bench-like seat, between Kanae and Nonoko, and Miyoko had gotten a seat on the other bench next to Tsuruya.

"I feel under-dressed," Miyoko confessed, plucking at her plain skirt and blushing.

"You aren't," Nonoko countered swiftly, before anyone else could speak. "It's no good if only I'm wearing normal clothes!"

Miyoko felt her face flush as Tsuruya put an arm around her shoulder. "You can dress up when you're as old as you looks," the green-haired girl promised her, grinning.

"W...what's that supposed to mean?" Miyoko whimpered in protest, her blush deepening.

The older girl burst into laughter, while Kanae gave her an apprehensive look. Kyon leaned forward, closer to Miyoko, and asked, "Are you looking forward to seeing the movie? So far, the reviews are saying that 'Trope-tan Begins' is the best Trope-tan film to-date."

"I ... don't know much more about the series than what Nono-chan has told me, and the few episodes I've picked up so far," Miyoko admitted, her blush fading. "I like what I've seen so far, though!"

"I haven't gotten much past the start of season three, myself," Kyon confessed, smiling apologetically. "I hope we won't be too confused."

"Me, too," Miyoko agreed, giggling nervously.

"I'll sit next to you!" Nonoko said eagerly, nodding at her friend. "I'll help you out if anything needs explaining!"

"I'll do the same for Kyon-kun," Tsuruya chirped, giggling. "It's my faults that Kyon-kun didn't get past season three!"

Kyon blushed at that, for some reason, but Miyoko wasn't certain why - or how it was the older girl's fault. She decided it was better not to ask, in any case... Soon enough, the limousine had come to a stop and the group had trouped out, into a small cleared area lined with somber, well-dressed security personel. Beyond that was a milling crowd of reporters, most of them surprisingly well dressed, all of them eagerly snapping pictures.

Miyoko tried her best to look dignified and poised as she followed the much better dressed group past the flashing cameras, but found herself suddenly alone; Nonoko abandoned her to run up and grab her brother's hand. Almost instantly, Tsuruya drifted back, taking one of Miyoko's hands reassuringly in her own, somehow seeming to deflect or absorb the attention of the crowd away. A heartbeat later, they were through the doors and into a palatial theater lobby, brilliantly lit with dazzling golden ornaments trailing crimson banners festooning the upper reaches of the vaulted ceiling.

The relative silence left Miyoko wobbling at the sudden shift from unexpected crowd to equally unexpected sedate, mostly empty space. "Sorries!" Tsuruya apologised, patting her hand reassuringly. "I forgot to warn you about that parts. But don't worry! I'll stay by you next times, okies?"

"Imouto," Kyon murmured, looking at his sister sternly. She blushed darkly, releasing Kyon's hand and turning to face Miyoko.

"Sorry," she mumbled. "I ran to Kyon-kun when there were so many people..."

Miyoko stifled a sigh internally, and gave her friend a smile. "It's okay," she reassured her friend.

"Right!" Tsuruya agreed instantly. "After all, Miyoko-chan has Tsuru-nee to watch over her, too!"

Miyoko giggled at that, looking around as another group of well-dressed men and women came through the doors, moving around them before striding across the quiet, empty area to the double-doors beneath the 'Trope-tan Begins' marquee.

"For tonights, this entire theater is just for the Trope-tan movie!" Tsuruya explained, leading the group across the hallway to where a group of ushers were waiting. A few minutes later, they were all seated in a half-full auditorium, listening to the subdued chatter of dozens of other people as they waited for the movie to begin. Surprisingly enough, as excited as she was, Nonoko ended up dozing during the wait, while Kyon obligingly got up to get snacks for everyone.

Miyoko patted her sleeping friend's shoulder, then glanced to the other side - where Kanae was sitting, a space between her and Tsuruya still waiting for Kyon. Kyon returned, bearing an overloaded tray of drink cups and popcorn, sighing good-naturedly at his sleeping sister when he returned. He and Miyoko made a hasty bucket-brigade, ferrying the items by hand over the smaller girl until the tray was empty, and he woke her by gently bopping her with the cardboard tray.

"I didn't fall asleep," she instantly mumbled defensively, blearily sitting up. "I'm not too tired for the movie!"

"I'm sure," Kyon agreed, smirking.

Nonoko blushed and consoled herself with her soda, while Kyon settled back into his seat... And Miyoko didn't at all miss the way that Kanae repositioned herself, leaning across the arm between their seats and pressing against Kyon. She felt her face turn red and quickly turned to the screen, as the house lights dimmed.

A spotlight targeted a podium at the base of the screen, and an unfamiliar man appeared, giving a short speech that Miyoko couldn't quite follow before thunderous applause flooded the room. Nonoko whispered over the roar that the man was the senior character designer for the Trope-tan movie, and then he bowed and the spotlight went out. The area was pitch-black, and Miyoko felt the familiar sense of Nonoko's hand grabbing her own, fumbling in the darkness before the first bits of music began to pour through the speakers, and the crowd when silent.

The screen lit up, and then Miyoko lost track of time as an explosion of color splashed across the screen, quickly resolving into familiar shapes as the film began.

Later, once the movie had ended, Miyoko found herself, still dizzy from the loud noise, and somewhat giddy and misty-eyed from the finale. She felt stuck speechless from the end of the film until they climbed into Tsuruya's waiting limousine. Kyon's sister was happily babbling about the surprise appearance of Trope-tan's friends, Quote-tan, Wikipe-tan, and Media-tan - Nonoko was explaining how they were a power-trio, sisters who had formed a group called the 'commons-tans.' Miyoko nodded, then turned a grateful smile at Kyon.

"What did you think?" Tsuruya asked him, when the door was closed, and the vehicle had smoothly rolled into motion.

"That was a really good movie," he decided, grinning. "Of course, the company didn't hurt." Whatever that meant, it made Kanae giggle and blush, and Tsuruya grab onto Kyon and squeeze him tightly.

"Good!" the older girl chirped, nuzzling briefly against Kyon before releasing him, pinkening slightly at the way Kanae stared at her with wide-eyes. "Ah ... so! Miyoko-chan, Imouto-kun, you had good times?"

"The best!" Nonoko agreed, throwing her arms wide. "Thanks to Kyon-kun and Tsuru-nee-chan!"

"My fiancee gets a 'nee-chan', and I'm still 'Kyon'," he muttered to himself, rolling his eyes.

"That's because Kyon is Kyon," his sister returned with a smirk. "Auntie Rika said so!"

He scowled at his sister, who merely giggled in response. "Um, Sempai?" Kanae ventured, before he spoke.

"What is it, Kanae-chan?" he asked, his annoyance vanishing as he turned to look at the girl at his side.

"Um, I've wondered... Can you tell me why people call you by that instead of your name?" He stared at her for a moment, then glanced inquisitively to Tsuruya, who was already clapping both hands to her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. Kanae's face darkened nervously with each moment that he hesitated to answer.

"I really can't say," he finally relented, when she looked nearly ready to faint. "I don't honestly know."

Miyoko bit her lip, giving the boy a sympathetic look. Well, she could cheer him up quickly enough, she realized. "Don't worry about it!" she encouraged him. "If I can beat my nickname, you can too..." She trailed off and realized that much to her horror, she couldn't actually _remember_ his real name. She could call him by his _family_ name, but that was hopelessly formal, considering their familiarity! "I know you can, um, Aniki," she tried, somewhat lamely.

Tsuruya seemed to have figured it out, because if anything, she began to laugh harder, until the infectious amusement drowned out Miyoko's embarassment and everyone else began to laugh, too.

Even though she didn't really understand _everything_, when they stopped at her house so that Kyon and Nonoko could walk her to her door, she felt she could honestly thank them both for a great time.

* * *

In too much of a good mood to mind that Taniguchi had shoved a broom into his hands and demanded that he take over the taller boy's cleaning duties for the half-day, Kyon and a somewhat irritated Kunikida tidied up the room, along with Sakanaka. The class rep, Goto, had stayed a few minutes to collect papers before running off to the office, but the three remaining students were able to clean the room easily enough.

As Sakanaka put up the cleaning supplies, Kyon and Kunikida finished rearranging the desks and chairs. "Sorry that Taniguchi forced you into this, Kyon," Kunikida remarked, shaking his head as he collected his schoolbag.

"No problem," he replied, glancing to one side where Sakanaka fiddled with her own bag, repeatedly glancing towards the pair of them as she hesitated. Kyon wondered briefly what might have been bothering her, then decided he shouldn't worry about it; she and Haruhi were friends. Surely Haruhi would mention if it were serious. "Well, you two take care."

For whatever reason, Sakanaka looked flustered at the comment, though Kunikida didn't react much beyond nodding. "You, too," the boy replied, checking his phone. "Ah ... I've got to hurry to cram school." With that, he collected his bag and quickly trotted out the door.

Kyon turned at the tiny sigh Sakanaka heaved when his short friend vanished. "Something wrong, Sakanaka-san?"

"Er, no, no," she said quickly, shaking her head in denial as she picked up her own bag. "J...just... Ah, it's nothing, Kyon-kun. Um... Well, enjoy your free time; I'll see you later!"

He couldn't help but think he was missing something as she hurriedly jogged away, looking strangely disappointed to him. "Huh," he mused, frowning.

A quiet cough pulled his attention from the doorway that Sakanaka had fled through to the classroom's other door, where Koizumi was standing, with a slightly more natural smile than his usual. "Are you finished cleaning?" he asked politely.

Kyon snorted and shouldered his bag, closing both of the doors before stepping into the hall. "Haruhi sent you to find me because I was taking too long?" he asked.

"I volunteered for the duty, actually," Koizumi replied with a tiny shake of his head, before adjusting his tie with a small amount of pride. "I am your personal assistant, after all."

"No way that comment could possibly be misconstrued," he retorted, falling into step at the esper's side as the two began walking towards the clubroom very slowly.

"As it happens, based on recent discussions, I've spent some time learning the limitations of my powers," Koizumi began in a low voice, casting about for potential eavesdroppers.

Kyon nodded; knowing what his own limitations were seemed to be a critical exercise, lately. Obviously he wasn't the only one who would benefit.

"Interestingly enough," the esper continued, "my powers functioned previously on my awareness of Suzumiya-san's emotional state, and the fact that my own emotions are separate. If you will, imagine that using my powers requires detailed awareness of two emotional states. It's difficult to explain, but it's the differences between those two that allows me to define what my power is and does."

"You're saying that your power doesn't work if you're not linked to Haruhi," Kyon surmised, frowning. Haruhi hadn't liked realizing Koizumi was listening in on her feeings. Restoring that link so that Koizumi could use his powers...

"That's not precisely the case," Koizumi returned, smiling. "Suzumiya-san didn't destroy my ability to connect to the minds of others... She merely removed _herself_ as an endpoint for that link."

Kyon blinked, mulling this over. "So," he said slowly, glancing at the esper sidelong, "you've got a 'link' with someone else?"

"No!" Koizumi said, sounding strangely pleased, his smile widening. "Or rather, not a _specific_ person," he clarified. "Now instead of being 'locked', as it were, to Suzumiya-san, I can read from nearly anyone I am aware of."

Kyon considered this further as they reached the staircase to the clubroom. "I see," he ventured cautiously.

"I suspect that with practice, I may be able to read surface thoughts, not just feelings," Koizumi continued, nodding happily. "But the reason I bring this up is the fact that there are people that I cannot read." He stopped in the switchback of the stairwell, dropping his voice slightly lower again. "It shouldn't surprise you to find that I cannot read Suzumiya-san, anymore. Likewise, Nagato-san is blocked to me, and Asahina-san is similarly guarded to my senses."

As he stopped, Kyon couldn't help but nod at Koizumi; that much, he would have expected. "That makes sense," he aknowledged. Though, the fact that anyone could read Mikuru's feelings on her face rendered her mysterious defense somewhat moot.

"Kanae scans very faintly, compared to most people," Koizumi continued. "Tsuruya-san appears completely normal from what I can discern..."

Kyon furrowed his brows as he stared at Koizumi, frowning. "So, well ... that all seems fine, to me," he said. "I'd urge against eavesdropping personally, especially on people who might be able to do something about it."

"Understandable, and I don't have any particular desire to upset my friends," Koizumi agreed. "However, all the same, I feel you should know ... when I attempted to read you, I found that there's nothing there."

Kyon blinked at that. "Maybe I was just feeling really calm at that point," he suggested.

Koizumi shook his head. "For Nagato-san, I can sense that she's there, but it's like there's a wall of some sort, an invisible barrier. For Suzumiya-san, the sensation is more like a strong wind that keeps me away. For Asahina-san, it's like a more solid block than Nagato-san's ... not as expertly made, but more than sufficient.

"However, when I try and sense your emotions," he said, raising a fingertip to tap the side of his head, "it's as though you simply aren't _there_."

Feeling very uncomfortable with that revelation, Kyon nodded. "I'll visit with Yuki tonight and ask her what she thinks about it," he decided. "Thanks for the heads-up, Koizumi."

"I'm still not worried," Koizumi noted with a shrug, smiling. "Most likely it's just some defense that Nagato-san has arranged for you ... or possibly even just a limitation of my own skill, poorly trained as it is at that point. I thought you might like to know, all the same."

Kyon nodded again, taking a final moment to consider things before trudging up the stairs. Right up until then, he'd really been able to enjoy those confusing moments when he'd dropped his sister off at home and then gone back to Tsuruya's place with her and Kanae. They had dinner while watching more Trope-tan anime, and when Kanae had excused herself to answer a phone call from her parents, Tsuruya had gleefully tackled Kyon to the floor for a brief, but enjoyable, makeout session.

After that, he'd gone with Tsuruya to drop Kanae off, walking her to her door and unexpectedly finding the smaller girl launching herself at him, too. Worried about being caught, and more worried about her thinking he was rejecting her, Kyon found himself surprised by how easy it was to return the slider's inexperienced kiss. And that was enjoyable, too.

That had made things very confusing, so he hadn't said much of anything to Tsuruya on the ride home except to thank her again. She released him with a giggling wink and a kiss on the cheek, and then he'd tried to just think about the positives and remember what Tsuruya had said earlier.

All that was gone now, thanks to Koizumi's new revelation. The esper was a half-step ahead of him, so opened the clubroom door and stepped through first. Once again, the newest costume play had taken him by surprise; he was so prepared for the sight of Kanae in a policewoman's uniform that Haruhi being the one in costume seemed totally unexpected.

She was wearing her Chinese dress, her hair done up in a pair of cloth-wrapped buns. She was currently leaning over the table at Kanae's side, while the younger girl stared at the paper before her in determined concentration. Yuki sat further down the table, working on the last few volumes of the Trope-tan manga, while Tsuruya and Mikuru were engaged in a game of shogi - at a glance, Kyon thought Tsuruya was winning, but he recognized how Mikuru could easily revise her strategy.

Haruhi looked up first, flashing Kyon an impatient grin. "Phone," she demanded, one hand going out.

He rolled his eyes and pulled the device from his invisible greatcoat pocket, letting her levitate it towards her while her gaze went back to Kanae. "Nice to see you too," he greeted her.

The brigade chief's expression shifted into a smirk. Koizumi took the seat near Kanae, setting his bag on the table as he glanced at Kanae's paper. "Ah," he said, nodding knowingly. "Suzumiya-san made you a practice exam?"

The slider nodded, sticking her tongue out with effort as she concentrated, and carefully picked out the answer for the next problem.

Kyon sat opposite Koizumi, uncertain of what to do. He wasn't sure if he felt like playing a game, but if it was any game, Mikuru and Tsuruya had inadvertently gotten him interested in shogi, and the group would probably want to play some multi-player game next instead.

Mikuru's quiet giggle, and Tsuruya's louder chortle alerted him to the fact that Haruhi had changed his own costume. He glanced down, not etirely surprised to see a movie-perfect Chinese kung-fu outfit. "What is this from?" he asked, bemused.

"'Fearless'," Haruhi answered without hesitation. Kyon thought he vaguely remembered that movie, and wondered if the illusion extended to him having half of his head shaved and a braid running down his back.

His ruminations were quickly interrupted by Haruhi seizing the collar of his greatcoat, invisible as it was; the coat automatically shifted the illusion it projected to make it appear as though Haruhi had grabbed his kung-fu outfit, instead. He felt somehow certain that Haruhi knew what the proper name for the garb was.

He was unceremoniously hauled out of his seat, though due to height difference, he had to stand up on his own. "Yes, Haruhi?" he asked placidly, turning to look at the girl hanging onto his clothes. She didn't meet his eyes, her cheeks pinkening faintly. "Koizumi-kun, Kanae-chan has eighteen minutes left on that test; help make sure she's not interrupted. Kyon-kun and I have to discuss something!"

And at that, Haruhi took off, forcing Kyon to either jog with her, or let her physically drag him out of the clubroom, down the stairs, and without any doubt, straight to a very familiar stairwell. She skidded to a halt as they approached the steps, mouth dropping open in surprise at the sight of Taniguchi and Yanagimoto coming down the stairs.

Unaware, somehow, of the two brigade members in Chinese garb, the couple descended together, Yanagimoto fussing with the tie of her school uniform blouse and muttering darkly at Taniguchi, and for his part, the boy smirking and looking aloof. Both of them had faintly flushed red faces, and given Haruhi's designs for the space, Kyon found it wasn't hard to guess what they'd been up to.

Yanagimoto cut off suddenly, eyes widening as she spotted Kyon and Haruhi first. "Uh," she managed, freezing in place, then hurriedly looking down at her blouse before dropping her hands to her sides. "Um..." Her face began to darken, turning deeper red, while Taniguchi's smug grin widened.

"So-" he began, before being cut off by Haruhi.

"We got dressed up as martial artists to investigate the haunted corner of the school," she said, with a strangely hooded, unimpressed gaze, "and we find out the 'haunting' is just you two?"

"D...don't tell anyone!" Yanagimoto begged. "I don't know how I let him talk me into it-"

Haruhi waved a hand to cut her off. "Say no more," she sighed. "It's Taniguchi's stupidity, so it isn't really fair to punish you for that..."

"Hey!" Taniguchi protested, before Kyon interrupted, cutting the boy off again.

"Don't you have studying to do, anyway?" Kyon asked Taniguchi, deciding that for the sake of Yanagimoto's humilitation, he'd pretend he hadn't noticed her.

"Yeah, yeah," Taniguchi sighed, deflated somewhat. "Okay, fine, put down the clue-by-fours, I can take a hint..." He gave Kyon a pointed glance, raising an eyebrow, before turning to the girl at his side. "Yanagimoto-hime, shall we go and study?"

"Yes," she gasped out in response, grabbing his wrist and fleeing down the hall away from Kyon and Haruhi, not waiting to discuss things further. Without Haruhi's amazing strength, he was amused to note how much slower their flight was, before turning to look at the girl in the cheongsam, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You know," he remarked, "Koizumi told me how you handled things when I was ... unconscious after that Sumiyoshi-rengo attack."

She flinched at that, scowling and discarding the masks she had shown the other couple. "Bringing that up again," she grumbled, shaking her head.

He gently took her hand in his, glancing back down the hall. Even with no one in sight, he decided it was safer in the stairwell, and led her there. She didn't resist, after a moment seeming to recover and walking in pace with him. As he reached the final step, she moved ahead of him, stopping with their faces roughly level, though she looked away.

"Look," she said, shifting her shoulders uncomfortably. "That was terrible for me - for all of us. I... I'm glad we were able to get through it, but-"

"Okay, that wasn't the right thing to say," he overrode her, shaking his head apologetically and releasing her hand to rest his grip on her shoulder comfortingly. "Let's step back further, over a year ago. When we were trying to get into Nagato's building to investigate, you surprised me with how well you questioned the superintendent."

Her discomfort vanished as she turned a purely quizzical look at him.

"You put on a role and you played it without any notice," he explained, smiling. "Like a secret agent," he decided. Or a confidence artist, but he didn't feel the need to say that much.

She looked surprised and satisfied at that, slowly smiling. Her eyes flicked to his, and then away, lightning quick. "Well ... thanks, Kyon. Um ... you should go visit Yuki-chan tonight," she mumbled.

"I was planning on doing that," he admitted, before he could stop himself.

Haruhi raised an eyebrow at that, her eyes locking onto his, and he wondered if he should activate his skinsuit and forcefield before she had a chance to shove or hit him. "Good," Haruhi decided, grinning. "Then I don't have to feel guilty!"

With that, he met her kiss and gratefully forgot all about everything else for a little while.

* * *

While she didn't mind him calling her up and asking her to teleport him early, for reasons it was difficult for her to define, it relieved the pressure of holding the day's junk data in check. As each day passed, she was able to refine the processes that handled that data, lessening the workload in general - to say nothing of the bolstering effects of those occasional moments of intimacy with her primary protection target.

So, with a deal of effort, but lacking the courage to put it into words, she surmised that an average high school girl waiting for her male lover might find his current endeavor 'cute'. He had called her earlier, so she knew he was coming - but the subordinate data of his PDA gave her occasional updates as to his whereabouts and condition, anyway, at least one every few dozen picoseconds. Under the guise of the stealth field in the coat that Mikuru had made, and she and Haruhi had modified, he bypassed the security doors by leaping up the side of the building, managing long, arcing jumps between landings until he lit on the space before her door.

She was already waiting for him, holding it open and trying to restrain her involuntary reactions with mixed success. The same capillary excitement that happened occasionally was sparked off already, and her lips wanted to curl slightly despite her own motor control functions.

He gave a little sigh and a roll of his eyes as he glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then stepped inside and dropped his stealth function. She observed the way he became visible to her eyes as well as her other senses, shrugging off the coat and draping it over one arm. "Heya, um ... Yuki," he ventured as she closed the door.

An involuntary reaction on her part caused her to twitch, inadvertently slamming the door in surprise for some reason, even as her capillary excitement went into overdrive. She tried to turn to face him, despite the fact that further strange muscle motions tried to turn her eyes away.

"I...is it okay to call you that, Nagato?" he asked anxiously, his smile fading.

She had determined that a part of her being resonated with the more personal name, and that it should probably be called 'enjoyable'. By that same token, however, she had also determined that it caused her self-control to waver, and her behavior to deviate dangerously. The only logical conclusion was that it wasn't safe for him to call her by another name.

"Yuki...rin ... is okay," she said, which she found disconcerting, considering her logical conclusion that she shouldn't say such a thing.

He gave her a strange look, his smile returning as he ducked, doffing his shoes and slipping inside. She moved past him, engaging herself in the familiar ritual of preparing tea for him. He gave her a more calculating look than usual as he took a seat at the table. She handed him a teacup and he accepted it with a solemn nod of his head, murmuring, "Thank you, um ... Yuki-rin."

Yuki found another series of those invuluntary reactions had almost caused her to spill her tea, so instead patiently set the kettle down. Her eyes fixed on his and she warned him, "I am experiencing a near-error state."

His eyes widened with worry. "What should I do?" he asked her anxiously. "How can I help?"

She rose from her place at the table and moved to his side. "Requesting that alias has an unexpected side-effect that seems similar to the reaction as observed in the case of Asahina Mikuru."

He blinked, then looked to one side, his own face flushing red. "O...okay," he managed. "S...so you know about that... Um... S...so I shouldn't call you by that, then?"

She knelt next to him and observed her arms going around him. He nervously hugged her back, before she pushed him to the floor and lowered herself to lay atop him. "Be careful," she murmured, before kissing him, taking initiative for once.

He kissed her back, and when she broke it she managed to explain, "This keyphrase temporarily erodes my self-control," before silencing any protest he might voice with another searching kiss. After a few minutes, she let him breathe, realizing aloud, "I trust you with this key." He was trying to say something in response, but for a little while, she was too busy kissing him to listen much.

Some time later, when she was in control of herself again, she lay curled atop him, the side of her face resting on his chest while he heaved for breath, recovering herself. She checked her log of actions, replaying what she had done with him, and found she hadn't exceeded any of her previously established permissions. There was a risk in the future, though, so she delivered one final warning, explaining, "Repeated use of this alias may disable certain inhibitions."

Strangely, she felt absolutely confident trusting him with that. He gave her a curious look, then shook his head, sitting up. She slid into his lap, still leaning against him. "Okay," he said, his voice a tiny bit ragged, "um, we shouldn't just... Er... So, Yuki..." She felt herself tensing, uncertain if he would complete the alias, or... "...chan, um, w...would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight?"

The near-utterance of her nickname made her face redden again, though not as badly as before. Without releasing him, her face still pressed into his chest, she nodded.

* * *

After taking Yuki out to dinner at the same Tsuruya-gumi-owned establishment he had taken his own family, Kyon had walked the smaller girl back to her apartment, and then been more than happy to recieve a single good-night kiss from her - though for his _own_ self control, he didn't stay with her. He knew he'd see her soon enough, after all, for the nightly training.

The training came and went, now just another note of his normal sleeping cycle, and he found himself waking in the hazy glow of half-remembered lessons and practice. Someone in his bed made a quiet, mumbling noise and squirmed around; a moment later, he felt a small, warm presence pressing against his body, nestled naturally into the curve of his own sleeping form.

For the first time in a long while, he considered sleeping in, giving his little sister a few moments to salvage her dignity and run off. He resolved to give her a few minutes, at the very least, his musings turning to what might have scared the little girl so much she had run into his bed... It had been months since she'd sneaked in to sleep with him. And, come to think of it, he mused, how had she managed to sneak in without him waking up, this time?

Stifling a yawn rather than risk waking the girl, he opened his eyes in bemusement and carefully peeled back the covers, revealing a familiar mop of curly brown hair - but not his sister's. He stared in consternation for a long minute, his mouth dropping open as Kanae turned fitfully in her sleep, one arm going around him as she hugged herself to him and mumbled something incomprehensible.

Now, he thought to himself, how did _this_ particular anime cliche come to happen?


	37. Chapter 36

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Calm Before the Storm Arc III

Chapter Thirty Six: Brigade Review

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Three: Reliability"_

_"Ideally, you'll know what everyone who answers to you is reliable for, and what the people who depend on you rely on. Everyone has different strengths, after all!"_

_"Methods of Victory" - 'T.H.'_

* * *

Kyon stared at the slider in his bed, happily curled up around him, with one arm across his chest as she slept. He'd seen her sleeping face before, as she occasionally dozed in the club room, and more than once she'd been summoned for nightly training already sleeping. In retrospect, he realized he'd already shared a bed with a girl, too, thanks to Tsuruya.

Then again, being caught in his own bed with a girl as compared to being caught in Tsuruya's bed- He realized he was distracting himself and turned his eyes to his alarm clock quickly. He grimaced when he realized it wasn't a school day, and accordingly, he'd slept in until nearly eight in the morning. The sounds of his sister stirring in her room betrayed how little time he had left...

No matter that she didn't need to wake him up on the day there was no school - she'd do it anyway. It was one of her favorite hobbies, especially if it meant she could try and wake him up first!

Fighting back panic, he tried to consider his options. First of all, he needed to wake the slider, and hopefully quietly. Placing one hand on her shoulder, he leaned towards the girl, one ear towards the hallway, listening for his sister, and gave her a gentle shake. "Mmm, Sempai," she mumbled sleepily, curling up around him more tightly.

"Kanae-chan!" he whispered, leaning closer and shaking her again.

"Um... Suzumiya-sempai too?" she mumbled in a sleepy giggle.

He froze, his mouth open as he was about to call again. Had she just... He shook his head abruptly - "Kanae-chan, wake up," he whispered urgently, giving her another small shake - just as his bedroom door swung open silently.

His sister was grinning as she peered around the door frame, her expression shifting to disappointment that he was already awake, followed by wide-eyed incredulity at the other girl in his bed. For her part, the slider blinked up at him sleepily before her eyes shot wide, her cheeks reddening. "S...Sempai," she stuttered, her breath quickening. "S...so early in the..." She froze, her eyes managing to widen even further as she yanked the covers from Kyon and pulled them up to her nose. "I'm n...not dreaming, this time?"

Kyon slapped the small part of his mind that wanted to question her on the 'this time', instead focusing on the practical aspects of the situation - namely, how to extract the slider from his bed without anyone dying. Now that his sister knew, he surmised that _he_ was as good as dead - but if he was any kind of hero, he'd have to find a way to save Kanae. While she was curled up and whimpering, he managed to free his arm from beneath her, turning to his sister as he vaulted out of the bed, pressing one fingertip to his lips in a shushing motion.

Nonoko swallowed, her eyes still wide, then turned at something in the hall, beaming a bright smile at someone out of Kyon's line of sight. He was vaguely certain that both his and Kanae's hearts stopped simultaneously as his little sister gave an exaggerated whisper and called, "I'm waking Kyon-kun up!"

His mother made a vague noise in the hallway, and he heard her respond, "Alright, then; even if it's a weekend, your brother has a busy day. Breakfast will be ready soon."

Kyon snatched his PDA from his bedside stand as he heard his mother moving away, and his sister's bright-eyed grin turned back to him. She slipped into the room and closed the door behind her, bouncing on her toes as she looked between Kyon and the slider. "What's going on?" she asked excitedly, pitching her voice low. "More undercover work?"

In response, Kanae managed to blush even more darkly, burrowing deeper into Kyon's bed.

Despite the danger, he couldn't help but think the scene was actually kind of cute... If it didn't have so much potential to go wrong, he might even try to take a picture. Instead, he took a step closer to the bed, reaching out and touching Kanae's shoulder through the sheets in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "I'll be right back," he promised her, "just stay under the covers for a minute, okay?"

Only the top of her face visible beneath the sheets, she nodded before burrowing even further into his bed, her tiny form seeming to vanish beneath the bedding, except the merest motion of her breathing. "Nonoko," he told his sister, frowning in consternation, "we need an outfit for Kanae-chan - or a picture of one - it just needs to look like normal weekend wear. Can you find that?"

His sister saluted sharply, then fled out of his room, her feet padding rapidly down the hall to her own room.

He quickly put on his wristwatch, then thrust the PDA into one pajama pocket before he stepped out into the empty upstairs hall. Not giving himself time to think about things, he hopped over the railing, realizing with a heart-stopping shock as he fell that he had only _just_ missed landing atop his mother.

The woman stepped up the stairs as he landed noiselessly and weightlessly behind her - betrayed by the wind of his passage. He didn't give her time to start at the motion and turn around, just launching himself towards the coat rack and snatching his coat as he rolled into the living room, out of his mother's line of sight. "I could have _sworn_..." he heard her begin as he lay flat on the floor, waiting for her to pass so he could struggle into the coat and get back to Kanae. "Yuuto, did you see someone run past me on the stairs?"

Kyon bit back a curse and looked up, realizing his father was reclining on the couch he had chosen as cover. The weight of his father's gaze bore into him like a physical thing before the man asked, "Do you think it might have been Kyon's cat?"

Blinking in shock, his mouth dropping open, Kyon stared at his father as his mother replied, "Maybe that's it... Well - in any case, Nonoko should have gotten him up by now."

Yuuto winced at that, and Kyon bit back another curse, giving his father a grateful nod as he heard his mother's steps on the stairs. He rolled to his feet, dashing silently past his bemused father, pulling the coat on as he slid into the hallway, already set to 'invisible' on his PDA. He hopped up the stairs behind his mother, bouncing off the wall of the stairwell and managing to land what he thought would have been an amazingly stylish flip - if anyone could see him. He then dashed into his room and stripped back the covers of his bed, causing Kanae to squeak in alarm.

Of course, he realized belatedly, hurriedly pulling the greatcoat off and managing to drape it over the slider's shoulders before she vanished from his view - just as his mother opened his door, peeking in curiously. From the slider's point of view, an invisible force had just stripped off her covers, revealing her nightgown to the world before she was suddenly wrapped in a coat as he assumed visibility. He turned as though he were merely mid-stretch, raising an eyebrow at his mother. "Morning," he offered, unable to force a smile.

She gave him a smile of her own, shaking her head. "Well, you're up, at least; Nono-chan seems to be adopting your old bad sleeping habits," she informed him. "Make sure she didn't go back to sleep after waking you up, then come down for breakfast!"

"Sure thing," he agreed. "Um, one of my club members is going to be coming by really soon, she has my, uh, science book," he offered quickly, moving to stand a step closer to his desk, hiding his stack of school books from her view.

She pursed her lips at that and nodded dubiously. "As long as you're sure your assignments are in on time," she allowed, before turning around. Given a heartbeat to himself, Kyon sighed, shaking his head. He closed the door and went to the window, casting about. A moment was spent looking for the slider before he gave up, just turning off the coat's invisibility.

Another squeak escaped the jittery girl when he turned to look at her, and he calculated his options. "I have a plan," he assured her, pleased at the way her worry melted away with that remark. "Okay, first of all, I've got to get you to the ground outside, and then we're going to hope that my sister is reliable for coming up with a disguise..."

"W...what should I do, Sempai?" she asked anxiously, already clutching his science book, trying to make herself small and looking adorably, waifishly cute in his too-large-for-her greatcoat, which hung to her ankles.

"I'll make you invisible again, then we'll hop out the window," he decided. It really lacked subtlety, but he couldn't think of another option at the moment. He toggled her invisible after noting her location, and managed to sweep the invisible slider into his arms without too much trouble. It was only after he managed to get the pair of them out the window that he realized what an ordeal that was, and by the time he had bounded back into his room, he was running late.

He dressed with hurried - nearly frantic - speed, then dashed to the hall, wrenching open the door to his sister's room and charging in. She was already sorting through a pile of her magazines and manga, looking up at him with a triumphant, satisfied look, holding a large print of Trope-tan in her casual clothing aloft.

He realized he could spend an entire day listening to his sister explain the finer points of magical girls and secret identities, and she'd probably never repeat herself. Rather than bring forth such a lecture, he hoped that that Kanae would some day come to forgive him for the poorly thought out plan he was undertaking, he scanned the picture from his sister's magazine, then delivered his mother's message, activating the newly acquired disguise ... wherever Kanae was.

After he left his sister's room, the doorbell sounded, somehow feeling like it almost conveyed the slider's anxiety. He got to the door before his father or mother could, smiling widely, but wincing internally at Kanae's outfit. Sturdy looking yellow boots, dark brown pants, and a yellow long-sleeved shirt that seemed intent on revealing her navel any time she moved. He thought the costume seemed a bit tomboyish, but the slider didn't seem to mind at all.

"Um, Sempai," she managed, holding out his science book, "um ... I ... came to return this."

"Oh, thanks," he said, accepting the book as his mother came to see what the fuss was about. Kyon's sister saw Kanae and gasped, her eyes growing wide as she recognized the same outfit she had just shown him.

"Going out to play before you've even finished breakfast?" his mother asked him, somewhat reprovingly.

"You know how it is," he said lamely, managing a weak smile.

"Well, not today," his mother decided, shaking her head. "Tsuruya Haruka-chan has invited you over, remember? Walk your friend home and hurry back for breakfast!"

"I ... don't remember that, actually," Kyon countered, frowning and checking his PDA's calendar. The only thing listed remotely near the date was Haruhi's mention of the SOS brigade's one year anniversary. He would have expected her to have a party, but-

It suddenly clicked together for him as his mother asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he allowed, "now I remember it." He turned to Kanae, shifting from foot to foot anxiously in the doorway. "I'll put my book back and be right with you," he promised the slider, pausing only long enough to drop the tome off before dashing back down the stairs. Taking Kanae's hand in his own, he quickly led her away.

"Um, Sempai," she whimpered, hobbling behind him, when he began to head towards her house, "I don't have any shoes!"

"Right," he realized with a frown, slowing so she could pick her way across the streets behind him more carefully. His sister's shoes were too small, and there was no way to borrow his mother's without her knowing... After leading Kanae to the nearest park - a block and a half away, he dropped onto a park bench and sighed, shaking his head. "Sorry, Kanae-chan. Are your feet alright?"

"I... I'm fine. Um ... I'm sorry, Sempai," Kanae mumbled anxiously, sitting on the bench at his side gingerly.

"It's okay," Kyon assured her, frowning at his PDA. "Not how I planned to wake up, but it could have been worse." He shook his head, worn out from trying to figure out how to deal with everything so far. Deciding he didn't need to solve it all himself, he turned to his address book. "Got it," he declared, sitting up straight once more.

Kanae looked at him hopefully as he dialed Koizumi. "Y...you know how to take care of everything?" she asked hopefully.

"Make Koizumi deal with it," he answered her, nodding.

* * *

Sipping his coffee, Koizumi luxuriated in the easy-going weekend morning, with his schedule currently cleared of any responsibility. Part of the reason for him being in such a good mood was the regular weekly meeting between himself and Mori. Not that they didn't meet regularly, anyway, but she made a point of trying to spend at least one meal a week just visiting with him, making good on her promise to his parents that she would look after him properly.

He had learned long ago that she wasn't much of a cook - she was too busy with other things. She was good at managing people, however, and she tended to have good taste. Instead of trying to spend what limited time she had improving her own skill, she had Arakawa make a breakfast for two, and then brought the meal to Koizumi, lacking only proper coffee.

Which suited him just fine, since he was convinced that no one else in all of Japan knew how to make coffee _properly_, anyway - though Kanae actually managed to come surprisingly close. Mori broke the silence first, setting down her half-full cup. "Itsuki-kun," she asked, "are you doing well in school?"

"Quite well," he agreed, nodding. "It's recently come to light that were my grades to fall, I could depend on the Brigade for support in study, so it's less of a concern than it has been previously."

"You should still be concerned with keeping your grades up," she returned, smiling. "I am glad to hear that, though. All of the reports and procedure aside ... are you enjoying yourself?"

"Absolutely," he confirmed, smiling brightly. "My confidence in Kyon-kun and Suzumiya-san is unfaltering."

"They hardly seem infallible," Mori mused, her gaze going to the one good window in Koizumi's apartment.

He shrugged slightly, enjoying another sip from his drink before he remarked, "Mistakes may be made, but in my mind, that makes the pair of them more human. In any case, the mistakes that are made now are less threatening to the stability of the world than they might have been otherwise."

The older woman smiled at him, raising an eyebrow thoughtfully. "Well, no reason to get caught up in that argument again," she assured him. "Even if I didn't already agree with you, this is your time off!" She reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. "Speaking of which, your family sent this."

He accepted the envelope gratefully, inclining his head but deciding to open it later. Not that he had anything to hide from Mori, but he was enjoying how peaceful the morning was. "Thank you," he said, smiling softly.

The day was perfect, he thought, as his phone began to ring, playing the chiming refrain he had chosen for the club's only other male member. His smile not lessening, he pulled the device from his pocket and answered cheerfully, "This is Koizumi, how can I help you, Kyon-kun?"

"Koizumi," Kyon answered from across the connection, "I'm at the park by my house with Kanae-chan. Um ... long story short, we need to get her some clothes and a ride back to her place."

"I see," Koizumi remarked, glancing to Mori pointedly, as she raised both eyebrows in curiosity, reaching for her own phone. "The park near your house? I'll ask Mori-san to send Arakawa-san by to pick the two of you up, then. If it's not too much trouble, Kyon-kun, might I ask why Michikyuu-san needs clothes...?"

Mori sighed, hanging her head as she held the button to speed-dial Arakawa.

"Because ... she's borrowing my coat right now," Kyon answered, sounding slightly annoyed. After a pause, he realized, "Wait - Haruhi's throwing a party today, right?"

"Yes," Koizumi answered, while Mori rose from her seat and turned away, talking with her phone in hushed tones. "It's at Tsuruya-san's place. You haven't forgotten, have you?"

"Not exactly," Kyon grumbled. "Okay - there might actually be an easier solution to this problem. If Arakawa's coming by, can I trouble him to take us to Tsuruya's place, and never mind the clothes?"

"If your plans change, I'm certain you can tell Arakawa where he needs to take you," Koizumi agreed. "I'll let you deal with the situation at hand, but it seems we might want to discuss things further later."

"Yes," Kyon answered dryly. "Sorry for the bother until then."

"Take care," Koizumi replied before disconnecting, as Mori hung up her own phone. "Well, it sounds like Kyon-kun's gotten his day off to an interesting start!"

"He seems to be rubbing off on you," Mori noted as she retook her seat and gave him a thoughtful, considering look. "Now _you're_ acting cavalier about everything, too!"

"As I've said, I suspect he has well enough in hand," Koizumi answered with a shrug, picking up his beverage and sipping at it. Setting the cup back down but still holding it, he added, "Also, I haven't finished my coffee."

She stared at him in surprise before chuckling and shaking her head ruefully.

* * *

While she couldn't really remember ever being badly injured, Kanae was reasonably sure that she was significantly closer to dying than she'd ever been before, thanks to sheer embarrassment alone. Somehow, when she had been asleep, she'd managed to master the trick that Yuki had been trying to teach her - and just like that, she'd sent herself into her sempai's bed.

Being his ever-reliable self, he'd managed to sneak her out of his room, and even managed to preserve her modesty through the use of his nice coat. She couldn't blame him for being tired, having to deal with smuggling her out of his house first thing in the morning... After he concluded his conversation with Koizumi he hung up, turning to her and asking, "What are your parents going to think when they look for you in your room?"

"U...um," she began, furrowing her brow in concentration. What _would_ her parents think? Being honest, she hadn't paid much attention to them ... as much as parents were a variable feature of her life, many small details and habits changed. "T...they'd probably think I went to a friend's place early," she ventured. She winced in realization. "I forgot my phone..."

"Okay, good," he decided. "Now, we just have to ask Tsuruya-kun for help."

He reached for his phone to dial, and she hesitantly asked, "S...Sempai? Why not ask, um, Yuki-san?"

Not meeting her eyes, he said, "I don't like to cause Yuki trouble if I can help it. It's no good if we always depend on her... She's reliable, so if something goes really wrong, we can ask her or Haruhi to fix it ... but usually it shouldn't take that." He straightened up, and Kanae swallowed nervously, thinking he looked particularly reliable. "I just like to solve what I can without troubling her, especially if it's thanks to the things she taught me that she can finally relax."

She managed a smile at that, some of her embarrassment fading. "I'm sorry about messing this up," she apologized quietly.

"Messing what up?" he asked, frowning.

"M...my sliding practice ... I learned to kind of slide short distances in the same world ... and I landed in your bed last night..." She trailed off without explaining _why_. Hopefully she wouldn't need to spell that out, but as it was, she couldn't look back on her vague memories of sleeping, nestled in his arms, and regret it.

He gave her a strange look, then chuckled, shaking his head. "Well, in that case, next time it happens, you'll be able to just go back the same way, right?"

She stared, blanching. "Um," she managed in a very quiet voice, "I didn't even think of that."

He chuckled even more loudly, turning back to his phone. "Hello, Tsuruya-kun?" he asked, after pressing a button.

* * *

After outlining things to Tsuruya as quickly as he could, the heiress agreed that Kanae could come over at any time before the party and take a bath - and naturally, Tsuruya had Kanae's sizes. He didn't think it was precisely reasonable, but knew for a fact that Kanae would have clean clothes ready for her by the time she finished taking a bath.

Arakawa pulled up near the bench a moment later, and Kyon led the girl to the car, checking his wristwatch. "I'm supposed to be hurrying back to bring my sister to the party," he said, as the older man smoothly moved the car through the streets, speedily making his way to Tsuruya's estate.

"Y...you'll still come in with me?" Kanae asked anxiously, hanging onto Kyon's arm. "And help explain things to Tsuruya-san?"

"Of course," he agreed. "Plus, I have to get my coat back." He gave her an encouraging wink at her startled look, and felt reassured at the way she blushed and smiled back at him.

Now, if he could keep Haruhi from finding out about this, the day would really be perfect. And, even better, he hadn't had to burden Yuki!

Wondering only how things would go wrong, he helped Kanae out of the car, unsurprised to find Tsuruya waiting at the end of the driveway, wearing another of her kimono and giggling at Kanae's appearance. "Mega awesome outfits!" she cheered. "Why would you need a new one?"

Kanae blushed in embarrassment, and Kyon scratched behind one ear nervously, scanning around for potentially eavesdropping servants. Not seeing any, he explained, "Kanae-chan's slider power lets her teleport over shorter ranges, too, but she ended up at my house in her sleep."

Leading the slider into the house, Tsuruya chuckled, giving the smaller girl an encouraging smile. "Did you end up in Kyon-kun's bed?" she asked, mildly teasing.

"Y...yes," Kanae admitted meekly.

Kyon stepped into the house after her, freezing at the sight of Haruhi standing in the entry room, giving Kanae a strangely scrutinizing look.

"I didn't mean to fall into Sempai's bed!" she blurted out in protest, waving her hands at Haruhi. "We weren't sleeping together on purpose - it was an accident!"

"Wow," Haruhi finally managed, shaking her head. "Just ... around you, Kyon, that slider turns into a living innuendo _factory_. Kanae-chan's little 'you wore me out last night' comment, her constant Freudian slips, and now, 'accidentally falling into your bed'?" She sighed, shaking her head again. "I can't even bring myself to get worked up over the things that get said between the two of you - what _really_ happened? And where'd the Trope-tan cosplay come from?"

Kyon blinked. "Part of me wants to say that your reaction to this is incredibly unreasonable," he noted, before slapping his own forehead with the heel of his palm. "Rather, only you would look at something so incredibly unreasonable, and choose to be so reasonable about it."

Haruhi raised an eyebrow then gave a pointed look at Tsuruya before turning back to Kyon. "I'm the only one who's reasonable? What about your fiancee?" she asked.

"I am going to forgo speaking privileges for the rest of the day," Kyon groaned, drawing his hand down his face. "Um ... as much as I'd love to find out how to embarrass myself further, I have to go face my mother now."

"Ah," Haruhi sighed, shaking her head. "Well, now you have my sympathy."

"Tell her I says hello!" Tsuruya cheered.

Kyon gave the pair a dry smile. "Thanks," he allowed. Turning to the slider he asked, "Um, Kanae-chan, just in case my day manages to get worse, do you think I could have my coat back?"

"R...right," she allowed, hesitantly pulling the coat from her shoulders, incidentally causing the illusion around her to flicker and vanish, revealing her nightgown.

Haruhi's eyes widened at the slider's pajamas. "So cute!" she exclaimed, seizing the girl in a hug as Kyon took his coat back, slipping it over his shoulders and grimacing at the outfit that suddenly wasn't boyish _enough_ for his tastes. He toggled the coat to be invisible, but not before Tsuruya managed to snap a picture of him anyway.

"Kyon-kun," Tsuruya giggled, before he could complain, "you're cute!"

"Er," he managed, as she leaned close and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Hurry back with Imouto-kun!" she added.

Haruhi's face lit up for some reason, and she hugged the slider to her even more tightly, but she said nothing, merely watching intently.

Deciding he'd been through enough already, Kyon managed a bow for the girls, and then fled back to the car where Arakawa was waiting.

* * *

It wasn't a magical-girl power-up, but being invited to a party with her brother's friends was still pretty good, in Nonoko's mind. Not just his friends, she reminded herself, but his fiancee, too. She was dying to know why she had found one of her brother's friends in bed with him, but clung to that secret for the time being - she just _knew_ if that got out, she'd lose all of the trust she had built up with her brother.

She couldn't ask him before he had to run off and sneak Kanae (dressed as Trope-tan, naturally) home, and by the time he came back, Miyoko had already come over for the party. For his part, Kyon tiredly trudged to the bathroom to try and tame his messy hair before breakfast.

Nonoko had eaten while Kyon was taking Kanae home, and Miyoko had eaten before leaving her home, so at her friend's suggestion, they left Kyon alone to finish his breakfast while they played video games in the front room. Once he'd finished his own meal, the trio met Tsuruya's driver at the front door, and then they were taken to Tsuruya's place.

Considering things, Nonoko realized that even though she suspected Yuki of being a magical girl, Kanae was becoming a likely culprit, too. Especially after her mysterious presence in her brother's bed! And if that weren't enough, Kyon had previously mentioned that he had worked for Tsuruya - so her family probably helped support the secret defenders of justice. Now that she was actually at Tsuruya's house, she found herself uncertain how to proceed...

Either she could go to Yuki, or Kanae, or Tsuruya. If she understood things right, for some reason, her brother was still trying to keep some things from Haruhi - and if she were careless, it might get back to her, anyway. This was a party, after all.

Looking around, she saw Kanae, looking freshly cleaned, with her hair still damp, dressed in a kimono that matched Tsuruya's, right next to Mikuru. Tsuruya, naturally, was busy gushing over how cute Miyoko and Nonoko were, and Yuki stood quietly at Haruhi's side.

The brigade chief was looking at Kanae sidelong and grinning, as though she'd just finished a long bout of laughter. Her eyebrows rose, and she grinned even wider on seeing Kyon. "Sleep well last night?" Haruhi asked in a teasing voice.

Nonoko heard her brother grumble something indistinct in response, looking away and not meeting her eyes.

Haruhi snickered, shaking her head, then insisted, "Come on, Kyon - I want to talk to you, Yuki-chan, and Kanae-chan before everyone else shows up!"

"Right, sure," he relented, allowing himself to be led away by Haruhi, giving apologetic smiles to Nonoko and Miyoko.

For her part, Kyon's younger sister glanced between Miyoko and the older girls, wondering if she could risk asking Tsuruya in front of Miyoko and Mikuru. "Okay," Tsuruya remarked, glancing between the two younger girls as her smile widened. "So, are you looking forward to the party?"

Miyoko nodded, saying, "I'm not really sure what it's about, but I'm always happy to spend time with Kyon-nii-san and his friends!" Then the other girl giggled, blushing, and managed to ask, in a very quiet voice, "W...will Koizumi-san be here, too...?"

Tsuruya raised an eyebrow, grinning at the smaller girl. "Miyoko-chan ... do you have a crush on Koizumi?"

"Ah! Too cute!" Mikuru exclaimed, giggling from her friend's side. Nonoko realized that if she were more clever, she could come up with a plan to get Mikuru and Miyoko talking about something elsewhere, to get a moment alone with Tsuruya to beg for some answers. Mikuru hesitated after a moment, then turned a curious glance to Nonoko. "Ummm... Oh, Nonoko, do you have a crush, too?"

She blinked at that question, completely surprised by it. She didn't have a crush on anyone she could think of. "What?" she answered, shaking her head. She liked spending time with her brother and his friends, but really, among people her own age, she didn't like anyone beyond being a friend. "Miyoko-chan is the person I like most," she decided aloud. Well, outside of her family, at least.

"That's even cuter!" Mikuru exclaimed, for some reason, grabbing her in a hug.

"Wah!" Nonoko managed, before she was seized as tightly as her aunt Rena sometimes held her.

"N...no!" her friend protested, her face red. "She doesn't mean like that!"

"I mean Miyoko-chan is my best friend!" Nonoko squeaked out.

"Right!" the other younger girl agreed anxiously. "It's just that ... I don't think Nono-chan likes any boys yet, so..."

She suppressed the urge to pout. It wasn't like she was unaware that she was the smallest girl in her grade, but now that even her best friend was trying to imply that she was immature... Well, really, she didn't see what all the fuss was about. But why did her indifference to boys mean she was _less_ mature?

After all, she wasn't the one swooning over a boy her brother's age just because he was pretty.

At least Mikuru still respected her. "I'm not like Shutaro, but no boy seems special to me," she offered.

Tsuruya finally got a hold of her laughter, prying her free from Mikuru's embrace. "Be nice to my imouto-kun," she said, before giggling again. "Some day, she's going to be my little sister-in-laws, right?"

She brightened instantly; it was hard to let her spirits be dampened for long, with her brother's friends. "Yeah!" she chirped, hugging Tsuruya as tightly as Mikuru had held her. "I also like Tsuru-nee-chan~!"

"Now," Tsuruya said suddenly, lifting Nonoko up, "how abouts we dress you up a bit today, Imouto-kun?"

"Ah..." Miyoko began, hesitantly, looking uncertain.

Tsuruya giggled, assuring, "Don't worries; your Mikuru-nee will help you out, Miyoko-chan!"

"Okay!" Nonoko agreed, realizing that this could be her chance. A minute later, humming happily, Tsuruya led her into a large, spacious room, and went to a closet after closing the door. "Mom made me get a nice dress recently," she noted, remembering it. "She said if I was really good, Tsuruya-nee and Kyon-kun would let me spend more time with them!"

Tsuruya raised an eyebrow at that, before flipping through an immense collection of kimono. "I like Imouto-kun too!" she assured the smaller girl, picking one of the robes from the rack and holding it up against Nonoko's chest, eyeing the fit. "Here," she decided, grinning.

"Yay!" Nonoko cheered, having no problems stripping down enough for Tsuruya to help her into the outfit - she'd never gotten to wear one before, after all, not even in Hinamizawa. While she was holding still so the older girl could pull the costume into proper place, she began her cautious investigation, posing, "Um, Tsuru-nee, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course!" Tsuruya answered, adjusting the front of her robes and tying the sash in a careful knot. "Arms out!" Nonoko stuck her arms out as instructed while Tsuruya tugged at the hems of her sleeves a final bit, nodding to herself in satisfaction. "Okay, you can relax. Now! What's the questions?" Done dressing the smaller girl, she beamed a bright smile down.

"Um ... you're Kyon's boss, right?" Nonoko asked earnestly. "He says he works with you to fight the dark generals?"

Tsuruya blinked, raising her eyebrows at that, then nodded, smiling as though she was about to laugh.

Nonoko smiled back happily, asking, "Is Kanae a magical girl?"

"Close!" Tsuruya returned, giggling. "She's a magical _princess_, and right now we're protecting her from some enemies from her home world - you know, just like in the alternate universe Trope-tan OAV - Magical Pretty Trope-tan and the Kingdom of Light?"

"Right!" Nonoko gasped in realization. "That makes perfect sense! And she chose Kyon as her guardian knight!" Well, she knew he was a good candidate for that - this was her reliable brother, after all!

"But this must be kept secret," Tsuruya warned sternly, still grinning. "Everyone in the SOS Brigade knows, but you have to be careful, okay? If our enemies find out, it could be very bad for her!"

"I wont tell," Nonoko cheered, offering an extended pinky. "I'll keep my word!"

"Good!" Tsuruya chirped, winking as she linked her own pinky finger with Nonoko. "I'll hold you to it! Now, let's see if everyone else is dressed up, yet!"

* * *

While she was bewildered, once she had time to settle down, wash up, and was surrounded by friends, Kanae felt much better. And despite her worries, Haruhi was actually very supportive, hardly looking jealous at all - until her sempai came back with his younger sister.

Then Haruhi gleefully hauled Yuki, Kanae, and her sempai into another room and slid the door closed. "Okay!" she exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest, her eyes going between Kanae and her sempai while she fought down a mischievous smirk. "I want the full story now! What happened?"

The slider swallowed nervously, but when she glanced at her sempai, he merely gave her a reassuring smile. "It was an accident," he said confidently. "So don't blame Kanae-chan for this!"

Haruhi looked annoyed and rolled her eyes. "Really, Kyon," she chastised, "the real concern here is that your mother would find her first! Did you sneak her out alright?"

He blinked, seeming strangely confused by the remark. "I-" he began before freezing, shaking his head. "Uh... I got her out without my mom seeing anything - my sister found out, so it's only a matter of time, though."

Giving a thoughtful nod, Haruhi remarked, "Tsu-chan should be able to take care of that." Decided, she turned her gaze to the slider. "Well then, let's hear it, Kanae-chan! How did this happen? It's a risk to upset Kyon's mother, you know!"

Kanae squeaked involuntarily at that - suddenly she was under the spotlight again? "I...it was an accident!" she protested. "Like Sempai said! I didn't mean to, I just... My new slider power..." She swallowed and bowed her head. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

Haruhi gave a tiny sigh, then shook her head sharply. "Now, now," she chastised, "even though it was a risk, so far, it's alright ... no sense getting upset about it." She put one fingertip to her lips, frowning. "Still ... I wonder that Yuki-chan didn't notice...?"

Yuki blinked at that, turning her cool gaze to Haruhi.

"Or did you?" the brigade chief pressed, her frown deepening.

"I was aware of Michikyuu Kanae folding space after the conclusion of last night's training session," Yuki answered.

Kanae startled at that, glancing at her sempai, feeling slightly relieved that he seemed surprised as well. "Y...you knew that Kanae-chan slid into my bed?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Haruhi echoed in surprise. "If you knew, why didn't you do anything?"

Yuki's expression didn't change much that Kanae noticed, other than the previous day's mild blush, but she thought she detected the merest hints of confusion in her gaze. "What action should be taken?" she asked.

That response stymied Haruhi, and she frowned, cocking her head to one side. "Well, that's a good question," she relented, sighing. "I guess I just thought you'd want to keep Kyon's mother from noticing."

"How is that-" Kanae's sempai began, before cutting himself off, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before continuing. "Er ... never mind that- Who all is invited to the party, Haruhi?"

She gave him a quizzical look. "You forgot?" she asked blankly. "Well, the Tamaru brothers can't make it because they think they're being watched, the computer club president and his minions said they had a raid scheduled on skywall, none of ENOZ could get away from their college classes to join us this time, and Taniguchi and Yanagimoto said they were studying." She sighed, shaking her head, then started ticking names off on her fingers: "Aside from the brigade there should be Mori, Arakawa, Miyoko-chan, your sister, Tsu-chan's father, Kasai, Sakanaka, and your friend Kunikida."

Shrugging, she added, "I considered inviting your cousins, but I thought they'd overwhelm the other guests - plus, it's quite a trip." She narrowed her eyes in annoyance, leaning closer to Kyon, so their faces were only a short distance apart. "You _did_ forget!" she accused, jabbing a fingertip into his chest.

"_Or_," Kanae's sempai countered, giving her a mild scowl, "you just forgot to mention that we were having this party to me."

Haruhi was taken aback by that, and gave the boy a furious glare in response. "How can you think that I forgot to bring this up to you?" she snapped. "I've been planning this for weeks!" She took a breath, her eyes sparking as she thrust out her chest authoritatively. "In fact, nearly every single time that you had to ... do ... something else..." Her confidence slowly drained away as her mouth fell open and her eyes widened. She whipped her head around to fix Yuki with a pleading gaze, asking, "Did I _really_ forget to tell Kyon we were having this party?"

Yuki nodded slowly, and Kanae felt her face heating up, realizing that she hadn't caught the fact that her sempai was unaware of the event, either.

Haruhi bit her lower lip and stared at the floor, her hands trembling. "D...damn," she swore. "I just... Somehow, I thought that because it was important to me, Kyon would know ... and that was stupid..."

Her sempai shot Kanae a beseeching look momentarily, before turning his attention to Haruhi. "Okay, now ... it's not a problem. Somehow, even my mom found out, so my schedule was clear. I have no idea how Skynet missed it, but when you look at things, didn't I just get out of doing any preparation work at all for the party? In a way, really, from my point of view, this is a triumph!"

"Huge success," Yuki added, giving a tiny nod.

Unable to restrain the snicker that escaped her, Haruhi shook her head, giggling, "You slacker! Making me feel like that when you weren't that upset- Okay, for that, I can no longer trust you to put your costume on by yourself! Yuki-chan, hold him down!"

"What," Kyon managed, not quite a question as Yuki was suddenly hugging him, seeming to teleport from her previous position.

"Kanae-chan," Haruhi commanded, pointing at a cloth-wrapped bundle, "open that up!"

"I have a perfect disguise kit!" Kyon protested, struggling against the small girl holding him, not budging her a millimeter. "I don't need to _change_ at all!"

The slider hesitantly opened the bundle as Haruhi instructed, while the brigade chief and Yuki wrestled the boy's invisible coat off. She knew she really should help her sempai, but somehow, the idea of disobeying Haruhi right now... "I'm sorry, Sempai!" she whimpered, searching for his costume in the bundle. "I'll try and help!"

"Y...Yuki!" her sempai protested. "Kanae-chan! Come on! H...help me- Waaah! Help me out!"

"I am helping," Yuki's solemn voice assured Kyon.

Kanae swallowed deeply, sorting through the cloth, picking out the innermost layers of her sempai's costume out first. "I'm trying!" she promised frantically, not daring to turn around.

"This is your penance for letting me have my way with Mikuru-chan!" Haruhi declared. The slider shivered, wondering if she should ask Mikuru for clarification on what the brigade chief was talking about.

Her sempai plaintively cried out, "W-what kind of crazy justice is that!?"

"Success!" Haruhi declared, simultaneous to Kanae collecting the last piece of the boy's outfit and turning around. Wrestling in vain against Haruhi, who had just yanked Kyon's slacks off, and Yuki, who was laying across his upper body and pinning him in place - in nothing but his boxer shorts.

"Ah!" Kanae yelped, her eyes widening. "U...um! Sempai!"

* * *

Later, after Mikuru had picked out a kimono for the smaller girl and helped her change, Miyoko and her self-appointed guardian returned to the main room, where Tsuruya and Nonoko (also in a kimono, now), rejoined them. Nonoko didn't hesitate to observe the dignity of her new outfit, just beelining across the room and glomping onto Miyoko in a hug. "Now we're both dressed up!" she enthused.

Miyoko managed a nod, seeing Tsuruya and Mikuru in similar outfits - a minute later, that reliable Kyon returned, looking strangely annoyed in his own more masculine version of the outfit. Haruhi, at his side, couldn't help but shooting him eerily satisfied smirks every so often, which he steadfastly refused to acknowledge. Yuki was trailing behind him looking vaguely amused, and the girl at his side - Kanae - looked like she had just woken up, or was recovering from some severe shock.

She stared around, unblinking, until Haruhi gently shook her shoulder. Not long after that, more guests began to arrive - first, the all-important Koizumi, joined by the woman Miyoko decided had better be the pretty-boy's aunt. Koizumi was dragged off by Tsuruya and Haruhi before Miyoko managed to reach his side to talk to him, so she sulked back to Nonoko while more of Haruhi and Kyon's friends showed up.

Nonoko seemed oblivious to her depression, just pointing out the new arrivals - a boy named Kunikida that Nonoko said was Kyon's friend, and some girl named Sakanaka who was a friend of Haruhi, chatting anxiously with Kanae and shooting uncertain glances at the short boy while smoothing her hair. Well ... that resonated sympathetically with Miyoko, so she decided to try and talk to the girl about it, but then, Koizumi had returned, and he was just so _handsome_ in his outfit...

Kyon was fairly handsome too, but Miyoko didn't want to deal with the competition trying to get to _his_ side... Not after she had managed to sidle up to Koizumi, just before Tsuruya's father and bodyguard showed up, making the room feel suddenly much more crowded. The large television on one wall was playing a movie quietly, and Miyoko was disconcerted to recognize Kyon's voice coming from it as the narrator, though she approved of Koizumi in the role of the male lead.

Kunikida turned to look at the movie with a wary gaze, seeming to notice it was on just as his own role came into play. He looked uncomfortably away from the screen, and was almost instantly accosted by Sakanaka. "You were in Suzumiya-san's movie?" she gasped in delight. "I thought for sure that was you!"

"Y...yeah," Kunikida chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "To be honest, if Kyon hadn't asked and said that-" He caught himself and shook his head abruptly, saying instead, "That it was going to be so much fun..." He shrugged, offering a plainly forced smile to Sakanaka, who didn't seem to notice, busy fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. "Um, so, you're friends with Suzumiya-san, then?"

"Er... Yes," Sakanaka agreed quickly, nodding. "Just like you are friends with Kyon-kun." This precipitated an awkward silence between the two. Miyoko looked to Koizumi to gauge his thoughts on the conversation she had overheard, but he seemed absorbed in a discussion with Tsuruya's large bodyguard and the gray-haired old man that she hadn't seen arrive.

"A...anyway," Sakanaka ventured, "um, you go to cram school, right?"

"Yeah," Kunikida agreed, grimacing. "My parents actually insisted I come to this party; they're worried I study too much."

"Er ... I was also thinking of going to cram school," Sakanaka tried, though without much enthusiasm.

"It's a good place to pick up better study habits," Kunikida commented, glancing over to where Tsuruya's father was speaking energetically to Mori. "Say, Sakanaka-san, Kyon's been surprisingly quiet about it, so, if I might ask, how did you get caught up in the SOS Brigade's affairs?"

"O...oh, well, back in March, Suzumiya-san's friends used a folk remedy to cure some neighborhood dogs of seasonal moodiness," the older girl supplied.

Miyoko wanted to ask Koizumi about that, but he seemed absorbed with the discussion between Mori and Tsuruya's father. In the meantime, Nonoko had popped up, seemingly from nowhere, and glommed onto her arm. The shorter girl nodded her head towards Kunikida and Sakanaka, remarking in a whisper, "That sounds like a low-level invasion ... I bet Yuki-nee-chan was the main one responsible for fixing it."

Miyoko wanted to laugh at her friend, but was too caught up in wondering if she would be right. Sticking as close to Koizumi as she could with Nonoko clinging onto her and giggling, Miyoko continued watching the pair. "Folk remedy?" Kunikida asked doubtfully, turning to look at Sakanaka - for the first time since coming to the party finally giving her his full attention. "Seasonal moodiness?"

Sakanaka nodded eagerly, explaining, "Nagato-san had some strange music, and Asahina-san was dressed as a shrine maiden." The pair both glanced to where the girl was at the moment, dressed in a kimono like everyone else, except that her sleeves had been bound back to stay out of her way. She was hovering anxiously near the buffet table, giving eager smiles to anyone who drew close, then watching intently whenever they sampled some of her cooking.

Miyoko couldn't imagine why she was worried, though, it had tasted better than anything her mother had ever made. She turned back to the older couple just as Sakanaka finished, "And by using Kyon-kun's cat, they were were able to cure the dogs of their melancholy!"

"That's ... interesting," Kunikida allowed. "I wonder what Sasaki-san would say about that?"

Miyoko and Nonoko both caught the way the volume of the party abruptly dropped several levels, but Sakanaka seemed oblivious. "Who is that?" she asked. "Um ... another friend of Suzumiya-san?"

Kunikida chuckled and shook his head. "I'm not sure about that," he said nervously, shifting his shoulders. "Uh, Kyon, Sasaki-san, and I went to middle school together. I've been running into Sasaki-san in cram school lately, as well. N...never mind that, though; for their next movie, what do you think the Haru-tachi is up to?"

The room fell entirely silent at that, for some reason, Tsuruya's father and the large bodyguard looking at Kunikida intently. The silence was quickly broken by Tsuruya's chuckle, and the heiress smoothly offered, "After what happened the last time we tried to shoot a movie..." She trailed off and shrugged apologetically, still smiling, but her laughter had stopped.

Haruhi picked up a moment later, adding, "The next movie will be more like the last; for Kyon's safety, he's going to be cameraman and narrator again."

"Well, at least there's that," Kyon returned dryly, which prompted everyone to chuckle. Shortly after that, Mori, Arakawa, and Tsuruya's father excused themselves, citing business to attend to elsewhere. Tsuruya's bodyguard went with them, and it wasn't until after they had gone that Nonoko and Miyoko's joint spy-work paid off.

After the uncomfortably long silence between the two of them, Sakanaka ventured, "You're a rival with this other friend of yours?"

The boy lowered his gaze to stare thoughtfully into his drink. "I don't know that this person is really aware of me, but yes," Kunikida admitted solemnly.

Swallowing anxiously, her grip on the hem of her skirt tightening, Sakanaka managed to keep her voice steady as she asked, "So ... you like this girl a lot, then?"

Kunikida didn't say anything, but nodded, not diverting his gaze. Nonoko gasped quietly, but Miyoko judged that they had seen enough - aside from maybe shepherding one of her self-appointed big sisters towards the older girl, she felt there had been enough eavesdropping. It would have been one thing to overhear and oversee a budding romance, but to see Sakanaka's hopes dashed like that...

"That Sasaki girl is bad news!" Nonoko whispered very quietly, casting about for anyone who might be listening in on them. "First she broke Kyon so he couldn't smile, and now she's trying to make his friends unhappy!"

Miyoko thought back to her encounter with the girl named Sasaki on the beach. Well, other than her friends... Miyoko somehow doubted that Sasaki was a bad person. Really, she could feel a little sympathy for her. "Kyon-nii-san is okay now, though," Miyoko ventured.

"That's true," Nonoko agreed, grinning. "Maybe he'll turn that Sasaki to the side of good, after all!"

"What's this about, now?" Kyon asked, seeming to step from nowhere to lean close to the two girls with a soft, amused smile, a cup in one hand.

Miyoko couldn't help but giggle - as handsome as Kyon was in his period-appropriate regalia, the cheap plastic cup of soda made it look a bit silly. "Kyon-nii, Nono-chan thinks that you're going to undertake a secret mission to redeem that Sasaki-san!" she whispered.

Kyon raised an eyebrow in response to the suggestion, then allowed, "Maybe, but if it were secret, I could neither confirm, nor deny it, now could I?"

"Uh..." Nonoko returned with a pout, stymied.

Miyoko merely laughed harder, then shook her head, still grinning. "Thank you, Kyon-kun; you're so good to listen to us," she said.

A heartbeat later, the party's focus had shifted, and though she hadn't seen it coming, Miyoko found herself swept up in Mikuru's embrace. Nonoko had likewise been grabbed by Tsuruya, and that left Haruhi, Kanae, and Yuki to tackle Kyon. He managed to keep his footing, even with Haruhi clinging to his back and peeking over his shoulder, grinning furiously while the smaller girls adopted identical poses, clinging to his arms and immobilizing him.

"What's this about?" Kyon protested.

Koizumi ambled over to the group from the side, smiling brightly. "I trust you remember the dance that Suzumiya-san devised after our failed submission to that music competition?" he asked.

"Oh, no," Kyon groaned.

"Okay!" Haruhi chirped, still hanging onto Kyon's back. "Kanae-chan, Tsu-chan, you two get to sit out, since you weren't here for rehearsals - everyone else ready?"

"No," Kyon protested, as he was hauled into position in front of where the last credits from the brigade's movie were still playing. Mikuru had released Miyoko to join the others, and Kanae hesitantly moved to stand by Tsuruya, watching curiously. A song she vaguely remembered overhearing Nonoko sing a version of started to play, and then, the five began to dance.

Despite the fact that Kyon looked like he wanted to be elsewhere, he matched Koizumi's moves perfectly, all of them delivering a flawless performance as they came to a stop, the music fading away. Tsuruya and Sakanaka cheered loudly, waving their hands, and Kanae clapped excitedly, likewise impressed.

* * *

It wasn't everything she had wanted, and it wasn't exactly even a year to the date the brigade was founded ... but Haruhi decided at the end, as sedate as it had been, it was fun enough. It was still a bigger party than the one they'd had for Christmas, and everyone who had shown up had fun, mostly. She wasn't sure why Sakanaka seemed down when she finally left, but resolved to investigate it at school the next day.

She _was_ still annoyed with herself for managing to completely exclude Kyon from the planning process for the party, though. Because of that, she'd let Kyon get out of cleaning up, sending him off with his sister and Miyoko. Even though Tsuruya probably had an army of maids at her beck and call, Haruhi liked the idea of taking care of things herself, and Tsuruya had laughed and said it sounded like fun, so pitched in, too.

The pair of them finished cleaning shortly enough, and then with some time to spare, they had gone to the same porch they had viewed cherry blossoms from to relax with some tea. Haruhi glanced sidelong at the heiress, poised elegantly in kneeling position on her small cushion while sipping from her tea, and emulated the pose, seeing as they were dressed the same anyway.

Tsuruya seemed not to notice, just smiling softly and surveying the garden. Haruhi turned to study the patterns of leaves and flowers, wondering what the other girl saw. "Is Haru-nyan doing alright?" Tsuruya mused, sipping from her teacup and shooting Haruhi a curious, amused look.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Haruhi returned, glancing at the other girl curiously "We had a good party, right?"

Tsuruya nodded, her smile widening. "A great party!" she agreed. "But ... Haru-nyan still seems distracted, you know?"

Haruhi snorted and turned her attention back to the garden. She felt her face warm up a bit, but quashed the urge to deny Tsuruya's observation. "I'm a little worried," she admitted, sighing glumly. "I keep thinking about what Auntie Rika said about keeping too much information from Kyon... I ... guess I'm just still so nervous about explaining things to him..." She shrugged weakly, not sure she could find the words.

Tsuruya giggled in response, and Haruhi nearly jumped in surprise when Tsuruya leaned close and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. "It's not too bad yet," she consoled her friend. "Kyon-kun is nervous; he just doesn't want to make a mistakes!"

"Y...yeah, but I'm starting to wonder if I already have," Haruhi managed, shivering.

The bubbling laughter of the taller girl buoyed Haruhi's failing spirits, and Tsuruya replied, "Haru-nyan is nervous, too; she doesn't want to make a mistakes either! That's _cute_!"

Haruhi found herself giggling nervously in response. "I'm glad _you_ think it's cute," she chuckled. "How can you still not be worried about this?"

"I'm worried, too," Tsuruya replied in admonishment, grinning. "You think I'm not? But that's okay; even though I'm worried, I get to be around the people I like!"

"I still feel like I should do something for Kyon to make up for forgetting to include him in the planning," Haruhi mumbled, shifting her shoulders in a shrug.

"Small steps," the heiress remarked, squeezing Haruhi to her more closely.

Haruhi's face warmed up again. "Tsu-chan ... I need to ask you to help me out even more," she mumbled. "I know that we've got a long way to go, and I said that I wanted to do this with ... well ... with friends..."

Tsuruya's embrace tightened very slightly. "What do you mean, Haru-nyan?" she pressed gently.

"I mean ... I don't know if I _could_ do this alone," Haruhi admitted, her face turning even more red. "Without you, Mikuru-chan, Yuki-chan, and Kanae-chan..."

"Aww," Tsuruya soothed, holding back another small giggle. "It doesn't matter if you could or couldn't! You don't have to!"

And that, Haruhi realized, returning her friend's hug, was what really mattered.

* * *

After returning to class, Kyon was uncertain if he should be grateful for the seemingly calm day or not. No sliders had teleported into his bed after training, at least. Lunch was relatively unremarkable, mostly filled with Taniguchi grumbling about studying all weekend, and thankfully devoid of Koizumi warning Kyon about some urgent happening.

When class got out, he was prepared for Haruhi to either ignore him, or grab his tie and run off. What he hadn't expected was for her to climb to her feet, waiting behind her desk without meeting his eyes. He studied her for a moment, then prompted, "What's up, Haruhi?"

She scowled at something, glaring out the window, and in an apologetic tone that didn't match her dour gaze, said, "I didn't mean to keep you out of planning the party."

He nodded at her, aware of the other students around them. "Um ... well, that's fine," he ventured, "but as it happens, I was going to try and take care of something - I won't be able to make the club meeting today."

Haruhi's eyes widened, and her alarmed gaze swung to his. "What?" she asked in stark surprise. "Wait - why!?"

"It's just to meet a friend from middle school," he returned nervously, unable to meet her eyes suddenly.

"Oh," she answered with relief, settling back into her seat. "Well ... that's fine, then." She looked like she was considering saying more, but bit it back, shaking her head. "Alright," she decided. "I guess you should have a good time. So, Tsu-chan and I want to have some of your time on Wednesday after the club meeting, okay? Keep your calender clear!"

"Got it," he replied dutifully, checking his PDA, which obligingly added the event. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Y...yeah," she allowed, seeming strangely nervous about it. "U...um, see you then!"

She fled abruptly, before he could ask her further, and then he decided he was best off not thinking about it. There was so much lately he was better off not thinking about...

He walked leisurely out of the school, spotting Taniguchi heading out at the same time, but walking with Yanagimoto. Kunikida was walking further ahead, already thumbing through his study guide. Glancing between the two, Kyon trotted to his shorter friend's side, calling out, "Yo."

Kunikida looked up with mild surprise, then folded away his study guide, nodding. "Decided to join the 'going home club' for today?" he asked.

"That's right," he agreed, smirking. "Also, I hardly got a chance to talk to you at the party yesterday. So, what's up?"

"Not much," Kunikida answered with a sigh. "I normally have cram school, but I think I'll skip today. My main motivation won't be there, so..." He shrugged.

Kyon nodded absently, not quite sure what Kunikida's motivation was. And, he realized, he probably didn't care; he had enough of his own problems to deal with as it was. If Kunikida had a real emergency, he'd surely be clearer about it. "So what's your plan for your sudden free time, then?" he asked.

Kunikida grimaced, shaking his head. "Not sure," he admitted. "Probably play some games, maybe just go to sleep early. These days can take a lot out of a guy, you know? Ah, but seriously ... why aren't you with your own club?"

Kyon shrugged, deciding he was best off not naming Sasaki; he'd be in enough trouble if it got back to Haruhi as it was. "I had alternate plans already," he answered. After a moment, he decided to try and pass it off as a joke, adding: "You know, typical hero stuff."

The shorter boy snorted, giving Kyon an amused look before shaking his head. "Naturally! Well, good luck with the daily heroics, then," he said, waving as he turned down his own street.

Waving his own farewell, Kyon walked the rest of the way to the train station in silence, considering his plan. He could easily meet his sister, but she would undoubtedly wonder why he had left the club early. As strangely spot-on as his sister's guesses had been lately (even with her odd perception that the world was a magical girl anime), she would probably divine what he was doing. Bad enough she'd somehow figured out that he was planning on talking to Sasaki.

A course of action in mind, he jogged home. Finding a convenient alley, he slipped into stealth and then took to the rooftops. It was only when he was leaping between houses, landing on the small ledge beneath his bedroom window that he realized his sister might actually not be _that_ far off...

Sighing to himself, he used a previously established setting on his beam-saber to open his window from the outside, grinning at the barely audible hum. After glance to assure that his mother wasn't in his room for some reason, he slipped in, having the presence of mind to scan himself in the school uniform before changing into more casual clothing and sneaking out.

Invisible, he jogged back to the same alley he had ducked into, dropping his cloak and nearly colliding with an anxious Tsuruya-tachi member. The older man bowed apologetically, through looked obviously relieved to see him again. Something else he hadn't thought about, he realized, nodding at the man. "I'm going on a mission," he told the man quietly, "so it's fine to call off anyone watching me for the rest of the day."

The vaguely familiar man nodded, looking surprised, but walked down the street the other direction, reaching for his cell phone. While he walked to the train station, he mused that it was entirely likely that for all of his precautions, Yuki was still watching him. He contemplated sending her a message, then decided against it; he'd told her he trusted her judgment, after all.

He couldn't help but shake the feeling, despite all of his precautions so far, that he was headed into something dangerous. At the end of the day, he told himself, he couldn't claim to be an advocate of friendship if he ignored Sasaki. There were still things he hadn't figured out, but if he couldn't even understand his own situation with Haruhi, Tsuruya, Mikuru, Kanae, and Yuki...

Well, maybe despite not understanding, he'd be able to help anyway. That thought in mind, even though he knew he was early, he strolled into the cafe where he had agreed to meet her.


	38. Chapter 37

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Calm Before the Storm Arc IV

Chapter Thirty Seven: A Charged Atmosphere

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Four: The Words You Didn't Want to Hear"_

_"Occasionally, the stability of your environment and circumstances may become compromised by new information that has always been true, simply unknown. Whatever action you take in response, information control and caution are your watchwords. No matter how bad that makes you feel."_

_"Clearing the Event Horizon: How Close is Too Close?" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

After finishing classes, Sasaki followed her normal routine, packing her school books and homework away before heading home. She gave polite smiles and nods to the other students around her, but more and more, she was becoming aware of how distant she had become from them.

Still... That horrific beach encounter with Kyon's friends stung. She hadn't felt like talking to Kyouko, all things considered. Fujiwara had become more elusive than his usual self, vanishing away as he frequently did for days at a time. Kuyou had gone away somewhere, too, and that meant that Sasaki had no one to talk to.

She had thought she had more friends, but then realized, that wasn't precisely true. At least, friends close enough to speak of the issues that bothered her. After all, it had taken more than a week of waiting for her current meeting with Kyon!

And with no one else to speak to, that had loomed large in her mind the entire time, making it difficult to study in cram class. It was so sad, she'd even found herself responding to Kunikida's attempts at striking up a conversation, though she usually didn't pay much attention to the boy; he wasn't nearly as interesting as Kyon, and despite the fact that he was attending cram school, his grades and study habits seemed fine.

On the walk home, she began a recently adopted part of her daily routine - scanning for the people in the crowd who worked in Kyouko's group, and kept an eye on her. Something, she was sure, Kyon would have been delighted to find out existed... But as pleased as he might be to uncover a conspiracy, she was sadly sure he'd have no idea what to do with it.

She stifled a sigh, recognizing two people, and surmised from past experiences that there was a third watcher she had either missed or failed to recognize. And Kyouko wondered why Sasaki didn't want to talk to her at the moment...

She reached her small home quickly enough, quiet, thanks to her mother being gone at work.

What would her mother think about her going out to meet Kyon, she wondered, changing out of her school uniform. Well, her mother would approve - she had liked Kyon, when Sasaki had studied with him. Of course, her mother had mistaken her interest in Kyon as a friend for something else... Even with that misunderstanding, though, those had been more enjoyable times, she thought sadly. That reflection robbed her of some of her energy, and she forced herself to confront it.

Was that why was she so looking forward to seeing Kyon?

More importantly, why was she worrying so much about what she wore to meet him?

Standing at the foot of her bed before her mirror only half-dressed, she was startled to hear a knock at the door. Forcing back a sigh, she grabbed the shirt she was considering and pulled it on hurriedly, calling out, "I'm coming, just a minute, please!"

When she got to the doorway, her curiosity had become annoyance. Who would be coming by, anyway? But when she slid the door open, she was surprised to see Kuyou there, still in her school uniform, staring at the door Sasaki had just opened as though fascinated. She bit back a sigh and gave the other girl a wary smile. "Kuyou-chan, what brings you by?" she asked.

And come to think of it ... had she ever even told Kuyou where she lived? Kuyou's dark, unreadable eyes went to hers, and she gave one of her seemingly eternal, languid blinks. After Sasaki had begun to think the silence was long, even for Kuyou, she spoke, explaining, "Our ambits coincide. We are sympathetic."

Sasaki offered a much more confused smile, then shook her head. "Come in, then," she decided. "I'm getting ready to meet with someone, so I don't have a lot of time, but if - as you suggest - something I don't know about concerns us both, I'd like to know more about how!"

Kuyou drifted into the house on her tiptoes, slipping out of her shoes without missing a step as she glided down the hall. Sasaki followed curiously when Kuyou stopped in the center of Sasaki's room, then turned to regard the mirror, hints in her expression suggesting that - for some reason - she found it significant. Her gaze turned back, and she spent a moment looking thoughtful, as though considering how to word her next response.

"Well?" Sasaki prompted, trying to smile gently, but anxious about running late - and as things stood, she'd done her level best to hide her meeting with Kyon from her other friends anyway. Kuyou _seemed_ trustworthy, but she also seemed close to Fujiwara, and _his_ behavior was something Sasaki was finding increasingly difficult to handle anyway.

"Observation indicates that our trajectories coincide," the dark-haired girl said, more quickly than Sasaki recalled her speaking, except for her cryptic comments at the beach. "There is a point in the local," and then her lips moved, and no sound came, but Kuyou didn't seem to notice, continuing to speak normally a few moments later, "whereupon two instances of him also may exist."

"Him?" Sasaki asked, genuinely confounded, and wondering what had happened to Kuyou on the beach. Was this all fallout from being told what an engagement was? That didn't somehow seem like it... 'Him' could be Kyon, or Fujiwara, or maybe someone she hadn't even met yet.

Kuyou's face flashed an expression - something so brief Sasaki wasn't certain she had seen it at all, then it changed to an unexpectedly sincere smile. "He is known to you; we are all within _his_ ambit." Then her smile faded and she wore her normal expression, and words seemed to be a struggle once more, as it took her a long minute to laboriously declare: "Good ... luck."

Even though she wasn't at all certain she understood what the girl was talking about, she appreciated the well-wishing. Sasaki managed a weak but sincere smile for her friend. "Then, thank you, Kuyou-chan," she allowed. "It may not be scientific, but perhaps that's what we really need; I'll wish you luck, as well!"

Kuyou blinked slowly, then turned wordlessly, striding towards the entryway of Sasaki's home. Scowling, Sasaki snatched her purse and phone from her desk, quickly following - but by the time she made the hallway, the front door was already sliding shut. When she reached the street, Sasaki couldn't find any trace of the other girl.

Unnerved, Sasaki wondered what it might mean. There were just too many possibilities to consider, so she decided to focus on the immediate goal of meeting with Kyon. She spotted two of her watchers again before returning to the train station. They could have asked her where she was going, but they didn't, and she wasn't inclined to tell them, this time. Not that there would be much doubt...

She imagined if she were like Kyon, she would have tried sticking a change of clothes in her purse and changing, outwitting the people following her. Well, she wasn't the type to rely on things she didn't think were likely to actually work out, anyway ... and given time to plan, she could come up with something more effective. She double-checked the schedules, then boarded a train headed towards Himeji.

She gave her watchers ample time to follow her, and exactly according to the schedule, slipped off at the next stop at the last possible second - leaving her escorts behind. The trains were reliably on-time, so she was able to catch one headed back before she could be followed. Accordingly, only a few moments later, her phone began to ring. Seeing that the call was from Kyouko, she waited for it to get sent to voice mail before turning the phone off.

Her new train took her to a third station, where she picked a final transfer to the cafe where she was planning on meeting Kyon. She smiled forlornly as she stepped out of the station, and the cafe came into view. Her smile froze when she recognized Fujiwara leaning against one of the concrete support columns of the station's canopy, looking irritated as usual, both hands thrust into his pockets.

She pondered - briefly - trying to avoid him... But then, what would the point of that be? Instead, she approached him directly; his gaze picked her out of the crowd almost instantly, though he didn't react except to watch her approach until she was close enough to speak to casually.

"Hello, Fujiwara," she greeted him, before he could speak. "What business brings you here today?"

"A future potential that has yet to be determined," he returned. Raising an eyebrow, he added, "Though, I think a better question might be what _your_ business is."

"Mine," she answered, her smile fading. "And not yours."

He blinked at that, uncrossing his arms and scowling.

"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head, before he could speak. "I think at this point you had better hear me out, Fujiwara - I don't know what exactly you have against Kyon, but he _is_ my friend. I don't appreciate the way you seem to try and bring him trouble!"

Fujiwara made a face, obviously biting his tongue for a minute. "Are we not friends, Sasaki-san?" he asked.

"We are right now," she allowed. "But let's see that you don't push that!"

"I swear, I'm not planning on doing _anything_ with your friend," Fujiwara sneered, looking half furious and - strangely - half dejected.

If Sasaki didn't know any better, she might think that Fujiwara was trying to cover hurt with anger... But surely that couldn't be the case? "Is that so?" she asked.

"He may be an opposed spanner, but right now he's dealing with that bastard, _and_ he's already slipshanked himself my only good weapon!" the boy yelled, his composure completely gone. "What could I really do to him right now? He's already caused enough damage to my Yet!"

Sasaki stared at Fujiwara for a moment, confounded on his meaning, but upset over his intent. "I don't know what that means, but I don't appreciate the idea that you're only respecting my wishes because you don't have the power to do otherwise!" she snapped.

"You don't understand!" he yelled back, sounding strangely miserable. "I'm not trying to hurt _anyone_! I just want to make the world _free_!"

Nearly a quarter of the people in the train station were now watching the pair, she realized, most of them with the decency to be covert about it, but some just staring openly. "It's not _my_ fault I don't understand what you _refuse_ to explain!" she countered loudly, unable to restrain herself. "Now, before you say something you regret, I believe we are done for the day!"

She stalked past him without looking back, upset at the feelings running through her. Why did so much have to be stirred up? Why was it all so soon? She resented being ruled by her emotions; she felt that she was intelligent enough to use them as guidelines and suggestions. When her restraint was overwhelmed, she thought she failed to act intelligently. All the more reason not to let her feelings control her.

On the off chance that Kyon had gotten to the cafe first, she forced herself to slow to a walk as she crossed the street, catching her breath and calming herself down. She stood on the sidewalk for a moment, her eyes closed as she tried to master her inner turmoil.

"Ah, you're a regular here, aren't you?" someone asked, interrupting her reverie.

Startled, she opened her eyes, vaguely recognizing the waitress from the cafe - a kind looking green-haired girl not much older than herself. "Yes, I suppose I am," she allowed.

The waitress looked thoughtful, pressing a fingertip to her lips. "You know," she remarked, smiling softly, "I only see you here with your friends, but they're not around. Twice in one day must be more than coincidence! Your other friend is waiting for you inside."

Sasaki blinked in surprise, but then realized that she'd run into Kyon headed to the same cafe once before... Perhaps, he also usually came with his friends? That would explain the waitress figuring things out... Sasaki was certain she'd have realized how obvious the whole thing was if she weren't so upset emotionally. "Er, yes," she agreed, nodding, when she thought she might be taking too long to answer. "I ... should go see him."

The waitress beamed her a smile and gestured her into the cafe. Sasaki shook her head, irritated that the waitress began to fade from her memory as soon as she stepped through the door. She spotted Kyon almost instantly, and smiled at him when he looked up from his deep study of his empty glass.

"Hello, Kyon," she managed shakily, not losing her smile. What did it mean that for all of her complaints, once she took a seat opposite him, she found her head clearing? That she felt better about her situation?

"Sasaki," he returned, nodding, offering a cautious smile of his own. "Are you alright?"

"Of course," she assured him, looking up as the waitress came by.

Kyon ordered a refill of his glass of milk for himself, and Sasaki decided to get one as well; somehow, she didn't think coffee would settle her enough at the moment. The waitress quickly returned with their drinks, then retreated to give them privacy.

"You've never really tried to deceive me before, but somehow, that seems lacking in conviction," he noted.

"I'll admit that I've been stressed," she acknowledged, smiling in defeat that he could see through her so easily.

"Cram school?" he asked doubtfully, giving her a tiny smirk.

She shook her head, sighing. "I wish that were the only concern," she said softly. "Ah, but never mind that. Kyon, it's been ... over a year since we really properly talked, hasn't it?"

He shifted his shoulders and let his smirk slip away, staring at some point on the table thoughtfully. "Yeah," he answered quietly. "Since middle school."

She bowed her head slightly in recognition of his implications. How could she have forgotten? "Ah... That is, I suppose ... one of the reasons I wished to talk to you..."

He nodded tersely. "Alright, then."

Her confidence wavered at his anxiety, and she hesitated yet again. Why was this so hard? "I'm sorry," she said again, trying to find her center. "I ... think I need a minute."

"In that case," he said slowly, "may I say something?"

"We wouldn't be very good friends if I wanted you to listen to me without myself offering the same," she replied, wondering what he had to say - and hoping it wasn't angry recriminations towards her friends.

That cheered him slightly, and he straightened up in his seat, taking a sip of his milk before he began, "I know we used to spend a great deal of time discussing things that I wanted to believe in, and you thought were silly."

Sasaki nodded, not meeting his eyes and struggling to keep her expression clear. Had she really come across that way? As if she didn't even respect him...?

"Well ... I tended to think you were right, you know, more often than not ... but there was one thing I always wanted to believe in, even if you argued against it. It was ... um, well, you probably noticed ... the last thing we really _did_ talk about."

She hadn't forgotten that, of course, and her vision shimmered at the realization. Back then...

"But ... well, things have changed for me recently..."

Logically, she told herself, this wasn't anything she didn't deserve. Realistically, she had even brought it upon herself... And being engaged, well, _that_ was quite a change. "You said," she managed, pleased with how steady she kept her voice, "that you believed in the idea that love conquered all?"

He startled slightly at that. "I ... guess I did mention that, didn't I?" he asked, mostly to himself. He shook his head, explaining, "That's not the important part, here, though. What I mean to say is, even if you told me it wouldn't last, I _do_ still believe in the power of friendship. That people who believe in one-another and work together can overcome things..."

She giggled in surprise at what he had said. None of the bitter recriminations or hateful invective she had been afraid of... He'd grown, undoubtedly, and was better spoken than middle school. Somehow, he seemed even more patient than he had already been... And when she thought he was going to tell her how much better off he was with his fiancee, he instead tried to imply that no matter her troubles, he'd try and help her.

Her instincts told her she should point out the logical flaws in his argument, but she couldn't retain the control for that. Instead, she realized that more than anything else, she _wanted_ to agree with him. The idea that she could tell him, 'Kyon, I've gotten involved with a scary secret conspiracy,' and then he would do everything in his power to help her...

Kyon, the boy who had already managed to somehow get shot by yakuza while working on a movie one of his classmates was producing... Realistically, that was the most action he could expect to see and survive. Could she embroil him in the affairs she was involved in, with forces beyond his understanding?

Swallowing the rest of her milk, she steeled herself, coming to a decision on what friendship - _Kyon's_ friendship - really meant to her.

* * *

Not really having much of an idea of _why_ Sasaki wanted to talk to him, Kyon had waited nervously in the cafe. With time to spare, he'd mulled over what he wanted to say to her, but somehow, when he saw her walk hesitantly into the cafe, that had all left him.

He hadn't forgotten that Sasaki - for some reason - unsettled Haruhi. And he _really_ didn't want to think about what Koizumi had said about that, considering how confusing things were at the moment. Instead, he decided to backtrack to something he felt more confident that he could understand.

Everything else aside, he and Sasaki had been friends. And what had the brigade shown him lately, aside from how strong friendship could be?

It may not have had the impact of his speech to Haruhi at the end of that repeating summer, but he felt it was a good speech, and he was sure that - somehow - he had even reached Sasaki. Done, he leaned back in his chair and finished his glass of milk, looking at her expectantly.

She spent a long minute thinking about what he had said, and he realized with surprise that he was relieved to see that she seemed calmed by what he had said.

"I would like you to be right, too," she finally allowed, smiling. "The idea that ... friendship means more than just another level of familiarity." Her hands wrapped around her empty milk glass and she peered into it. "Though ... I also think that friendship means wanting to keep your friends safe from problems you might cause them ... right?"

He frowned, mulling that over. "What are you getting at?" he asked, shaking his head. "Are you saying my friends are causing me trouble? I don't see it that way at all; it's because they're friends that I've ended up getting involved with them. If being friends with someone means that you might share their burdens, well, then that's fine by me. I'm willing to try and do that for my friends."

She shifted her shoulders in response, giving him a wry smile. "I know," she allowed. "And ... um, if we are still friends, then I'm grateful to you for that."

"So ... what's troubling you, then?" he pressed. She'd gone through too much trouble to try and get a hold of him for it to be anything as simple as wanting to talk to him.

"Just," she said, smiling, but not the assured, confident smile he remembered from her in middle school, "that it's been so long..." She met his eyes for a heartbeat, then looked away, shrugging. "I thought, um, that we should talk properly! So, you're engaged to that Tsuruya girl, are you?"

He blinked, taken aback. Why on earth would Sasaki care about that? "Yeah," he acknowledged, nodding. Perhaps it had been mentioned at the beach? What had they talked about while he was with Kanae?

"An arranged marriage, in this day and age," she mused, pushing her empty glass away from her. She offered a weak smile, shaking her head. "Well, setting the circumstances aside, are you ... um ... happy with her?"

Kyon frowned, rubbing at one temple, wondering at this new facet of Sasaki. Or ... was this her attempt at a front? "Um ... Tsuruya-kun is a good friend," he said. "She's supportive, energetic, and always positive. Honestly, I'm really glad to be spending more time with her, so as sudden as everything is..." He shrugged. "I think so."

"That's ... good," she returned after a moment, nodding, still looking away. She smiled a tiny bit, and it seemed genuine, if weak. "I'm glad to hear that things seem to be working out for you. Even if, um ... I heard that you were somehow injured recently?"

One hand went to the spot on his chest where he had been shot, and he grimaced. In the grand scheme of things, he still felt that Yamane Jun was influenced more by the IDSE than the Sumiyoshi-rengo. Not that it ultimately mattered. If it was trying to help Tsuruya, or because he wanted to try and look out for Yuki as much as she looked after him, he was glad to do what he could. "Yeah," he allowed, more quietly. "That ... wasn't so big a deal."

She turned to study him, for a moment back to her old self. She looked amused and skeptical all at once, not quite condescending. While their eyes met, he thought he saw a hint of melancholy before she hastily shifted her gaze away, the moment fading. "Not so big a deal," she echoed, almost chuckling. "And here I thought you were _looking_ for adventures!"

"Not that much," Kyon countered, shaking his head. At Sasaki's skepticism, he elaborated, "I wanted to get involved, but true adventure finds you; there's no need to go looking for it."

"Maybe that's so," she mused quietly in response, as the waitress came by and quietly asked if they wanted anything else.

Sasaki asked for water, and Kyon decided that he would follow suit. Once she had brought glasses of water out for the pair of them, Sasaki sighed, mustering another smile. "Well ... mostly I wanted a chance to speak with a close friend since it seems that our paths might not cross again. As difficult as it was to get some of your time already..." She shrugged, her expression wistful. "I...it may turn out that we don't speak for a long while ... after this."

"Why?" Kyon asked, confused. "I mean ... well ... okay, I guess I _have_ been difficult to get a hold of lately. But is it so bad you have to act like we may never see one another again?"

Sasaki fidgeted with a napkin and very quietly said, "It ... may be the fault of my friends, as much as anything else..."

Kyon's frown deepened. "Your friends don't want you to talk to me?" he asked. The idea that Fujiwara or Kyouko might be trying to keep Sasaki away from him...

"I feel rather it's more that your friends would like it if I didn't talk to you ... though it doesn't help that some of my friends seem a bit antagonistic..." Sasaki gave a glum smile. "But ... it was good to see you again."

The waitress happened to be passing their table as she called a loud greeting to someone at the doorway. Both Kyon and Sasaki glanced at the cafe entrance, where a woman that he didn't recognize stood. She looked to be in her thirties, a somewhat plain woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a blue skirt and coat; the woman's eyes scanned the room, and for some reason lingered on him with mild concern before turning to Sasaki with greater alarm.

"Ah," Sasaki gasped quietly. "I ... need to go," she said quickly climbing to her feet, looking distressed. "Um, y...you stay out of trouble, okay?" she hastily bowed to him and moved to meet with the woman in the doorway.

He didn't know what was happening, but didn't miss the fact that something was obviously not right. He had risen from his chair, prepared to bolt after her when the waitress's voice stopped him, asking, "Will you settle the check?"

A valuable moment was wasted staring at the waitress in disbelief before he fumbled for his wallet, pressing a two thousand yen bill into her hands. "Keep the change," he called, dashing to the doorway. He didn't care about the people in the cafe staring at him, not now. Sasaki was obviously in trouble, whatever she had said.

By the time he made the street, he just glimpsed Sasaki and the woman with her rounding the corner at the end of the block, beneath a pool of light from the street lamps. He swore to himself, breaking in a run towards where he had seen the pair last. He skidded to a halt at the edge of the corner, narrowly evading a collision with a sour-looking salary-man on his way to the nearby train station. He mumbled an apology he didn't really feel and scanned the street, thinking he had glimpsed Sasaki's hair as she ducked into a car some distance away, which rumbled into motion even as he watched.

He bit off another curse, dashing down the street after the car as it sped up. As he passed an alley on his left, he heard a strange buzzing and hissing noise, turning just in time to glimpse another machine, similar to the one he had last seen on the beach, a week ago. This one was slimmer, and taller, the shape slightly different, but more importantly than anything else, even for his running speed, it was already hurtling towards him unimaginably fast, limbs spinning through the narrow passage of the alley.

* * *

Sullenly following the woman that Sasaki had come to identify as one of Kyouko's superiors, the girl allowed herself to be pushed into a car - away from Kyon. She could acknowledge to herself, at least, that he was probably better off not getting involved in the madness that embroiled her own life. Then again ... he was stubborn and persistent. And she hadn't been at her best; she'd been obvious enough that he would probably still demand an explanation at some point.

She tuned out Kyouko's superior's voice. The woman was named Takahashi something or another, Sasaki honestly couldn't recall. She could really only think that trying to talk to Kyon had been a mistake in the end.

What had she accomplished ... she'd broken her emotional control, she'd nearly admitted things to Kyon that she still wasn't comfortable admitting to herself, and then, she'd been a complete idiot, too busy feeling miserable to adequately cover up that fact to him. If she weren't so busy _feeling_, then she could have been analytical, logical, and maybe had a chance to solve her problems instead of whimpering like a little girl and telling Kyon that she wanted to believe in friendship.

Friendship, she mused forlornly. That meant making sure Kyon was safe ... that her problems didn't need to become his. She spent most of the ride trying to sort her thoughts out, ignoring the fact that Takahashi was berating her the entire time. The car, driven by one of the woman's lackeys, pulled up before her house, where lights suggested her mother had already come home. A small cluster of men that she recognized as more of Kyouko's associates were standing around uncomfortably outside the door.

Sasaki didn't know what they had come to her house for, and wondered if she had glossed over something that Takahashi might have said that would explain things. "What's going on?" Sasaki asked Takahashi anxiously. "What are these men here for?"

The woman pursed her lips and gave Sasaki a stern stare. "Sasaki-chan," she began in an annoyed, superior tone, "we're here to look out for you. You don't understand all of the risks that surround you; going to visit that boy alone... Now, listen, we're going to go inside and have a talk with your mother. For your safety, we're going to see about moving you to a more secure location-"

"No!" Sasaki protested, shaking her head. "This is all- No! This is stupid! Are you treating me like a prisoner, now? I don't think you have so much authority that I can't protest to the police!" She took another breath, but rather than argue the point, she dove for the door handle, managing to lever it up and try to escape from the vehicle. Of course, if she got free, she still had to figure out how to take care of her mother, but-

Takahashi's protesting voice chased her out of the car as she almost slipped on the street, recovering her balance and tottering away on her suddenly uncooperative shoes ... but where could she go? She obviously couldn't go to Kyon for help, not if her plan were to keep him uninvolved. Fujiwara wasn't reliable, and even if he were, he was as difficult to get a hold of as Kuyou. Kyouko would be easier to get a hold of, but these were her allies, after all.

Where else could she go, she wondered, five steps later, when her shoes lost purchase again, and she tumbled forward, the pounding footsteps of Takahashi's goons just behind her. Why couldn't Kyon be right, and friends be amazing, dependable people that you could rely on?

* * *

The whirling silvery mass of death was obscured for a moment by a flash of black - Suou Kuyou, descending from the heavens in her school uniform, her long hair billowing up and behind her in an ominous trail. Improbably, he was able to glimpse her face; impassive as she almost always seemed, unmindful of the fact that her skirt had been flipped up while she descended.

Her heel came into contact with the top of the flashing chrome monstrosity, deflecting it down - proper time abruptly resumed, and Kyon slammed into an invisible wall, bouncing to the ground of the dark, suddenly deserted street. Behind him, less than a meter away, the slider death bot's mass continued forward, slowed only by plowing through the asphalt and cement below, sending sparks and a hideous crunching noise across the area. The thing's massive limbs clawed through the brick and mortar wall of the store behind him, sending a spray of chips and dust over his head.

Swearing, he belatedly activated his defenses, rolling backwards and to his feet, drawing his beam-saber and activating it in one smooth motion. There was a quiet hum as it came to life, shedding soft blue light across the arena. Whatever the invisible barrier was, it was gone, so he was able to edge away from the slider robot's mass as it twitched and writhed.

"Suou-san?" he called waving the dust away and eyeing the parts of the attacking machine that he could see clearly.

The only response was a sizzle of sparks, something within the dust-cloud shedding a bright blue light briefly. Glancing around, the street - no, the entire _city_ - seemed shut off from the rest of the world, somehow, deserted. As though the only beings there were Kyon, the damaged robot, and - maybe - Kuyou.

"Hello?" he called more loudly. "Anyone?"

If he didn't know any better, he'd guess he had somehow gotten stuck in closed space, or something very like it. The robot twitched again, suddenly seeming to come back to life. He swore to himself, realizing that he should have hacked it apart while it was stunned or distracted.

Too late, though; now it drew itself upright. Eight splayed silverly limbs emerged from the low dust cloud, and above it, the narrower, spiral-etched disc that made up the center and majority of the thing's mass turned slightly, before another horrendous tear in space exploded behind it. The spindly construct seemed to tip backwards into the tear - and vanished.

A heartbeat later, he spun, sword out, as another, smaller tear formed in the middle of the empty street, and when it vanished, the scowling form of the enemy slider was revealed. "Hey," he said sourly, one hand on one of the silver cylinders at his belt.

Kyon moved his free hand to his side, ready to raise his shields, armor and coat already fully active. "You," he said levelly.

"I have a name," the slider returned in a sneer. "Anyway, let's cut to the chase, Champ."

Reflexive after dealing with as many organized criminals as he had, Kyon simultaneously raised one eyebrow and the point of his beam-saber, as though in invitation. "Really?" he asked doubtfully, unnerved enough at the strange situation.

The slider's lip curled back, his sneer deepening, and he bit back a growl, his knuckles whitening around his weapon. "Let's _talk_," he hissed, eyes narrowed.

"Really?" Kyon asked again, just as doubtful as before.

"I don't want to fight you here," the slider clarified, his teeth still tightly grit. His eyes flicked to somewhere behind Kyon, and he added, in a growl, "As if _that_ would give me much of a choice."

Kyon blinked, glancing behind him despite his suspicions - though he hadn't noticed her arrival, Kuyou was just behind him, to the left, her eyes fixed on the other slider's. Kyon did not particularly enjoy the sense of being between the two of them, but it seemed that Kuyou was on his side for the moment. He decided that without any other choice, he'd have to trust her; he already knew he _couldn't_ trust the slider.

"Fine," he allowed curtly, lowering his beam-saber, deactivating the blade against his better judgment. "What's your name, then?"

The slider blinked at the question, then rolled his eyes. "Sure," he replied with a sneer. "If I tell you my name, maybe you'll even understand why I'm doing this. Call me Wataru - now what do I call you?"

"Kyon," he returned. "Everyone else calls me Kyon." He realized with a sad smile that it was the first time he'd voluntarily introduced himself with the hated nickname ... but somehow, he didn't think that Wataru had been honest with his own name - just like Fujiwara. Somehow, the tradition seemed reasonable.

"Alright, Kyon," Wataru allowed, nodding. "Now for brass tacks. You're protecting..." He trailed off with a grimace and made a vague, disgusted gesture.

Did Wataru not even know Kanae's name? Kyon doubted that, but if it were the case, he wouldn't be the one to give it away. "Yes, I am protecting her," Kyon affirmed, narrowing his eyes. "What do you have against her?"

Wataru trembled with barely restrained rage, swallowing with visible effort, then drew his hand from his weapon with an obvious display of effort. "Those who I represent," he said stiffly, "require her presence for their own ends."

"And you?" Kyon pressed.

The slider's teeth grit even harder, and he shot Kyon a hateful, murderous stare. "In a world, in a reality far from here, that ... one that you protect came to another world - _my_ world. You don't understand what it really is!" He shook his head, his eyes sharp, glowing with rage. "It came to our world - leading the tide..."

This was heavy stuff again - but he remembered Yuki and Haruhi discussing it. He tried to keep his head clear. He was supposed to be chasing after Sasaki, not getting involved in ... whatever _this_ was!

Wataru was quiet for a minute, lost in his own thoughts. When he spoke again he was slightly calmer, though his voice still shook. "She fled, but the Combine had exhausted themselves reaching my world. How long would her trail of destruction spread, after all? And I was right there ... one of her first victims." He looked up suddenly, menace in his eyes - but before he could do anything, Kuyou was there again, her hair flaring straight to one side from her momentum for an instant before whipping the other way, a massive jet curtain, almost completely obscuring the slider's presence.

Wataru snarled quiet something as space tore open behind him, then more loudly, directly at the girl between the two of them, "Next time, you worthless piece of junk! Once you're part of the Combine you'll be _my_ pet! Just like the others!" His mad gaze turned to Kyon, as Kuyou's hair began to settle in a wide fan down her back. Distantly, there was the sound of something immense shattering, as the earth began to shake - the rumbling sensation and sound picked up in volume.

"I told you!" he yelled over the increasing sound of the world around them crumbling. "My name!"

"I know you," Kyon yelled back.

"No, you don't!" the slider countered, as the rumbling intensified so much that Kyon was struggling to maintain his balance. "My name! My reason!" The glow in his eyes reached a new, manic intensity. "I will stop that thing, Kyon! I will rescue my sister! I swear on my good name - Michikyuu Wataru!"

The world around them exploded, the nearest buildings instantly shattering into monumental piles of rubble, while Kyon reeled as though struck, falling to his knees - and then further, through the last remnants of the broken world around him.

* * *

Sasaki stumbled, throwing her hands out before her, knowing she was going to crash to the ground and be caught- Except, she didn't even make it that far, stumbling forward and being caught before she even fell. A pair of arms wrapped around her, as her face pressed into someone's sturdy chest.

"Hold up," a far-too familiar, but unfamiliarly angry voice warned, as she was helped back upright. "No, I said-"

But her savior cut off with a growl, and she wobbled unsteadily, turning around in wide-eyed alarm. She was just in time to see her protector duck beneath the fist of the first of the burly men, countering with a cross-punch to his jaw. "B...but," she began to protest, shaking her head, her eyes wide.

Her savior ignored her for the moment, jogging towards the next attacker, leaping forward and kicking him in the face. Like an action movie hero, he planted another foot in the stomach of the man he had kicked even as he was falling, leaping forward and lashing out with a flying kick at the third. Two of them were down, and the first one began to shakily climb to his feet before her guardian spun, pulling something shiny and chrome from inside his coat.

For the merest moment, in the shifting light, it seemed like he might have been holding some _other_ weapon, but it was just a stun-gun. She still couldn't really help but stare in amazement as he pulled the trigger, a pair of tiny darts shooting out before the frighteningly loud chatter of electrical discharge sounded, and the first man went still.

"K...Kyon?" she breathed, disbelieving, as Takahashi and her driver got out of the car, staring at the boy apprehensively, but not moving.

"Sasaki," he said, turning around, frowning. "Is it that hard to believe your friends can look out for you?"

She tried to speak, but words wouldn't come. As much a fool as she'd felt lately, she felt an even bigger idiot, just standing in the street, staring at the boy who had saved her. "Your friends _do_ care, and..." He hesitated, looking slightly away, then admitted, "Your friend Fujiwara told me you needed my help right now."

Already stunned, she felt even further robbed of words.

He studied her, then offered a sad, forlorn smile, unmindful of the figures behind him. "Come on," he said insistently, reaching a hand towards her.

Hesitant, uncertain, but more than anything wanting to believe, she managed to take his warm hand in her own shaking grip. He led her past the prone goons, stopping a few feet from Takahashi and her anxious looking driver. "Hey," he said, frowning, nodding at them, then pulling his phone, or a PDA from his pocket, snapping pictures of each of them.

Takahashi recovered first and scowled, returning, "Can I help you, young man?"

In response he shook his phone, glancing at the screen. "I'll get back to you in my own time," he said, raising his eyebrows in admonishment. "Fujiwara can explain that - and while you're asking him what it all means, mention that it's predetermined that he sent me here in the first place."

Sasaki still didn't understand what was going on - just that, her sense of logic and rationality had finally given up. Whatever else was going wrong, she understood that Kyon had been right, and she hadn't. It was much easier to follow his lead, and believe in his friendship for the moment.

Takahashi's lips pressed together into a thin line. "I'm sure I don't-"

"Spare me," Kyon countered, eyes narrowed. "Keeping in mind when I'm from... Here's the deal. Sasaki's in charge. If I hear word _one_ that she's not happy because of something you do, then I'll come back to help her out - with friends." He leaned closer to Takahashi, and part of Sasaki wanted to wince at how inappropriately near her Kyon got. The greater part of her noted that the bigger deal would be the three men he'd already knocked down, and that just at the moment, she was glad to watch the woman nervously press herself against the car, looking up at the menace in Kyon's gaze. "And when I say 'friends,' remember who sent me."

Sasaki's sense of rationality and logic was too eroded to prevent her from looking at her middle-school friend without being mildly awed. Here he was, acting a bizarre, insane combination of guardian and thug ... and all she could think was that as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself ... she felt safe when he was nearby. And ... maybe, just a tiny bit ... if it was true, and Fujiwara had gone out of his way to send Kyon to her ... then maybe it wasn't just Kyon that was a dependable friend; maybe there could be others, too. Wasn't that what he was saying earlier? Ultimately, hadn't she been conceited to think that she was the only one who could positively affect her friends?

After lingering a moment longer to ensure that his message was received, Kyon pulled away, shaking his head and leading Sasaki back to the gateway to her home. The three men on the sidewalk had gotten back up, but were wisely avoiding looking at Kyon, one of them sitting on the curb and cupping his jaw tenderly in both hands.

"Now, there's a small catch here," Kyon noted quietly, glancing behind himself to make sure no one could overhear. "Namely, if we don't keep in proper contact, I won't know that I have to help you."

"O...oh," Sasaki realized aloud, blinking. That would mean her entire plan of avoiding contact with Kyon to keep him out of trouble had been for nothing. Some spark of her rationality reasserted itself; it was a positive that she'd been mistaken here, after all. "H...how about a dead-man switch, then?" she asked.

He blinked at her, raising an eyebrow. She managed a smile and shook her head.

"I'll send you a text message at least twice a day," she clarified very quietly. "If you don't get one, you'll know something is wrong! S...so, expect one in the morning before school, and again in the evening, um, maybe just before dinner?"

"Yeah, I thought that was your idea instead of mine," he sighed, nodding. "Alright; that ends up working very well. I'm sorry - it's really risking a lot, right now, so I can't talk much more. Just ... remember that I'm here for you, because that's what friendship means." Then he smiled at her, and something about it was so genuine that if he hadn't turned away, she wasn't sure what she would had done.

She followed him with her eyes as he walked away, glancing back over his shoulder and giving her a friendly wave before walking down the street.

There were unanswered questions, of course - like how had Kyon gotten there so quickly from the cafe? Or when had he learned to fight? Had Fujiwara really talked to him? Asked him to help on her behalf?

Stepping into her house, feeling safe in her home once more despite her awareness of Takahashi's minions withdrawing...

Her rational mind began to recover itself, and she pondered doing what seemed reasonable - calling the police and trying to explain her situation. Naturally, she scolded herself as her mother greeted her at the door, protesting at her disheveled status. She allowed herself to be herded into the bathtub, her mother worriedly chiding her the entire way, until she was soaking in the warm water, finally alone with her thoughts.

Either Kyon had a friend who could drive, or he'd flagged down a taxi to catch up to her. That made sense. If a friend met him, that would explain how he'd gotten the change of clothes, too; he'd probably just put on the coat in the back seat of a car while en route. And his ability to (seemingly effortlessly) beat up the goons from Takahashi's mysterious fanatics?

Well, she thought, swirling one hand in the water, she'd never actually known if Kyon had any kind of practical combat training. She'd never noticed him particularly excelling at physical education in school, outside of games where good strategy had an influence. That was one of the things that had initially made her notice him, in retrospect... She shook her head, trying to dismiss that part of the thought.

Logically, she asserted, someone who had always seemed to want to be part of some amazing story might actually learn something as basic as martial arts. She'd even had a few classes of her own when she was younger - Tai Chi at the start of middle school, before she'd dropped it for cram school. He'd never been the type to brag, so that would explain why he'd never brought it up. Add in the fact that the genuine combat skill of the men he'd beaten had been unknown, and what had happened was actually entirely explicable.

The stun-gun was a bit of a question, but easily addressed by that recent shooting... Why not take some additional self-defense precaution after that? Or, perhaps it had been provided by the same theoretical ally who had provided transportation and the coat?

And thinking _further_, given what Kyouko had claimed about Tsuruya's family... That ally might have actually been some person of questionable repute.

She smiled slowly, as her mind logically deduced that thanks to this, she might have underestimated Kyon's ability to help her. And the fact that he'd said he wanted to. Guiltily, she realized that she wasn't giving Fujiwara any credit, but that made sense, too. Based on _his_ behavior, the genuine explanation was simple:

'Time traveler' was a code-word for 'organized criminal'.

Further puzzle pieces began to fit themselves together, her quickly recovering rationale deducing what more of her situation meant. There were still unknown components, and she was still very strongly tempted to involve the police - as long as she could avoid getting Kyon or Fujiwara in trouble, though... As much as it bothered her that she might be abetting criminals, she remembered what Kyon had said, and returned logic or not, she'd already made herself accept the fact that she believed he could help her.

Well, at least she hadn't let herself fall completely head-over-heels with him, considering his engagement, like poor Kuyou... The question remained, however: what had the other girl meant about trajectories aligning? How had their situations become similar? Was Kuyou somehow also dependent on Kyon for help?

But then... Why not ask him?

* * *

Though the entities contacted had established their own name and label for what Kuyou was, that label had been useless for the purposes of communication. Almost all attempts at using the basic-seeming memetic communication string resulted in non-mutual exchanges of spin. Spin was precarious, allowable to fluctuate only within minuscule parameters; exceeding those volumes was unnatural.

Memetics were difficult enough; string and spin exchanges on the scale that Kuyou was more familiar with were broader. Her time and focus was typically among the Chorus, stretching far beyond the rim, to the very edges of the Song. Kuyou's kind's awareness existed only there, the first echoes of physical matter and observable energy, at the edges of what was.

Narrowing that focus from a span the width of all that was, to an area almost as small as existed, Kuyou observed, senses filtering in every vibration in the surrounding corona of atoms: the merest, faintest wisps of oxygen, hydrogen, other trace strings spinning in known chords and notes. Among the entities that Kuyou communicated with - flimsy, ethereal collections of matter and energy (mostly dihydrogen monoxide and a blend of electro-chemical surges) that none-the-less were _aware_ - the pattern of vibrations of atoms through that almost imperceptible curtain of gas were particularly important, however.

The great bulk of their communication existed at this level, and Kuyou had exchanged a great deal of both spin and string trying to find meaning above the already difficult-to-perceive layers of energy and matter. Understanding their interactions, and the significance of small chemical collections, or small masses of various shapes that conducted energy in strange ways - it was all quite a struggle to comprehend.

The only reason the planet (mostly iron and oxygen) had even entered Kuyou's awareness was thanks to a void in the fabric of the all; a disruption of the Song. Kuyou's attention had been drawn away from the Chorus, and Kuyou had tried to investigate.

Fabricating a collection of the general atomic structure of the wispy beings native to the tiny cluster of thicker atoms was the first step. This had taken countless rotations and stressed causality, almost as much as the initial observable disruption. Then came the art of, over further countless rotations, understanding the significance of the movements of the sphere. Because it would not have been efficient to do otherwise, Kuyou observed the entirety of the planet simultaneously, aware of the momentum and position of every particle and energy string within the parent-star's heliopause.

Because it was tedious to process all of those observations, Kuyou only made one observation per rotation, dismissing the vast majority of her findings, as they were known parts of the Song. Kuyou had been pleased to learn about the local entities' comprehension of time, though the scale was still difficult to attune to; she determined that her observations occurred approximately one thousand, one hundred and fifty times per what the local vibrations in atmosphere (within tolerances) called a 'second'.

The next significant thing that Kuyou had learned had been that their vibration-communication was called 'speech'. After that, breakthroughs came at a phenomenal pace, and in the span of the entities' 'days' it had been determined that Kuyou was what the entities called a female. And that the entities were called human. And that Sasaki was Kuyou's friend.

This interested Kuyou; to know what the construct that had been assembled meant to the humans gave meaning to the entity. That meant that now Kuyou was female. Kuyou was both what she had been before (and even in the Song, the Chorus did not have easily explained terms that could convey what they were), and a human girl.

She had learned many other interesting things, too. There had been profound interactions between Kuyou and others; particularly, her awareness and construction had fallen into the influence of a being that the local humans called 'Kyon'. She understood that wasn't his name, in the same way that Kuyou wasn't hers, but understanding the draw to him was not as easily explained. Until Sasaki had helpfully explained that Kuyou was in love with Kyon, at least. That was useful to know.

At some point recently, the Song itself had been broken - disrupted by the arrival of an Other. The Other did not sing; the Chorus itself expended spin to repair the lack. Something had been lost, then, and the Chorus became aware of another voice, another sound. They were _like_ the Song, and yet, not. Kuyou's kind termed them _Noise_, from a memetic discharge that she had once observed from the construct that Kuyou had known to be labeled Nagato Yuki. Whatever Nagato Yuki was (and somehow, the composition of her being evaded Kuyou's observations), while it was even more difficult to perceive and communicate with than the humans around her, the Chorus had determined that _that_ force was not responsible for the Noise.

The Chorus had grown concerned; the discordance was not natural. Noise threatened to overwhelm the harmony, but among the Chorus, only Kuyou had observed so closely; only Kuyou had been sanctioned to go beyond the natural limits of spin and string to intercede. Only Kuyou had assembled a construct to investigate the site on the scale the events occured in.

The human known as 'Kyon' had been endangered by one of the Others. Kuyou had determined that as instructed by Sasaki, it was unacceptable to allow him to be injured by an Other; 'love' seemed to indicate that she would tend to occult him from danger. But interactions with these entities were complex, and sometimes she had immense difficulty understanding what constituted danger to him.

It was exceedingly difficult, manipulating the local space and matter without making some minor change on the incorrect scale - accidentally splitting all hydrogen atoms, incidentally nudging the Schwarzchild radius of the mostly iron sphere below her beyond the orbit of its moon, or possibly miscalculating the weight of local atoms, converting oxygen to gold. The majority of the Chorus didn't even focus on a small enough span to understand her observations, so could provide no meaningful help, either.

Fortunately, because the Others were unnatural, as was the Noise, her manipulation of local space and matter - against the Noise, at least - was accepted by the Chorus as a harmonization of the Song. So, in anticipation of Kyon being attacked, Kuyou had spent many rotations responsibly manipulating the local substance, spinning theoretical strings simultaneous to the existing strings. In other words, to adequately protect Kyon, she had duplicated most known parts of the Song in the area of her observation, intentionally at the barely perceptible edge of the Chorus; occupying the same space, but at a significantly different wavelength.

When Noise occurred, and Others once again began to disrupt the Song, she had changed his vibrational frequency - and that of the Other - to match her copy of the Song. _Here_, with the permissions of the Chorus, she could more easily effect changes as she needed; accidentally destroying her own copy would not affect the Song greatly, but would still help to properly manage the Noise.

She observed the communications between Kyon and the Other ('Wataru'). When she determined that the Others were done projecting Noise, she allowed her local Song to stop, her constructed human form approaching Kyon to allow her easier focus. The constructed form made manipulating local string and spin on a small scale simpler; less risk of accidentally sparking off unwanted reactions between random elements that way.

Back in the Song proper, the Chorus left a void for her to slowly rebuild her shadow-Song for the next time she might need it - ideally a few hundred thousand rotations away. As it was, the Chorus was satisfied that her solution had felt harmonic enough, acting to preserve the greater integrity of the Song; her allowances remained.

However, this was an important juncture; the Other was gone. For the moment, her constructed self was alone with Kyon. Her last spare spin went to projecting more of her awareness than usual into an even smaller space.

The universe around her exploded; became vast, painful to contemplate, and larger than her comprehension of the Song should have been. Below her, what had seemed once a faint collection of atoms abruptly became the center of the universe; an inescapably massive sphere of stone, dirt, and iron that she was pinned to. The wispy hints of atmosphere now became an all-encompassing _sea_, a thick soup of gases, and her crushed beneath an eternity of them.

To either side of her, collections of minerals and metals towered, the vast majority of their construction invisible to her body's normal senses, obscured behind the immensity of what they were. More importantly, instead of just being the entity known as Kyon...

There was Kyon; the one she loved. The only one who returned enough spin for her to determine that he might be able to keep the Song from being forced to harmonize with the Noise.

Kuyou smiled.

* * *

Still shaken from what the slider had said, Kyon was only vaguely aware of someone touching him, of being somehow taken away from that strange, empty copy of the battleground, to standing in the alley he had first seen the new slider death-bot hurtling towards him. Suou Kuyou had her elbows on his shoulders, her wrists crossed behind his head. Her body was simultaneously very soft, and also surprisingly solid, pressing him against the wall of the building behind him.

"W...what is this?" he protested, eyes widening. "What's going on?"

Her dark eyes seemed bottomless, eternal, and strangely luminous in the dim alley, sparkling up at him. Her pale face shone in the dim light, allowing him to make out her lips, curved in a soft smile. "I am attracted to you," she said, her voice curiously matter-of-fact, not quite as uncertain as the last time she had tried to talk to him.

His eyes widened, and he looked nervously towards the street, pinned as he was by the small girl. "W...well, um ... that's ... v...very flattering, but I'm engaged..."

She didn't react, just staring up at him and slowly blinking, her smile not fading.

He swallowed, trying, "Thank you, um, Suou-san, for your help with the, uh, weapons, and uh, fighting ... Wataru."

She pursed her lips her brow furrowing the tiniest distance. "Equivalence," she uttered. "Imbalance. There is a void."

Frantically wracking his mind, Kyon had the stray thought to call Kasai, who seemed to have an interest in koans - before forcing himself to seriously consider what she had said, trying to extract meaning from those words. "I owe you something?" he guessed. "Y...you need me to do something for you?"

"Need," she echoed. Then her smile faded, and the luminosity of her eyes intensified. For a long, awkward minute, she seemed to just think about what he said. Finally, she determined, "I need you."

He felt his face flush red, and his mouth escaped his control. "W...well, y...you're cute," he babbled, looking away from the bottomless wells of her eyes, struggling in vain against her grip, "and I normally wouldn't complain, but, uh, I don't know you that well, and I'm engaged, and it's not you, it's me, but I'm already _so_ condemned to my special hell I really just can't-"

Kuyou abruptly released him, her expression shifting to neutrality as she stepped back, arms falling to her side. There was a flicker of something in her eyes, very briefly. Was it anger? Sadness? He wasn't certain.

"Wait," he said, shaking his head. "S...sorry. Um ... Suou-san, you've helped me, and if I can, I think I might like to help you, but ... uh ... why don't we start out by being friends?"

"Friends," she said slowly, repeating the word. "You are I are friends."

He felt strangely relieved to hear that, and more relieved not to have the girl clinging to him while she said it. "Yes," he agreed, nodding nervously at her. "U...um... Y- That is ... Nagato tells me that you have trouble communicating with her?"

Kuyou blinked, some of the luminosity returning to her eyes. "Trouble," she affirmed.

"I...it seems like it might be difficult," he ventured nervously, "but if there is something I can do for you, please let me know. Especially, right now, I'd like to do what I can to help, um, communicate..."

"Yes," she agreed, a faint hint of her smile returning. For a moment, he thought she was done, and would just stand there the rest of the night, but then she said, "Thank you," and turned to one side - seeming to momentarily compress flat, and then simply not be there anymore.

Kyon grumbled as his PDA chimed - now, how was he going to find Sasaki, anyway? But the alert was to notify him of an incoming text from the girl in question. The message read: Thank you for your help today, Kyon! And thank you for showing me what a friend you truly are; I'll try and return that friendship, as much as it scares me. I owe you that much! Are you looking out for Kuyou like you're looking out for me?

He squinted at the screen for a moment, then sighed unsteadily, holding the PDA in one hand. "Please," he whispered, "don't be a jerk just this once, future self-"

The next incoming text interrupted his plea, his PDA noting that the source was the PDA itself: "Note to idiotic past self: Nice work. Yuki does not like being left out. The special hell is a small price to pay after all she's done, and you know it."

"Yeah," he sighed at his PDA, utterly defeated. "I thought so."


	39. Chapter 38

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

Calm Before the Storm Arc V

Chapter Thirty Eight: Distant Thunder

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Four: The Ambush (II)"_

_"...effectively, this is going to work just like the last chapter, except this time, the other guy gets all the advantages. I can guess what you're thinking, but this is actually even less fun than it sounds. As mentioned in the opening chapter of the previous book in this series, Roll With the Punches..."_

_"The Last Resort: Violence and You" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

After finishing up her homework - which she would _not_ forget, thus jeopardizing her magical girl trip - Nonoko watched television in the living room and wondered where her brother was. Probably on a mission, fighting the forces of darkness; it was already almost time for dinner, and he still hadn't come home. She perked up at the sound of the door, and bounced up from the commercial to scramble down the hall.

She had overestimated how quickly her brother was moving, and found herself skidding to a halt in the entryway, waiting for him to sluggishly take off his coat. She caught his dazed look, and how methodically he was moving, and wondered what had happened - obviously, something had gone wrong. Seemingly oblivious to her, he stepped into his slippers and trudged past, his focus somewhere else.

"Kyon?" Nonoko's mother called from the kitchen. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," he mumbled.

"Dinner is almost ready!"

"Okay," he sighed, pausing to rub at his eyes before resuming his tired trudge.

Nonoko was stuck, uncertain what to do, or where to begin. Well ... she couldn't help Kyon if he couldn't tell her what was wrong. She caught up to him as he climbed the stairs and said, "Hey!"

"Hey, yourself," he said wearily, seeming to only just then notice her. "Need me to look over your homework?"

She frowned, able to tell how little he wanted to do that at the moment. As nice as it would be to check that her trip was still secure, what was the point if Kyon was depressed? No magical girl ever got anywhere by ignoring the people she was supposed to look out for. "What's wrong?" she asked in response. She bit her lip worriedly, and anxiously asked, "Did someone get hurt?"

"No," he sighed, shaking his head. He shook his head and gave her a pained smile, obviously struggling to hide his upset. "Don't worry about it, Nono-chan," he assured her. "Everyone's still okay..."

She pursed her lips and stopped in the hall as he continued marching to his room. It was already obvious that he had been on a mission - he was wearing his coat and _not_ his school uniform. She considered briefly calling Tsuruya, or Yuki, but then realized that would only be making the problem worse. Kyon had ended up being the magical guardian of Kanae, and probably some other girls, as well - whatever problem it was he was facing, it almost undoubtedly had something to do with one or more of them.

Well, she knew _one_ thing that could help. She hated being left in the dark, but for Kyon, she would keep herself from prying. So before he could close the door to his room, she did leap at him, but not with her usual energy. Her guess was correct, and Kyon's defenses were down.

Instead of bowling him over, like she remembered doing a few times in the past, she managed to glomp onto him. "I believe in you, Kyon-kun," she told him insistently. "I don't know what you're fighting, but I know you can win!"

He stared down at her in bewilderment for a heartbeat, then managed a real smile, if a weak one, and tousled her hair. "Thanks, Imouto," he told her. She hugged him more tightly, only letting go when their mother called up the stairs to wash up.

* * *

Classes were more difficult to pay attention to than usual, especially since Kyon had whatever business he had to attend to, but Haruhi stuck to it grimly. For whatever reason, Kyon didn't seem to be recording notes as studiously as he had been lately ... that slacker. She decided she'd ask him what was bothering him later, but let it slide for the moment.

It also gave her more time to consider the phone call she had gotten from Sakanaka the last night, when the other girl had finally admitted who she had a crush on - and that _he_ liked someone _else_. Haruhi had put it together ... if it wasn't Koizumi, it was most likely Kunikida, and now that she had _that_ thought in mind, it was starting to really annoy her how Sakanaka would occasionally steal a mournful glance at the short boy, while he didn't appear to notice or care. So, not Koizumi, then.

And here, she had gone on thinking poorly of Taniguchi, when it turned the least considerate of Kyon's friends was the seemingly polite one?

She grumbled to herself, scribbling her last notes as the teacher concluded. Slamming her book shut, though the noise was lost in the other students rising from their seats, stretching, and yammering to one-another, she leaned across her desk and prodded Kyon with the tip of her mechanical pencil. "Hey," she called, not quite a whisper.

"Yeah?" he returned, turning to face her tiredly.

She bit back her complaint about Kunikida, studying the boy's expression, then sighed and reached into her schoolbag, handing him the now-traditional breakfast leftovers. "Take notes for English and grammar for me," she ordered him.

"Alright," he agreed, accepting the leftovers.

Looking slightly away, she added, more quietly, "I'll let you sleep through history and science."

"You got a deal," he replied, nodding, mustering a weak smile.

She wondered what was bothering him, still, but forced herself to settle for one mystery at a time. She'd have plenty of time to talk to him with the brigade later - Sakanaka's business was a bit more private. When lunch finally rolled around, Haruhi immediately turned on the girl, taking her wrist in hand and demanding, "Come on, let's have lunch together."

Sakanaka's weak protests didn't slow Haruhi down until the pair almost bumped into Yanagimoto at the room entrance. A glance showed Taniguchi already harassing Kyon, and Kunikida sitting nearby, unperturbed after breaking poor Sakanaka's heart. "Watch it," Yanagimoto chided, smiling to show she wasn't terribly upset. "What's the rush?"

"We're just going to talk," Haruhi explained.

"Really?" Yanagimoto asked, raising her eyebrows and glancing between Haruhi and Sakanaka with interest. "I shouldn't pry, but is there any chance I can help?"

"Maybe later," Haruhi allowed, thinking about Yanagimoto's connection to Taniguchi.

"Understandable," Yanagimoto lamented, nodding. "Sorry I couldn't make it to your party - I was helping the idiot stay out of cram school."

Haruhi nodded her understanding and made a note to speak to Yanagimoto later. For the moment, she finished towing Sakanaka to the club room, where they were completely alone. Well, except for Yuki, but Sakanaka was so bewildered that Haruhi doubted she would notice. She wondered again about the fact that she had a connection with Yuki, and wondered if Yuki would take advantage of the opportunity to become invisible or hide...

But the smaller girl did nothing but flip quietly to the next page of her book, Sakanaka's eyes passing over her as though she didn't see her. "Um," Sakanaka managed very quietly, blushing, her head bowed.

Haruhi pushed her into a chair and sat across from her, both of their bentos on the table. "So, what exactly did that jerk do?" Haruhi pressed.

Sakanaka sighed forlornly. "He didn't do anything, Suzumiya-san ... r...really, I made an assumption that he didn't already like someone else," she offered, smiling sadly.

"Nonsense," Haruhi scoffed. "A young girl's heart is broken; he's done something wrong!"

Shaking her head, Sakanaka said, "I can't blame him for that, though... H...he would rather be with her..."

"Well, okay - who is this temptress?" Haruhi pressed, annoyed at the idea she couldn't do anything to fix things for Sakanaka.

"W...what? No, Suzumiya-san..." Sakanaka sighed. "I...it wouldn't be right to cause trouble for this girl ... though, really, the very sad part is that ... um ... he said he thinks she doesn't even know he's there..."

Haruhi's lips compressed into a flat line, and she bit back the urge to scream. "Kunikida turned you down because he likes someone who doesn't even care for him?" she clarified.

Sakanaka nodded timidly.

Poking at her lunch thoughtfully, Haruhi finally asked, "Sakanaka ... if this girl doesn't know that he exists ... then he's pining for her ... and you're pining for him... But what if this girl doesn't even like him? Or if she just wants to be friends? Shouldn't we find out?"

The other girl looked wistful. "But then, that's no guarantee that he'd care for me ... or would really even..." She sighed and shook her head. "A...anyway, why make this girl out to be some evil person? She just ... got there first."

Haruhi wanted to yell, but bit that back, too. "First girl wins is a cliche, not how things really have to work out," she countered, as patiently as she could. "Now, come on ... are you really giving up so easily? Surely there's gotta be _something_ you can still do!"

"I ... suppose I might try meeting her," Sakanaka ventured weakly, offering a forced smile.

"That's the spirit!" Haruhi cheered, grinning. "Now, who is this mystery girl we've got to find and meet, anyway?"

"A...actually, Kyon might know," Sakanaka offered, shifting in her seat.

"He might?" Haruhi asked, taken aback.

"H...her name is Sasaki?"

Haruhi was vaguely aware of Yuki closing her book and setting it down on the table, but shook her head. "Oh," she managed quietly.

* * *

Humming to himself, wondering what the day might bring, Koizumi found himself very relaxed by the time he strolled to the clubroom after lunch. When he got there, Haruhi had just finished concluding some point to a perplexed looking Mikuru, who was studying a sheet of paper, and a slightly less confused looking Kanae.

Kyon seemed absorbed in studying his PDA, and Tsuruya watched Mikuru and Kanae with amusement, before saying, "I'll have Kasai helps you out, Mikuru-chan, Kanae-chan."

"Good thinking," Haruhi agreed. "That's probably going to be a lot of costuming supplies!"

Tsuruya giggled, shaking her head, and added, "Kasai can help cover it, if it's expensive, too."

Haruhi flushed slightly, looking a bit guilty. "Er... Um, Tsu-chan, do you think it would be bad to get supplies so that Mikuru-chan could make the rest of us costumes to match the Gothic Lolita set?" she asked. "I wanted to try seeing if we could coordinate a flash-mob later this year, so us all having costumes like that would be really nice!"

Yuki looked up at that, as Koizumi took his seat, too late to sit opposite Kyon. "Okay," Mikuru agreed, managing a confused smile. "Um ... then, I suppose we'll see you tomorrow?"

"Hmm, your apartment is really small," Haruhi seemed to realize. "How about afterwards, we'll all meet up at Yuki-chan's place? You'll be too crowded with everything in your place, and Kanae-chan may need some help studying, still."

The slider pouted at that, betrayed by her giggle. "Thank you, Suzumiya-sempai," she murmured, before vanishing through the door with the time traveler.

The room fell oddly silent as the door shut quietly, and for a long minute, no one said anything at all. Koizumi contemplated getting a board game, but judging by the atmosphere... Yuki was looking at Kyon, and Koizumi was sure he saw the merest hints of expectation in her gaze. Tsuruya had picked up on the ambient sobriety, as well.

Haruhi's cheer had vanished with the other two club members, and she absentmindedly smoothed her skirt as she sat at the table with the others, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at Kyon closely. "Well?" she prompted.

"Um ... yesterday, I ran into the enemy slider again," Kyon offered, grimacing.

Koizumi straightened up in his seat at that. Last time, the slider attack robot had been destroyed by Koizumi himself. It seemed likely that Kyon was more capable, given time to adjust his weapons, but the esper couldn't help feeling a little unnecessary, not even being involved in the attack. "You won the battle, then?" he asked, wondering why Kyon hadn't even bothered calling him.

Haruhi's eyebrows had risen, too, so evidently this was the first she had heard about it, at least specifically. Most likely Kanae and Mikuru had been sent away to keep the slider from overhearing...

"Suou Kuyou was there," Kyon said slowly, furrowing his brow and dropping his gaze to the table, searching for something in the pattern of the wood grain. "So ... we didn't actually _fight_. He wanted to talk to me."

He felt mildly relieved at that, then tried to dismiss the thought as unworthy. "Still," Koizumi said, "isn't that a positive? With communication, perhaps there's no need for conflict?"

"I wish," Kyon sighed glumly, looking up, eyes flicking across the others before he scowled and dropped his gaze. "Anyway ... he wanted to tell me who he was - um... S...so, he says that he joined with the enemy sliders - he mentioned they were called the 'Combine', and that he was joining with them because he wanted to rescue his sister..."

"Oh!" Tsuruya exclaimed, a smile blooming on her face. "Maybe that's a good things! If we can help him rescue her, then he'd become our ally, wouldn't he?"

Koizumi wasn't sure it would be quite so simple, but nodded; the point seemed valid enough, even if it might take significant help from both Haruhi and Yuki to make it happen.

"He ... says his name is Michikyuu Wataru," Kyon mumbled.

The long silence was only broken when Haruhi muttered a particularly dire curse, balling one hand into a fist and pounding it on the table.

"What?" Kyon asked, turning to her as though uncertain he heard it.

"Ugh, this just pisses me off!" Haruhi complained. "What a crappy situation! And how is it that Kanae-chan didn't ever mention having a brother?"

"That's a good question, and it bears investigation," Koizumi remarked, frowning. "But then ... I'm not certain who best to handle that; these questions would need to be asked of Michikyuu-san delicately, given the circumstances."

"You think?" Kyon grumbled.

"Okay," Haruhi sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing at one temple with the tip of one finger. She sat up straight and crossed her arms over her chest, the pencil in front of her spinning in place and rising slightly from the table. "Um ... I'll be talking to Kanae-chan later tonight anyway. I'll see what we can find out, and that should be a good environment for it." Her eyes opened and turned to Yuki, though the pen before her still continued to spin. "Yuki-chan, did you find any useful information out about the enemies from this?"

"That information is classified," she answered, her cool gaze focused on Kyon.

Koizumi raised an eyebrow, while Haruhi scowled, shooting a warning look at the other boy. "Well, then, declassify it," she ordered.

Yuki's gaze turned to Haruhi, and Koizumi was sure he read the merest hints of intense concentration in her expression. "No," she returned in a quiet, implacable tone.

Haruhi's eyebrows knit together as she studied Yuki intensely, pursing her lips. "Will you tell me _why_?" Haruhi pressed.

Yuki nodded very slightly, then said, "I do not ... want to ... yet."

Despite how annoyed she looked at that answer, Haruhi huffed a sigh and grumbled. "I don't like that," she finally declared at length, giving Yuki a dark stare. "But ... there must be a good reason for it, right?"

"Most likely."

Koizumi wondered what to make of that. "Do you mean that this information is classified - even to you?" he asked.

Yuki gave a very slight nod in response, and some of Haruhi's irritation vanished, replaced with mild surprise.

"You can do that?" she asked Yuki, intrigued. "With Kanae-chan's bad memories, Mikuru-chan's future-censoring, and now Yuki-chan, I'm starting to think that Tsu-chan and I are the only ones who have good recall!"

The heiress giggled, shaking her head apologetically. "Memory is all well and goods, but I don't know much useful for this stuff," she said.

For some reason, Kyon looked very uncomfortable, squirming in his seat as he straightened up. "Um ... when Suou-san showed up, she seemed to ... move us to some place like closed space, so there wasn't anyone else around."

"Can you offer any insight into that, then?" Koizumi posed. "It occurs to me that this 'classified information' probably indicates time travel ... would it then be acceptable for us to draw our own inferences based on what data is available?"

Yuki nodded without hesitation, and Haruhi's eyebrows rose. "Interesting," the brigade chief remarked, frowning. She glanced at Kyon, asking, "So, any messages from your future self?"

"Um ... just that I screwed up by not involving Yuki," he mumbled, looking towards the door.

Much to Koizumi's surprise, Yuki gave another nod at that, her eyes fixing on Kyon. Hadn't Kyon been the best at speaking with Yuki? Koizumi had tried - for months, actually - to forge some kind of connection with Yuki, when the brigade had been newly established. While she would listen to him, she had never really tried to speak with him, to the point that she usually wouldn't even answer his questions, unless Kyon were present. And now, Kyon had managed to annoy her?

Haruhi drummed her fingertips on the table, raising both eyebrows. "I have a lot of sympathy for that, Yuki-chan," she said, shaking her head. "Kyon tends to leave me out when he goes on adventures, too."

"I've never gotten any adventure with Kyon except the ones I started myself," Tsuruya noted. "But then, fights aren't _fun_, Haru-nyan, Yuki-chan ... or are you forgetting a few weeks ago in the hospital...?"

Another surprise; Haruhi's flinch at that remark was expected. Yuki's was not.

"A...anyway, if what Yuki-chan knows is classified, what you know isn't, Kyon," Haruhi said, shifting her shoulders. "So, anything else from the slider? Or Suou Kuyou?"

Kyon shifted his shoulders and looked pensive again. "Suou Kuyou said - er, after Wataru left - that she needed my help. Um, and that she wanted to be friends."

This drew Yuki's interest, and she stared at Kyon in fascination.

"She's an alien, right?" Haruhi asked, absently tugging her ribbons out and smoothing her hair back, letting the spinning pencil clatter to the tabletop. "And one of ... her friends."

No need to name the 'her' that upset Haruhi so much, in Koizumi's mind. He knew Haruhi's strangely intense fear of the other girl, as though her entire existence were somehow threatened by Sasaki.

"I think so," Kyon allowed. "Um, Yuki-chan told me that the IDSE used to call them the Macro..." He trailed off with a grimace, giving Yuki an apologetic look.

"Macrospacial Quantum Cosmic Existence," Yuki answered smoothly, turning her gaze to Haruhi. "It was believed by the IDSE that communications between themselves and the MQCE were impossible; an attempt to bridge that memetic gap would likely lead to the destruction of both."

"Was believed?" Tsuruya asked, looking like she was struggling to keep up, but still managing to smile. "So, that's changed?"

Yuki looked momentarily stymied, uncertain about how to respond. Finally, she said, "Last winter, in the snow, we were transported to a contained reality."

"When you got sick?" Haruhi realized, aloud, finished tying her hair back up in a ponytail.

"You mean, when you got lost in the snows for five minutes and told me you thoughts you were gone for much longer?" Tsuruya asked, raising an eyebrow.

Yuki nodded again, and Koizumi crossed his arms over his chest thoughtfully. "That event engendered quite a few discussions on the nature of alternate reality," he remarked. "But this seems a discrepancy; I thought the IDSE couldn't manage awareness of other realities?"

"The parallel space that we were sent to is space that is ... subordinate to this physical reality," she said slowly. "In the same nature as the closed spaces that previously were created, the secondary instance of this reality that was created last December, or the significantly more distant space that he entered last night. Based on this encounter, nondestructive communication may be possible; we now know that they call themselves the Sky Canopy Domain."

"So, Suou Kuyou took you to an alternate reality - but one in our local neighborhood - to deal with Wataru?" Haruhi asked. "And why isn't _that_ part classified, Yuki-chan?"

She did not answer, except to nod.

Koizumi wondered how big their 'local' reality was, having an entire separate parallel existence within it. And then, what did it mean that wherever Kanae and her enemies had come from it was _more_ distant?

"This is all a disappointment," Haruhi sighed. "I mean ... I guess I should be happy that no one got hurt. But it feels we didn't find nearly enough out! Well ... did you at least get to visit your middle school friend, Kyon?"

"Y...yeah," he agreed.

"And what was your future self doing, do you know?" Haruhi pressed, narrowing her eyes. "Because..."

"H...helping my friend out," Kyon managed, looking towards the door as though considering fleeing through it.

One of Haruhi's eyebrows twitched. Koizumi wondered what Kyon had done - for whatever reason, he'd called off his security escort for the day and vanished. Who had he gone to meet?

"So," Haruhi said, placing both palms flat on the table, her voice shaking a little as she shot the boy in question a dark glare, "how _is_ Sasaki, Kyon?"

* * *

While she had a certain suspicion that she and Kanae were being ushered away from something that Haruhi and the others didn't want her - or more likely, the slider - to hear, Mikuru resolved not to let that bother her. Or at least, she would try and look at the positives; she was trusted to take care of the smaller girl, after all. That thought in mind, she gave Kanae an encouraging wink, ducking her head in with a grateful smile as she and the slider met Tsuruya's large bodyguard at the school parking lot.

Kasai wordlessly returned the nod, opening a door for the two girls to slide in. Shortly, the two were on the way to Mikuru's favorite supply shop, and she turned to the slider. "So, Kanae-chan, did you have fun at the party on Sunday?" she asked.

"Um?" Kanae eked out, surprised from a daydream by the question. "Ah! Er, yes, it was great fun - I was really impressed by that dance you all learned!"

Mikuru giggled, feeling her face color. She patted the slider on the shoulder and explained, "Suzumiya-san devised that, you know. Um ... I didn't think it was so much fun to learn, but now, I'm very glad she made us!"

"Suzumiya-sempai mentioned a 'flash-mob'?" Kanae ventured curiously. "What's that?"

"Hum?" Mikuru asked, realizing that the slider was right. "Oh, well, it's a very ancient custom devised..." She winced, realizing that wasn't correct for the time-frame. "Er... No, that's not right. Um ... it started a few years ago, I think? The idea is to find willing participants and have them all suddenly meet somewhere. Um ... they would all wear similar costumes, like dressing up for a tea party - then show up at a park, or a train station."

"So, Suzumiya-sempai wants to have us show up somewhere dressed up like that with a bunch of other strangers who think that would be fun, too?" Kanae asked, mulling that over. "That seems a bit odd!"

"W...well, it might really be fun, too," Mikuru countered. It should have bothered her, but the idea of showcasing her work in a group, not being the only one dressed up ... she was embarrassed to admit to herself that it actually sounded very exciting. And if she made enough costume sets, it could become a recurring tradition, too.

"Um ... A...Asahina-san?" Kanae ventured.

Startled from her own daydream, Mikuru giggled guiltily, realizing that Kasai had found a parking spot. "S...sorry," she managed, climbing out of the car and leading the slider into the store. Kasai followed behind them unobtrusively, giving a very quiet but patently male sigh of suffering on entering such a shop.

Kanae seemed to catch that, and masked a giggle of her own, while the clerks waved their greetings. "Um, let's see," Mikuru mused, looking at her list with a frown. "I haven't really had a chance to design any of the costumes in this list ... I wonder if it will be okay? I might end up getting too much cloth..." She shook her head, dismissing that. She'd been told that money wouldn't be an issue, and Kasai could help carry things to the car.

The important part was not the supplies, but that she was supposed to be distracting Kanae. "What other costumes do you think you might want to wear for Kyon-kun?" Mikuru mused. "Haruhi suggested a Trope-tan costume?" Though, from what Mikuru would tell, it would be trivial to buy suitable costume parts, since it seemed to mostly be standard clothing.

Kanae flushed deeply, her cheeks turning crimson. "T...that would be okay," she agreed. "U...um... Asahina-san? Can I ask you a question about Sempai?"

"Of course!" she answered, glancing back to where Kasai was intently studying a collection of brass buckles, slightly out of earshot. "What is it, Kanae-chan?"

"Um ... Sempai once told me ... er ... that he thought I was cute," Kanae managed. "B...before we..."

Mikuru felt her own face color sympathetically; she'd seen Haruhi replay the video. Part of her wanted to be a little jealous, but most of her wanted to hug the slider and tell her how utterly adorable it was to see the smaller girl look up at Kyon so dreamily before... She pretended to cough very quietly, trying to pull her attention back to the moment. "You are," Mikuru-chan said, smiling brightly. "Kanae-chan, has Kyon-kun been so busy he's made you feel neglected?"

"W...well," Kanae mumbled, her face heating up. "I don't... Er... That is..." She sighed, then smiled nervously. "Um ... Sempai is really good at ... kissing," she managed. "I...is it okay that I'm not, um, as good?"

Mikuru took a sketchbook from a shelf and fanned her face with it for a moment, cooling herself down. "Kyon-kun is amazing," she agreed shakily, offering Kanae a smile. "Um ... but when you consider ... he has a lot more chances to practice..."

Kanae seemed to weigh that, as if only just then realizing how many more kisses he'd been involved with than any one girl in the ... what was their arrangement, anyway? Surely there had to be some proper word for that.

"I j...just want to ... be good enough," Kanae managed to eke out. "I d...don't have-"

Mikuru sighed and set down the book, hugging Kanae before she could complain about her development, cutting her off and not really caring that they were in the middle of the store. "Silly," she chastised the smaller girl gently. "Kanae-chan, you're starting to believe in your friends, I think, and that's wonderful!" Then she squeezed slightly tighter before releasing the slider. "But don't forget to believe in yourself, too; we do, after all!"

Kanae seemed startled by that, then smiled nervously. "Y...you're right," she agreed, giggling. "S...sorry ... but sometimes, it's hard not to be jealous... Y...you can cook, and sew, and ... and..." She shrugged, pointedly not looking at Mikuru's chest.

"You could learn those things, too, if you wanted," Mikuru said, offering a smile. "I suppose if two of us were sewing, we could make costumes twice as fast?" Admittedly ... that bothered Mikuru a little, but then, it wasn't like Yuki didn't already _know_ everything she had taught Mikuru, anyway... If she were so inclined, she easily could have outperformed Mikuru, at probably anything - outside of time travel. And, come to think of it, Kanae was learning to teleport, which Yuki could _also_ do.

Kanae straightened up with a smile and shook her head. "N...no, that's... That's yours," she said decisively. "I...it would be nice to see that smile Sempai has for your cooking for me, but, um ... I should focus on what I can do better."

"Maybe your drawings?" Mikuru suggested. She really did need to see what Kanae drew ... but then... "Oh!" she exclaimed, as Kanae's face flushed dark red and she stared away. "I know! Kanae-chan - why don't you draw a costume you might like? Or you could help me - you can design, and then I could make them!" She nodded decisively at that, eyeing the list Haruhi had given her. "At least, I would really appreciate it if you could help your Mikuru-onee out!" She winked at the smaller girl, trying to smile brightly while she leaned towards her, hands clasped together beneath her chin pleadingly.

"I ... can do that," Kanae agreed, looking dazed for some reason, wobbling where she stood. "Um ... Mikuru-onee..." She seemed lost in thought, day-dreamy, but more confident. Mikuru let herself smile at that.

Everyone needed to just do what they did best, and work together as a team, after all. Turning to the cloth she'd spent too long not picking out, she decided that the rest of the day was going to be wonderful. Now, if she could bring Kanae and Yuki a tiny bit closer together ... with their very similar sizes, and a new assistant costume designer...

* * *

He supposed in the back of his mind, he didn't really have much confidence that he would be able to keep visiting Sasaki a secret from Haruhi for long. But after everything else he'd been through, Kyon had dared to hope. So, he'd upset Yuki, Haruhi was slowly growing more furious at him, and he _still_ had nothing approaching a clue how to deal with Wataru.

He took a breath and sat up straight, not meeting anyone's eyes except for Koizumi's. Thankfully, for once, there was something aside from recrimination there; the esper even seemed to look slightly sympathetic...

"Sasaki's doing really bad," he answered at length. "Tachibana Kyouko's friends seem to have made her paranoid, and afraid for her life. She saw one of them and ran away from our meeting like she thought I was going to be caught in the blast radius. I ran after her, but before I caught up, I ran into another slider robot and Suou Kuyou - but I already explained that part. Anyway, how did you find out?"

"O...oh," Haruhi managed, sounding curiously deflated. He stole a cautious glance at her, but found she'd slipped into the conflicted and unreadable state she used to spend more of her time in. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "You just told me now. S...so she's in real danger, huh?"

"I think so," Kyon said sadly. He raised one hand to his temples. "Look ... that's ... the extent of what I know. I hate to run away like this, but I've been doing nothing but making mistakes for the last day or so; if it's all the same, I'd like to go home and see if I can keep anything else from going wrong."

"Um ... I don't think that protecting your friends is a mistake," Tsuruya said, her voice slightly sharp. "That's one of Kyon-kun's greatest strengths! Kyon-kun also has enemy sliders and time travelers trying to beat him up; I don't see the sense in you trying to help them out." He flinched back slightly, but when he looked up, he thought Tsuruya was just turning away from Haruhi.

For her part, Haruhi glowered at the table. "That's ... true," she grit out. "Um... S...so... But - I'm unhappy that you didn't trust us enough to say you were meeting her, Kyon!"

"Haru-nyan," Tsuruya said quietly, in a warning tone.

"I-" Haruhi began, before cutting herself off with a shake of her head. "It's-" She worked her jaw for a moment, unable to find the words, then finally sighed in disgust. "Oh ... never mind... J...just..." Closing her eyes she took a deep breath. "W...we can talk about this tomorrow - I have to go."

"If you like," Koizumi interjected smoothly, rising from his seat, offering a placating smile before Haruhi could rush out the door, "Kyon-kun and I should be heading out to discuss something as it stands. There's no reason for you to have to leave the club room, Suzumiya-san."

She hesitated, and Kyon nodded, climbing to his feet. "Right," he agreed. "I'll, uh ... see you tomorrow, then."

"Y...yeah," Haruhi mumbled back, as he followed Koizumi out the door, shooting one last backward glance inside. Haruhi looked torn, indecisive, as though she were trying to muster the strength to say something - or struggling not to. Tsuruya's thoughtful gaze was on Haruhi, and Yuki stared fixedly at a point on the table, looking ... strangely unsatisfied, in his mind.

Well. Best not to brood on it - as Koizumi's presence implied, it was time to face the music. Once they were in the hall, walking side by side, he turned to the esper and asked, "How badly did I screw up, anyway?"

"Kyon-kun," Koizumi said slowly, frowning. "I don't like the idea of ... as you intimated to me ... myself as some austere, judgmental presence that only hovers over your shoulder to offer criticism and complications. Realistically, it seems to me that your future self is mercenary enough without my help ... as Tsuruya-san seems to have intimated."

Kyon snorted, but was unable to keep from nodding. For once, Koizumi felt more like a friend than anything else. After a long minute of silence, lasting until they changed shoes and Koizumi led the way to the parking lot, Kyon managed, "Thanks for that, then."

The esper gave a wry shake of his head. "I can't help but take what you say to heart ... but all the same, there is something I may not have adequately explained to you. Do you understand _why_ one specific person upsets Suzumiya-san so much?"

"Me?" Kyon asked dourly, before Koizumi shook his head and gestured to the car where Arakawa was waiting. After the two had climbed in, Koizumi signaled the elderly man to drive, and the car smoothly sped off.

"I tried explaining this to you previously, but ... perhaps I didn't explain it well enough. Or was too busy trying to be clever," the esper suggested.

Kyon furrowed his brow and studied the esper thoughtfully. Koizumi seemed lost in his own thoughts, staring out the window. Was he being extra self-recriminating, trying to adjust some of Kyon's own irritation with himself elsewhere? "So ... _why_ does Sasaki upset Haruhi, then? And just ... lay it out straight."

"At first," Koizumi said slowly, "I believed it was jealousy. Suzumiya-san recognized your familiarity with this girl... As Mori-san related it to me, she says you called her by her first name, yes?"

Kyon nodded acknowledgement.

"It's something of a point of confusion that she has the same given and family name," Koizumi sighed, shaking his head.

"Yeah," Kyon agreed, shrugging. "It makes it somewhat arbitrary - but she said if she was calling me by my nickname, it was only fair to consider that I was at least as familiar with her. The only difference is which characters to write, but then..."

Koizumi's lips pursed slightly. "So I see. Well, what I can say decisively is that Sasaki-san causes Suzumiya-san to feel threatened," the esper explained.

"Threatened?" Kyon asked, looking at Koizumi askance. "Why? Sasaki wouldn't try and hurt Haruhi..." Though, the idea of Haruhi trying to argue for some point against Sasaki's constant deconstruction was chilling in its own right. Why was that such a scary thought?

"Ah ... initially, my thought was that Suzumiya-san perceived Sasaki-san as a ... romantic threat," Koizumi said carefully, looking at Kyon from the corner of his eyes.

Kyon snorted, shaking his head. "No - Sasaki and romance don't belong in the same sentence," he judged, shifting his shoulders. "She told me once she doesn't believe in things like that," he said, trailing off as - unbidden - a vary familiar conversation with Haruhi about the same thing replayed itself in his mind. His head spun trying to consider that-

Sasaki? Like Haruhi? In _that_ way?

"However," Koizumi continued, "that fear is significantly more primal. Admittedly, when I asked you for the why, it was because I hoped you knew. I don't understand why Suzumiya-san is upset - well, earnestly, even if she may not be able to admit it to herself - terrified by Sasaki-san. It's not _simply_ the fear that she might somehow take you away from Suzumiya-san..." He trailed off and shot another of those sidelong glanced to Kyon.

Understandable enough, really. Not that it was something he wanted to talk about with Koizumi, but then ... he really didn't even want to _think_ about it. If he _had_ to discus it...

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. "I don't think that what Haruhi's afraid of there could happen," he told the esper. "I mean ... Sasaki wouldn't even try that." Would she? He had a hard time imagining that; she had been so adamantly against the idea of romance...

...except, she'd always been calm and unflappable, not so terrified of some figure in a doorway that she forgot to settle her check before running. If he'd been wrong on one count, he could be wrong on more.

"Her fear is more that somehow, as I understand it, Sasaki-san causes Suzumiya-san to feel that her very existence is threatened," Koizumi suggested, shaking his head. "Given that Sasaki-san _does_ seem to have some form of power, and there are people such as Tachibana Kyouko about her, or worse, simply the way that Suzumiya-san's power does work..."

"Haruhi thinks that Sasaki could ... send her away?" Kyon asked, considering that. "That ... seems a bit unreasonable!"

"More than a bit," Koizumi agreed, turning to face Kyon and frowning intently. "Her fear is overwhelming, unreasonable ... and entirely genuine. As easy as it may feel to you to dismiss this, your associations with Sasaki-san..."

Kyon wanted to borrow Haruhi's curse from earlier, but bit his tongue. "Thank you," he managed, sighing. "For being that friend I could use right now."

Koizumi gave a weak smile. "I'm uncertain what's going to happen, but I have faith in you. There are still open time-loops, aren't there?"

Blinking, Kyon checked the PDA, scanning through his time travel notes. "I have to go back to when I got shot, and ... I think I helped Sasaki out yesterday, because she's been sending me regular text messages and said thanks for something I did. Future me was especially unhelpful with details, this time around." The chime to announce an incoming text rang, as if on cue.

"I see," Koizumi remarked, his smile slipping.

He checked the message, pleasantly surprised it wasn't from Sasaki, but Tsuruya. The message was prefaced with an animated heart icon, just saying, "I will take care of Haru-nyan, Kyon-kun, but don't forget tomorrow!"

"Y...yeah, I ... guess I'll have to find some way to reassure Haruhi, then," Kyon sighed. Sasaki? Terrifying? "It's a small marvel that I think I've made the biggest mistake I've made so far, and things seem to somehow be holding together, anyway..."

Koizumi chuckled, shaking his head. "Kyon-kun," he reproved mildly, "you are important to the group, but we are, as you say, nakama - not just an organization. It seems that you've taught me we must cling closer together in these trying, needful times, not further apart. Furthermore, I can actually try and be objective, now, so..." He shrugged.

"Well... At least there's that," Kyon grudgingly acknowledged, managing a shaky grin.

"I do have one request," the esper remarked, as they pulled to a halt before Kyon's home. "If it's not too much to ask - as your personal assistant ... if you do intend another mission such as yesterday's, might I be involved, if I could be of help? Or at least ... informed?"

Guiltily, Kyon nodded. "Yeah," he sighed. "I shouldn't have tried hiding it from everyone, anyway..."

"Then that's all from me," Koizumi said, forcing some false cheer into his voice.

Kyon nodded again and climbed out of the car, surveying the dark storm-clouds lining the horizon. Well, at least the weather seemed to accurately reflect his mood... "Alright, Skynet," he mumbled to his PDA, walking towards the door of his home, "I've got to make things up to both Yuki and Haruhi. Somehow." It made a doubtful buzz, but added the items to his to-do list.

He glanced down at the screen as another of Sasaki's text messages actually did come through.

"Primal terror, huh?"

* * *

Once Kyon - her fiance - had left, Tsuruya turned her attention back to Haruhi. For her part, Haruhi obviously looked distressed, but that didn't take a genius to figure out. The girl was struggling, seeming on the verge of tears or hysterics, occasionally giving a tiny tremble of barely restrained emotion.

"Yuki-chan?" Tsuruya asked, breaking the silence, reaching for her phone.

She turned to look at the taller girl, blinking wordlessly in response.

"Can we go to your place? Mikuru-chan and Kanae-chan will be waiting to meet us there after they finish shopping..."

"Yes," Yuki agreed.

Tsuruya smiled, nodding, then pulled her phone from her pocket. "I'll just make a few calls, and then we'll all be at Yuki-chan's place, okay?"

Haruhi's response was an indistinct, vaguely disagreeable noise. Tsuruya pursed her lips and shook her head, turning her attention to her phone. A few minutes later, they were in another of her family's vehicles, and shortly after that, they'd reached Yuki's apartment.

Inside, Tsuruya took charge, planting Haruhi at the table and then tapping out a quick text message to Kyon; he had enough to deal with already, so deserved at least some minor reassurance. After that, Tsuruya took the table at Haruhi's side, and asked, "Haru-nyan, are you mad at Kyon-kun?"

"Well, duh," was the girl's grumbled response, burying her face in her crossed arms.

"And Yuki-chan, too," Tsuruya mused. "But ... Haru-nyan, why?"

"Why?" she asked, sitting upright and giving Tsuruya surprised grimace. "What do you mean- It-" She hesitated, looking back to the table. Finally, she blurted out, "What if Kyon goes out with her instead of us?"

Tsuruya raised one eyebrow skeptically.

"Er... W...well," Haruhi tried uncertainty, "h...he's familiar with her..."

Giving a quiet sigh, Tsuruya leaned against Haruhi and pulled the girl close to her in a hug. "Silly," she chastised, tapping her forehead gently. "This is still our fault, Haru-nyan, not Kyon-kun's..." Haruhi flinched at that, but didn't escape the taller girl's embrace. "Because we haven't explained things to him."

"T...that's not true, though!" Haruhi protested, shaking her head fiercely. "Kyon going to her would be because..." She trailed off, trembling weakly.

"That's not on Kyon-kun, that's on us," Tsuruya said, smiling sadly. "That girl - that Sasaki? She's good at explaining things, I think, and _we_ still haven't even tried! So he's confused ... if we don't straighten up, how do you expect him to act? It's not too late, Haru-nyan!"

"R...really?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes," Yuki agreed.

It was something of a surprise that the smaller girl offered that, but Tsuruya could only take that as encouragement. "Now, Yuki-chan, why are _you_ upset with Kyon-kun?" Tsuruya pressed, still holding Haruhi closely, but giving Yuki an expectant look.

Yuki considered this question for more than a minute before answering. "It ... seems that he was aware of risk to himself, and chose not to request my assistance," Yuki said slowly.

Haruhi half laughed, half sniffled, shaking her head. "He almost never includes me!" she protested. "B...but ... you can't be upset with him for that, Yuki-chan ... he's really just trying his best to be ... some kind of hero, like I ... kind of insisted he should be... It's because he _likes_ you that he doesn't want you to be troubled."

Tsuruya thought that was very apt, so nodded her agreement, but Yuki looked mildly confused. "That is not ... fair," she determined.

"W...what?" Haruhi asked, taken aback by that.

"You are ... upset with him ... when he similarly attempted to protect you," Yuki finally said.

Haruhi was stunned by that, her mouth dropping open. "B...but," she sputtered, before giving a weak smile and a shake of her head. "O...okay, you've got me there... It's just ... that girl ... she _scares_ me! Like ... I get the idea somehow that she could make it so ... I never saw Kyon or any of my other friends again..."

"Do you _really_ think that Kyon-kun would let that happen?" Tsuruya asked, finally able to find something to grin about. "How could he suddenly decide that the most important thing in his world - his friends - suddenly didn't matter?"

"I guess I wasn't being reasonable," Haruhi sighed. Somewhat petulantly, she asked, "C...can I even be bothered that he didn't trust me - us, really - enough to tell me?"

"Maybe a little," Tsuruya agreed. "But, hmm, Haru-nyan, if Kyon suspected you might react badly, and was just trying to protect you..."

Haruhi pouted.

"Only a little," Tsuruya insisted, shaking her head again. "Yuki-chan being angry is a _little_ cute ... but haven't we all worked too hard on this?"

Sighing, Haruhi grumbled, "I'm still going to be mad ... but about circumstances, instead of Kyon."

Yuki seemed to find that very interesting, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"Is that acceptable, Yuki-chan?" Haruhi asked the shorter girl, pulling her face from Tsuruya's shoulder long enough to fix her with a questioning stare.

Yuki seemed uncertain for a moment, and then Haruhi gasped softly, breaking free of Tsuruya's embrace and seeming to realize something the heiress had missed. Reaching out to grab the shorter girl's wrist, Haruhi pulled her into another hug with no real resistance. "Um ... I'm sorry," Haruhi managed, sighing. "I've been really selfish today, haven't I?"

"This is ... okay," Yuki allowed, very quietly, muffled slightly by Haruhi's shoulder.

"So, you will forgive Kyon-kun, then?" Tsuruya asked.

Yuki nodded, explaining, "He will apologize to me yesterday."

Tsuruya couldn't help but chuckle at that, shaking her head ruefully. "I like the dere-dere Haru-nyan better than the tsun-tsun one," she teased.

Haruhi blushed and hugged Yuki to her tighter in response, and despite the urge, Tsuruya managed not to snap any pictures right away. While Haruhi and Yuki stayed together at the table, neither moving apart from the other, the heiress rose to her feet, certain that Mikuru and Kanae would be by soon. Sure enough, she'd only just finished stretching when Yuki's intercom chimed.

"I'll get it," she chirped, gliding to the ringing tone.

The other pair shortly arrived at the door, both loaded down with grocery bags.

"No supplies?" Tsuruya asked, curious.

"Kasai-san said to leave it in the car and he'd bring it by tomorrow," Kanae answered with a giggle. "Um! Mikuru-onee said I should help her out in the kitchen!"

Tsuruya raised an eyebrow at the change in address, but when she turned a questioning gaze to Mikuru, the time traveler merely shook her head with a giggle of her own, bustling into the kitchen after nodding at the other girls. "Oh," she called out from around the corner, "I'm sorry, Yuki-chan, but, I'm taking over your kitchen to make dinner tonight. I hope you don't mind!"

"Understood," the smaller girl answered. At a glance, as she was still leaning into Haruhi's embrace, Tsuruya thought Yuki looked very satisfied with that outcome.

* * *

When she heard the door open, Nonoko bolted upright from where she and Miyoko had been working on their homework, charging full-bore towards the noise. She threw herself at her brother the same moment that her mother glanced down the hall. He caught her with what seemed to be his recent practice, giving her a small chuckling smile.

"Nonoko," her mother chided her, "it's good that you care for your brother, but you're a growing girl. Really, you're going to need to stop doing that soon."

She resisted the urge to make a smart remark about getting her tackles in while she could, instead countering, "I haven't grown in years!"

"Hmm ... you do need new shoes, though," her mother mused, before shaking her head and returning to the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in about half an hour," she called.

Nonoko hid a face in her brother's shoulder, not looking forward to the inevitable shopping trip. Then again ... growing would mean more shopping, too. That was really going to be boring!

"Got it," Kyon answered. "Heya, Miyoko-chan!"

"Hello, Kyon-nii," the girl answered with a giggle. "Um ... Nono-chan said you could help double-check our homework?"

"Sure," he answered, nodding. "I guess I can help out with that. Anything exciting happen lately?"

"Yeah," Nonoko said excitedly, releasing her brother so he could change his shoes. "Uncle Keiichi is coming to town! He'll be in tomorrow!"

"Really?" Kyon asked, surprised. "I didn't hear about that - do you know what he's coming down for?"

"Auntie Rena's new book!" she answered, bouncing on the balls of her feet all the way up the stairs. Then she stopped, pouting, as she reconsidered. "But none of the cousins are coming..."

"I'm going to call that a plus, for the moment," her brother remarked, raising an eyebrow at her as he finally topped the final step, Miyoko just behind him. "Alright, let's take a look at your homework, huh?"

Nonoko nodded happily. Help with her homework was good, but what really mattered was that Kyon seemed to recover. And with uncle Keiichi around, well, if there _were_ any problems, they'd get solved quickly enough. "So," she asked in a conspiratorial tone, trying to hide her smile, "is everything okay?"

"And getting better," he replied absently, ruffling her hair.

* * *

Lately, in her opinion, things had been going just a little too well, considering how much progress she'd made. As much as she'd been working to shift the credit of her investigations away from herself, eventually her department was going to insist that toppling gang activity - no matter how well it was done - was a practice that took time, not reckless ambition. Add in the fact that while she had always believed in luck, but known better than to depend on it...

Coincidences were stacking up, and so were the inexplicable details of the investigation she had mired herself in. Osaka always had a few SAT officers on standby, but it just happened that on the day Miyuki had requested their aid, double the standard regiment had been transfered in from Tokyo. That shouldn't have made a difference, but some miracle beyond anything she'd attempted made the bureaucratic nightmare behind arranging a large scale raid vanish.

Irritating enough; she'd actually just wanted a lead that would buy her _time_, not distract her for two days and then drop her right back where she'd started. The headway that was made against the Sumiyoshi-rengo crime syndicate was staggering, and she'd actually gotten to be on-scene for the attack. Naturally, from the safety of a mobile command center, rather than the line of fire, but even then... Over fifty criminals captured without a single casualty, and them holding an unprecedented cache of weapons?

Other than her suspicions, she was finding precious little in the way of facts...

She couldn't fault herself for following through, even though it was starting to bother her. She was taking criminals off the street, even if it did seem to be playing into someone else's hands. It seemed to her that the obvious benefit would be to the Yamaguchi-gumi - almost overnight after the raid, they had expanded their already solid foothold on Osaka. Not that Osaka wasn't the historic root of their power anyway, but with reduced competition...

Be that as it may, she had trouble visualizing some conspiracy connecting the Tamaru brothers to whoever had pulled the strings to make the raid go so smoothly - even in Osaka. Why would the Yamaguchi-gumi bother with having their enemies incarcerated? It went against their ideals, despite how quickly they capitalized on it.

Traditionally, they would rather have acquired what the police had confiscated. While she was well versed with the nuances of boryokudan honor codes, she'd seen honor trumped by greed often enough. More than just a handful of thugs had discarded that code when it was inconvenient to them, so it might be plausible that the Yamaguchi-gumi had orchestrated the event. Even setting aside the theoretical reticence an organized criminal might have working with - or using - the law, she couldn't see anyone with footing as steady as theirs risking all of the assets that the police had seized.

It was hard to imagine the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi would be so compelled to avenge their injured ally that they'd throw all that potential profit away. Even if he were to make a knee-jerk reaction and be willing to let those assets go, she couldn't even _dream_ an explanation for how quickly things had been arranged in the background.

She didn't particularly enjoy the idea that she had been duped or led into things, but she worried that despite that, and all of her other concerns ... if she changed her behaviors, whoever was manipulating things from behind the scenes would notice. And that boiled down to doing her best to determine what Kyon was up to, since he had started the entire thing off in the first place.

A number of ousted Sumiyoshi-rengo survivors had fled Osaka into the surrounding cities - and Nishinomiya hadn't been an exception. Guessing that her unreasonable 'luck' would give her results anyway, she'd had all of the known criminals in town watched as much as possible. True to form, it had, and so, she had another useless detail she couldn't make sense of.

Sighing, she tapped a key on her laptop, watching the video play back again, the sound intermittent as the surveillance vehicle adjusted the shotgun microphone. A trio of Sumiyoshi toughs had been loitering in an alley near the train station for several hours, until one of them got a phone call. He straightened, alerting the others, and then the three of them charged together.

The camera adjusted badly as it zoomed out from dim alley to the more clearly lit street, recovering aim and focus in time to reveal the trio just a handful of steps behind Kyon, on his way to the train station. She slowed the playback, moving frame-by-frame as he spun, centimeters ahead of the gleaming tip of a blade. The knife-point advanced, pixel-by-pixel, but the boy was a blur, leaping improbably far away.

She sped the playback speed slightly, furrowing her brow as Kyon hopped nearly five meters away with casual ease, his image shaking as the cameraman reacted in surprise. She froze the playback there, studying his expression as he looked at the attacking trio, more annoyed than anything else. As unlikely as anything else... She didn't mean to, but couldn't help but smiling at that thoughtfully.

"Only annoying, hmm?" she remarked to herself, tapping a key and resuming normal playback.

"Alright, you started out with knives," Kyon remarked dryly, his voice slightly little tinny in playback. The three had paused, studying the boy and letting him speak - likely surprised by how far and quickly he had moved... He reached into his coat and gave the men an incredibly unimpressed glower. "I'll respect that you're cutting to the chase; let me return the favor in kind!"

She paused again, just before he could pull his hand from his coat, studying the small block of pixels. Ultimately, unfortunately, it was still just pixels, no real suggestion of what he was hiding. A sigh escaped her and she shook her head, resuming play again.

And then ... right when he might have finally broken a law within her observation by pulling a weapon from inside his coat...

...he vanished. Abruptly, with no fanfare, no clues as to _how_... He simply stopped being there, between frames.

The rest of the recording wasn't worth watching - just her men finally reacting, then coming into view as they rushed the Sumiyoshi-rengo in question and arrested them. Leaving her with more criminals who couldn't answer the questions she really had.

That wasn't really 'lucky' at all, was it?


	40. Chapter 39

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Storm Begins Arc I

Chapter Thirty Nine: Stranger Fronts

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Nine: Reciprocation"_

_"Sometimes, it may feel like there's nothing you can do to pay back the people who help you. But if they want to help you, they're your friends - so just do your best for them, like they do for you!"_

_"Mirror, Mirror" - T.K._

* * *

He hadn't expected much from the walk to school - the ominous, building clouds had sprinkled overnight, but left the skies fleeced with cloud, and the air crisp - eerily calm. Not sure what else to make of it, Kyon thought that it seemed like a promising day to try and make up with Haruhi. It bothered him to admit it, but after dropping his sister off, he realized he would actually welcome a fight to burn off some stress, despite how tired he was.

When he was unexpectedly obliged by a trio of goons, he spun, ready to face them, and decided to fight on equal footing, delivering what he thought was a particularly clever one-liner as he drew his beam-saber - alone, on an empty street.

"Er," he said to his empty surroundings, frowning as his blade and defenses activated. A moment later, there was a distortion - a line in space - and it stretched, widening until it revealed the familiar figure of Suou Kuyou.

"W...we really have to stop meeting like this," he said nervously, still not sure what to make of the girl.

Kuyou's face was impassive, showing no expression again, and her eyes seemed unfocused. She only remained that way for a moment before turning her head slightly and snatching something in front of her so quickly that Kyon didn't see her move, just felt his shields absorb the energy bleed-off from the pressure-waves of her motion and saw a flash of hard blue light.

He blinked in surprise, seeing that Kuyou had grabbed the hand of another, slightly taller girl - though he had no idea where she had come from. The familiar light-green hue of her hair gave her away, and Kyon grumbled, "Kimidori Emiri..."

The interface eyed her opponent, her own expression just as inflexible as Kuyou's.

Kuyou's eyes darkened and only then turned to regard the girl she was grappling. "I will occult him from you," she said insistently.

Emiri studied Kuyou intently, then flicked her gaze to Kyon. "So, what's your involvement here if you mean me no harm?" he asked, deciding to hope that Kuyou was on his side for the moment.

"No attempt has been made through my effort to directly harm you," she replied.

"You told me you were neutral," he noted, unable to keep the accusation from his voice.

"At the time, this was true," Emiri said. "The lack of clear communication-"

"High order quantum entanglement," Kuyou said suddenly, blinking once. "Ripples and echoes through the memetic medium." Her eyebrows drew a tiny distance close together, and Kyon thought Kuyou's grip on Emiri's wrist tightened slightly. "Your transmissions are bound."

"I do not intend to participate in confrontational roles," Emiri returned. "If no compromise can be reached, this interface will be evacuated; we are prepared for this outcome."

Kyon couldn't help but grimace at that. "So, like we thought, the IDSE has been pulling the strings behind the Sumiyoshi-rengo lately?" he asked.

Emiri's gaze turned back to him, but save to look very faintly amused, she didn't respond.

As unhappy as he was with the situation, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to threaten Emiri. If nothing else, she at least _looked_ like a girl, and if he recognized Yuki as a being, and Kuyou ... it was difficult to convince himself that somehow, Emiri wouldn't count, when she was so similar to the other two anyway. Aside from which, if he understood what she meant about 'evacuating' her interface, she as much as said she'd just escape if she felt the meeting went further downhill.

"Prepared for this outcome," he remarked, wondering if - really - this was perhaps part of Emiri's plan... If the IDSE was able to communicate with Kuyou's faction without Kyon or Yuki's help, that was that much less leverage over the entity, and he wasn't sure he liked that.

"Your ambit is irregular," Kuyou began, before Emiri suddenly went limp, seeming to pass out.

Simultaneous to that, the girl with the long, dark hair cocked her head to one side, as Kyon's shields activated, blocking some blast of energy. When he could see again, Emiri had moved - now the green-tressed interface stood on the opposite side of a perfectly hemispherical crater in the street - thirty meters across. The ... blast? Was it a blast? Kyon wasn't entirely certain.

Whatever force it was, the effects were profound. Every window he could see had melted. The concrete structures of the surrounding buildings looked strangely brittle and warped - ravaged by some unknown force. Buildings around him slowly dissolved into massive, billowing clouds of dust, causing the area to darken.

A car had been bisected by ... whatever caused the spherical bite to be taken out of the world, the edges as neat as if they had been laser-sculpted. As he watched, the perfection of the cut faded, the metal in the vehicle first sagging, then flowing towards the crater and abruptly vanishing. But more eerily, every single surface and object glowed with a faint blue aura, the same disturbing light that Kuyou had flashed with earlier.

For some reason, even though her expression and stance didn't change much, Kyon gauged that Kuyou was irritated when she finally spoke, carefully shaping the word: "Mis-cal-cu-la-ti-on."

"This is neither compromise, nor productive communication," Emiri declared, and Kyon thought he caught a glimpse of real fear in the interface's eyes.

Kuyou made a swift gesture, and very suddenly the strange shield-draining blue glow in the surrounding area flowed like a fog, streaming into the crater and swirling around inside, vanishing in the center of the anomaly.

"Skynet," he yelped, as his PDA chirped a warning, "call Yuki!"

The PDA switched over to speaker-phone, and Yuki's nearly instant response was, "Press and hold 'two' now."

* * *

Her own copy of the Song had been established to minimize the impact of her attempts to interact with the world she observed. The natural function of the Chorus still permitted her substantial leeway - especially in the case of events within the ambit of the entity that she was in love with. As she studied him, she became more aware of threats that she should be responsible for occulting; another of those mysterious entities that the Chorus had always known of, but never managed to speak to.

This one was similar, but most likely not identical to Nagato Yuki - it was difficult to determine. She existed primarily as a carrier wave beyond Kyon's ability to observe, at the moment. Simultaneous to that, in carrier-wave form, this other entity had gone to the smallest scale that the Chorus knew existed - their very heart.

It was difficult enough for the Chorus to condone Kuyou's own manipulations, but those were mapped as closely as possible to the natural function of the world around them. This other entity might have had the skill, but in Kuyou's perception, did not understand that the Song was alive; she treated it like a tool.

The other entity delivered a memetic string that Kuyou had difficulty resonating with. She determined that Emiri intended to escape the confines of Kuyou's Song, which would technically satisfy the requirement that she protect Kyon. However, she was also dissatisfied with the idea that - unnaturally - Emiri would somehow manipulate probability against what the Chorus predicted. As it was, Emiri seemed to be busy destroying local strings, converting them into a mysterious jumble of memetic ... stuff.

How was it that the entities that Emiri represented, something as old as the Chorus itself, tore apart the core of Song, and then... But whatever Emiri converted, it was changed, a very strange and improbable part of the local string. Just a collection of unnatural patterns. More and more, thanks to the fact that she was spending what focus she could on her constructed form, she was seeing that patterns had significant meanings towards individual entities.

The patterns within Emiri were confusing, illogical, and most unhelpfully, totally different from what fleeting glimpses she had gotten of Yuki's composition. She still couldn't understand them.

When Emiri seemed ready to do something with the pattern she had assembled in the local string - _Kuyou's_ strings, part of _her_ Song - she reasserted control, polarizing the mysterious patterns into uniform regularity. For a moment, she spun them into a single form, realized unintentionally into the same depth of focus as her constructed self.

Her control snatched away, Emiri abandoned her attempts, changing state within her host, inside that unknowable mystery. Over the course of the next three rotations, Kuyou fought for control, limiting the expansion of the new entity she had accidentally created. It spun much more slowly than her, unsure of how to sing, and not a natural part of the Chorus. The surrounding area was bathed in the glow of what spin escaped the new entity as Kuyou fought to contain it. Searching for the correct explanation once she had stabilized the new entity, she turned towards Kyon, expressing that it had been an oversight - an accident.

The Chorus had not wanted such a thing. This was not her first significant miscalculation of the meeting. That had happened almost as soon as she transitioned Kyon and her target into the shadow Song; the discordance around her skewed her observations and made precise interactions unreliable. As a result, she had not been able to determine that her form was not constructed to withstand the forces she had subjected it to.

Nearly her entire threshold of her own spin had been instantly lost, trying to preserve her form, undesirably smashing the strings of the intervening atoms into raw energy. A mechanism that she identified as being related to Nagato Yuki shielded Kyon from what would otherwise have caused his atomic structure and energy signatures to dissipate, energized into some other form than his own.

She couldn't maintain the new entity's stability - and shield Kyon - while also keeping Emiri in check.

Her observations had somehow been insufficient.

Repairing her mistakes was higher priority; the Chorus would not recognize her wishes to ignore the problem. The natural shape of the universe had to be restored, but the simplest solution to that would be to collapse her entire shadow-song into spin - something that fit within the natural span of her own being, on the fringes of the Song where it was unlikely to be observed. She did not believe that Kyon - or any other human entity - could survive that.

Emiri's influence shattered billions of local strings, causing what was now a negligible amount of disharmony. That entity left, and following her, a memetic surge from one of Kyon's subordinate string structures. Kuyou focused on keeping the new entity's singing away from Kyon; it would be too much raw spin for his defenses.

The somewhat more familiar entity of Nagato Yuki arrived, then, incidentally reshaping the broken strings that Emiri had left behind.

That should have been significant, Kuyou thought. It was a real annoyance that once she restored the Song around her to the natural order, the events would no longer be within the scope of observation. In the balance, however, as she was supposed to occult Kyon from danger, so too was Yuki. Ultimately, despite her miscalculations, harmony would be restored.

* * *

Despite the block on recall of specific events, Yuki had decided that ultimately, the discord she was experiencing was minor. Tsuruya Haruka and Suzumiya Haruhi had helped her come to the conclusion that small unpleasant experiences were likely to occur, and emotional defenses needed to be established to weather them. Similarly, her primary protection target had likewise demonstrated that at times it was helpful to rely on others - that friends were there for such reasons.

Which still made her uncertain about the fact that he did not like to rely on her.

She had noted yet another delay in his PDA's regular status updates, and wondered if she was being excluded yet again...

Reaching into her skirt pocket mid-stride, she pulled her phone out and studied it. Not that she didn't understand it innately, at that point. She'd made some small modifications to it on her own, striving to customize the device, but none of that actually made it ring. With some interest, she realized that the small block of paired particles she'd invested in her phone was activating; a message from Kyon for such occasions when traditional human networks were not available.

Suspecting he was in danger, she told him how to activate the emergency interdiction field, which she had devised for such situations.

Shortly, she found a trace of recently manipulated data from another entity - she suspected she recognized Kimidori Emiri's signature in there, but didn't have time to study it. Instead, she quickly rewrote the structures to reverse their original function with some minor alteration. Where it had been an exit from the other space for Emiri, it was an entrance for Yuki.

That did not prepare her for the environment she entered.

Kyon had previously described the space as being very 'like' normal space, but the moment she arrived her senses were assaulted with a burst of radiation, raw energy cast off from matter being shredded by intense gravity tides - the energy present was too high to be accounted for even with the collapse of the earth's Sun. A small island of inexplicably balanced tidal forces left a bubble of more survivable space in a perfectly circular radius of about twelve kilometers.

Within that, pinned in the interdiction field, being bombarded by the still-lethal ambient radiation, her primary protection target squinted over one raised arm, trying to make out any details. She doubted he'd be able to tell much; most of the visible wavelengths were being flooded with the cosmic forces, streaming in regular bands, describing a descending spiral to some point directly before the form of Suou Kuyou.

Her first priority was to protect Kyon, so she moved herself between Kuyou and Kyon, into that island of relatively calmer space. Kyon's field projected around him in a cylinder, warding off the worst of the effects - except the visible light, anyway. After ensuring that it was still holding, not yet overwhelmed, she turned her attention to Kuyou. Both she and the dark-haired girl turned to look at the place where Yuki had entered - and Emiri had left.

The data structures there were altered yet again, some other entity, or perhaps a direct manipulation of the IDSE itself - either way, the data was written out entirely. Kuyou's expression betrayed nothing that she could read, but the dark-haired girl turned her attention back to Yuki. Instead of trying to communicate on some other level, on a vibrational frequency that cut through the constant background rumbles, she said, "You must leave."

One hand rose, as though to reach for Yuki before Kuyou paused, some strange reaction going through the aspects of her being that Yuki could perceive, but not understand. The way her structures moved, Yuki could not interpret anything within Kuyou as data, despite the obvious sentience of the other being. She could only be certain that Kuyou was trying to express something, hopefully at least as aware of the distance between them as Yuki.

"This environment is hostile to his kind," Yuki said, adjusting her own voice to resound on a similar wavelength. "I will remove him to a safer location."

Kuyou's dark eyes shifted towards Kyon - behind her, as though escaping while she was distracted, a crack shattered the street, running from the circular hole behind the entity and to one of the buildings on the side of the street. The entire height of the building shattered into fragments in intense tidal stress, half of them launching downward so quickly that they bled energy across the visible spectrum. Her form staggered as she slipped back a half step, one arm shooting straight behind her at an unnatural angle, fingers splayed.

"Go," Kuyou said, her body improbably withstanding a force of gravity that Yuki was having trouble calculating. "I," she began before shaping a sound that was impossibly empty of memetics, "help."

"Yuki," the voice of her primary protection target came, almost lost in all of the background noise, "she wants to help!"

How had he derived that from the gap? Yuki could herself infer the meaning, but he shouldn't even have been able to _hear_ her over that sort of background noise; the interdiction field would dampen an enhanced voice as well as any other deafening sound. She didn't react, believing that if she waited, he would clarify.

"I think she's worried that if she does it wrong, she's going to accidentally cause more problems," he added, a moment later.

Yuki had no way to determine the probability of that, so decided that she would try and compromise. She would most likely be able to withstand Kuyou's attempts to 'help' better than Kyon would, possibly while gaining more insight into the being.

"I will protect him," Yuki told the other entity, wondering if she would understand. "You may help me." In the meantime, as much as they _could_ communicate, she had a rare opportunity. "What are you?"

Kuyou seemed satisfied by Yuki's response, answering, "We are," and then another memetic void. Shortly, Yuki had assembled a data structure from some of the ambient energy whipping through the arena, confident in her ability to return Kyon to his own world. She sent him across, timing it so that his interdiction field shut off, and she transfered him before any of the area's energies could touch him. Within that minuscule span of time, before she could even reorient her attention to the other entity-

Some strange force pushed on the entirety of her being, and she fought to maintain her integrity, noting with some annoyance that her organic body would not survive the transition. She modified Kuyou's transportation function to accommodate her, realizing that she was fighting the other entity for control of the process, but hoping that she would understand what that represented. Soon enough, Yuki had returned to the world she had left only minutes before.

She was aware, thanks to remnants of subordinate data on the other side of the connection, that once she and Kyon had physically left, Kuyou allowed all of the mass of that other shadowed realm to fall into the singularity she had assembled there - but then it crossed the event horizon, and no data returned to her. Turning her attention to the immediate environment, she realized that both she and the other entity had mismanaged their destinations.

Or perhaps, she reflected, looking a kilometer to her left, where Kyon had reoriented himself from the transition and was currently trying to prepare himself for the inevitable landing that awaited them both, some meddling from Emiri or the Entity had caused it. Thankfully the atmosphere here was at least thick enough for him to breathe; she adjusted her own fall, diverting some of her resources for that task. She had overspent herself with the transitions, but not so badly she couldn't still manage this.

While it was likely that the IDSE at large was still manipulating things, she strongly doubted that any other interfaces would confront them for the remaining twelve kilometer descent to the sea, far south of Nishinomiya. Even if Emiri were to appear, Yuki was positive that it wouldn't lead to a direct confrontation. Emiri's faction detested the concept in general, and it seemed doubtful to her on a personal level that Emiri would exchange her interest in information gathering for brute force.

Shortly enough, she'd made it to Kyon's side, just before they plunged into the fog of a cloud. She grabbed his wrist, preparing an incidental structure of data that reduced the probability of them being struck by lightning discharged from the energy polarizing slowly around them. "Yuki!" he yelled.

It wouldn't have been possible for normal humans to speak to one-another through the wind tearing at the pair of them, but she heard him, nodding slightly. From the tips of her fingertips against his skinsuit, she let her voice resonate weakly through the armor, allowing him to hear her as she explained, "To conserve energy, transition will be delayed."

In response, he nodded and pulled her tightly against himself, which she had not expected - but didn't mind. In fact, except for the landing and the fact that it was so loud, she found herself somewhat enjoying the moment.

Just then they burst through the wet fog, falling with the expanses of rain around them. Parallel to the bottom of the cloud they had passed through, the sun was visible once more. She'd already been aware of the conditions, but pressed against Kyon - who had needed her help with something again, finally - she thought the light changed in fascinating ways as she watched.

His PDA told her his heart-rate, but she could hear it through his chest anyway; hurried and anxious, but in her perception steadily regular. She had the presence of mind to append a recording of what she saw to her phone. She had a suspicion, but she would have to confer with Asahina Mikuru to judge its accuracy.

As they descended, the light began to dim in the thickening rain, so she had to rely on her other senses to judge how far it was to the water. When the waves below them were twelve meters distant, the preparations Yuki had made earlier activated, using the energy of their fall to teleport the pair of them to the safest location she knew of - the clubroom.

* * *

Humming to herself, Mikuru strolled through the halls of the school building, going slowly due to the fact that she was overburdened with sewing supplies. Thankfully, Kasai had picked her up from her apartment that morning and helped her unload. Once she'd called Haruhi to explain the situation, the brigade chief had met her at the school gate to unlock the club room and help carry all of the bags in.

Mikuru thought that Haruhi looked a little troubled, and wondered if she'd been sleeping poorly. Despite that, the brigade chief seemed alright. Certainly, she seemed more upbeat than when Mikuru and Kanae had presented their co-operative cooking effort... And for that, the slider had been an excellent kitchen assistant.

Still... Haruhi had been a bit melancholy, for some reason asking Kanae if she'd ever remembered any brothers or sisters. Mikuru had thought that the slider's hesitant admission that she had always been an only-child, except for 'Mikuru-onee' had been utterly adorable. Maybe Haruhi wished she weren't an only child?

She hoped it wasn't that Haruhi was jealous of her getting along with the slider, but that didn't seem to adequately explain it, either. She was fairly certain that the two of them were fairly close as it was. "Um ... Suzumiya-san?" she ventured when they stopped before the clubroom, and Haruhi unlocked the door.

"Yeah?" Haruhi returned, glancing back at Mikuru curiously.

"Is something ... wrong?" she wondered.

Haruhi grimaced at that, sighing. "Not really," she mumbled. "It's just, there's not much excitement, and when there _is_, it's not what I wanted!"

"How do you mean?" Mikuru asked.

Haruhi pushed the door to the clubroom open, tossing her share - more than half - of the hefty bags of cloth onto the main table. "I talked about it with Tsu-chan last night," she sighed, shaking her head. Once the door was closed, Mikuru was briefly startled when Haruhi waved one hand, lifting the bags from the time traveler's grasp and wafting them to the table. "I guess it's not entirely reasonable of me ... I just get bothered by some things. I shouldn't let it get me down too much, though; like Tsu-chan reminded me last night, we all have to stick together... And it's not like Yuki's getting all kinds of adventures with him when my back is turned either."

Done concluding that point, she turned around, just as Mikuru was jolted by an unexpected explosion. There hadn't been any kind of warning from her superiors - just a blur of motion before the table shattered with a crunching sound, sewing supplies, ribbons, and pattern paper filling all of the space around her. She managed a wail of terror before Haruhi tackled her to the floor, one hand directing a heavier bolt of cloth to unfurl and stand over them as a protective wall.

"Show yourself!" Haruhi demanded, once the clouds and streamers of sewing supplies had settled into thick drifts, festooning the entire club room and the crumbled, broken remnants of the table.

Somewhere, in one of the mounds of cloth, an eerily familiar groan sounded. Mikuru allowed a gasp to escape her throat at the sound, and Haruhi recognized it too, straightening up and not seeming to remember that she had one arm wrapped around the time traveler. The time traveler squeaked in worry as the brigade chief hauled both of them upright and made a gesture, the top layers of the room's central mound rolling themselves out of the way.

Laying on his back in a pile of sewing supplies, atop the remnants of the clubroom's two-leaf table, was Kyon. He was wearing the heavy coat she had made for him, with Yuki's tiny form held against his chest. His hands and throat were covered with his protective skinsuit, though that all flowed into his wristwatch as she watched... What a nice watch it was, too; she wondered where he had gotten it from, but realized she was distracting herself.

"K...Kyon-kun?" Mikuru yelped, breaking free of Haruhi's embrace as the pair dashed to his side, dropping to their knees in the debris. "Kyon-kun! Don't die! U...um ... where does it hurt? What's wrong? I can help!" She anxiously grabbed one of his hands and patted his wrist, uncertain if it was safe to move him.

"I'll be okay," he groaned, wincing as he looked up at her and Haruhi. "I'm just a bit sore from falling a hundred kilometers."

"A hundred kilometers?" Haruhi yelped, eyes widening. "No way!"

"The distance was significantly less," Yuki replied, her voice slightly muffled, but making no move to pull away from Kyon.

"Right," Haruhi said doubtfully. "Like, only a dozen or so?"

Yuki's tiny nod rubbed her cheek against Kyon's chest.

"Just from the top of the troposphere," he sighed. "Um, Yuki-chan, I think I'm lying on top of a pile of splinters or something - can I get up, please?"

With surprisingly obvious reluctance, Yuki allowed Haruhi to pull her off Kyon. Mikuru helped him up worriedly, keeping her calm by reminding herself that Yuki would not have let him remain seriously injured. He winced, rubbing his lower back once he was upright, but appeared otherwise okay. Still... She looked around the room, dismayed ... the first aid kit was there, buried somewhere beneath the sewing supplies.

"Sit down, Kyon-kun," she insisted, tugging him towards the least buried of the chairs. "Um ... Suzumiya-san ... do you think you could help me look for the first aid kit?"

Haruhi nodded and waved one hand absently, sending all of the unfurled cloths rolling back neatly into place. The other supplies likewise quickly tidied themselves up - the only real problem was that once the supplies were out of the way, the table really _had_ been smashed into a jumble of pieces. Outside of the legs, Mikuru didn't think any of them were terribly _large_ pieces, either...

Not letting Kyon refuse, despite his complaints, she pulled the coat off him; Haruhi seemed to catch on and snorted, helping to strip the protesting boy's coat and shirt away. Shortly, he was seated properly while Mikuru looked at the welts across his back in dismay. "O-kay," she soothed, setting the first aid kit on another chair near Kyon's side, "hold still, but this will tingle..."

Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest as Yuki turned and watched Kyon. "Well?" Haruhi pressed. "What happened, then?"

"I think I got attacked by some Sumiyoshi-rengo men," Kyon admitted, his voice holding steady even when Mikuru gently dabbed his still-forming bruises with the ointment she had chosen. "Three guys in suits with knives - didn't catch their pins of affiliation, but it doesn't take a genius to guess, right?"

"I'm not sure I like people going after you with knives," Haruhi grumbled. Yuki gave a curiously emphatic nod, and Mikuru agreed with that sentiment wholeheartedly, except that the people with knives actually seemed to be lowest on the threat list at the moment. "But you've got _energy_ weapons, so that shouldn't even have been a fight!"

"It wasn't," he answered, nodding soberly. "As soon as I reached for the beam-saber, I was in that weird place with Suou Kuyou again."

Haruhi blinked at that, and Mikuru pursed her lips, wondering what it meant... Surely Yuki could make sense of it?

"Evidently Suou Kuyou thought I was being attacked by someone else there, uh ... Kimidori Emiri," Kyon said hesitantly. "So they fought..."

"Wait - our first client?" Haruhi asked, surprised. "How was she there?"

"She is like ... myself," Yuki said quietly.

Haruhi's eyebrows knit together as she tried to digest that. "Kimidori-san is an alien?" she asked, astounded. "That ... might explain why the computer club president didn't remember her, even though she said they were dating. Hmm, it could also explain why someone her age wears character-print underwear..."

"Yea- Wait, _what_?" Kyon asked, whipping his head around to stare at Haruhi incredulously, then wincing and bringing one hand up to his neck.

"No! Careful!" Mikuru ordered, gently turning his head back. "You just fell, Kyon-kun; you _must_ be more cautious!"

"Er ... right," he mumbled. "I just ... heard something very wrong." He blinked, then clenched his eyes shut as Mikuru cautiously rubbed at his neck, hoping to soothe any minor pain he might be suffering. "Incorrectly, I mean."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Haruhi wondered, "Does this mean she's manipulating the student council president? She's an enemy, right?"

"Uncertain," Yuki answered. "However, Kimidori Emiri will not directly cause harm to him."

Haruhi raised an eyebrow at that. "Indirectly seems to be another issue," she remarked, shaking her head sharply. "Still, if she wasn't trying to cause harm, how did Kyon end up being hurt?"

"Whatever else was happening, Suou-san told Kimidori-san that she was trying to 'occult' me," Kyon said, shifting his shoulders his head. Mikuru frowned at the word, considering it - she didn't need any augmented reality context translation tools for that. "After that, um ... Kimidori-san said she didn't like direct confrontation and was going to try to run away - I think. Suou-san seemed not to like that, and tried to stop her, but ... I'm not clear on what happened after that - it was somewhat confusing for me."

"Sounds intense," Haruhi remarked, turning to Yuki. "Do you know what happened?"

"In an attempt to prevent Kimidori Emiri from fleeing, Suou Kuyou appears to have assembled a singularity," Yuki answered.

"Well, it didn't _stop_ her, but Kimidori looked scared, to me," Kyon determined.

Mikuru froze, distracted from applying the last dabs of ointment. "A...an IDSE interface was _scared_?" she asked in a voice that was much more worried than she liked.

"It sounds reasonable to me she could be scared for her life - this is a singularity, like ... a black hole we're talking about, right? I think anyone would be afraid of that!"

"Data tends to be transformed at the quantum level when it crosses an event horizon," Yuki said quietly. "An interface such as Kimidori Emiri or myself would not be capable of preserving data integrity in such an environment unassisted."

Mikuru shivered and finished applying the last of the ointment. Really, the idea of making Kyon take his shirt off should have been a lot more fun than this. "Give it a minute to dry before putting your shirt back on," she instructed, trying _very_ hard to ignore that last thought. He nodded at her, giving her that smile she had been hoping for, and she quickly turned to put the first aid kit away when the unwanted thought kept returning. Only the severity of the situation at hand and the fact that she had gotten to do some tiny bit of good for Kyon let her keep her head.

Haruhi rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I guess that's a pretty powerful force," she acknowledged. "So, event horizons are like kryptonite to you, then?"

"Any event which sufficiently transforms data," Yuki clarified.

Mikuru didn't really want to think about that, but made herself confront that issue, too. "Um ... could it be that ... they preserve information in a way that's difficult for us to recognize?" Mikuru asked hesitantly. "S...so that transformation seems trivial to her?"

Yuki considered this, not saying anything until Kyon had decided enough time had passed, and started pulling his clothing back on. Mikuru doubted that she was distracted by that, but when she did speak, her quiet voice sounded very faintly troubled. "It seems uncertain that Suou Kuyou is capable of acknowledging data in forms that we recognize," she finally said. "Language is inadequate to express my observations. I can only say that her functions and behaviors are..." She paused, not saying that last word, but Mikuru could guess what it was.

"Different?" the time traveler suggested, in lieu of 'alien'.

"...yes," Yuki agreed. "She is ... very different." A tiny hint of frustration creased her eyebrows, and her attention turned to Kyon.

"What?" he asked, looking between her and Haruhi in confusion, just finished buttoning up his long-sleeved shirt over his undershirt.

"Dummy," Haruhi chastised him, grabbing his tie and looping it over his neck. "You understood-" She pursed her lips together in a tight line as she carefully knotted the cloth strip, then resumed. "You probably _still_ understand Yuki-chan best - part of why you're such a- Urg..." She gave his tie some final adjustments, still holding on to the very end. "Well, what do _you_ think of Suou Kuyou?"

Kyon shook his head, answering, "Yuki asked Suou-san what she was. Kuyou said something in answer, but I didn't really understand it..."

Mikuru thought the slighter girl seemed somehow disappointed to hear that.

He shrugged uncomfortably, obviously noting how Yuki felt. "I don't know what 'sidereal' means," he said apologetically.

Yuki's expression shifted, looking curiously perplexed.

"T...those are astronomical terms," the time traveler offered hesitantly. "U...um, 'occulting' is when a body obscures a star from observation - ah, when the moons pass between surface-based observers and stars, for example." That seemed to be alright to say; no future censoring there. "And 'sidereal' means 'in relation to the stars' but primarily is used to explain the orbiting period of a star, or, um, to calculate relative time..." She let herself trail off, realizing that Yuki would already know that.

Haruhi nodded, looking thoughtful. "I think I remember something about this now," she agreed. "So, then, she has something to do with the stars?"

Kyon looked intrigued, but didn't have any further guesses to offer. If only her superiors would send her a helpful hint every so often...

"Most likely," Yuki agreed, though she still looked uncertain.

Haruhi sighed, shaking her head as she glanced at the clock. "If she thinks on the scale of stars, or whatever, and can make a singularity ... what is it that Kyon can help her with?"

Yuki's answer, surprisingly enough, was to step forward and hug Kyon. "I ... think I know." Mikuru couldn't help but allow a tiny gasp to escape her at the suddenness of the motion.

Haruhi's eyes widened, one brow ticking angrily. "Y...Yuki-chan," she mumbled, her teeth grit. Before her temper escalated, she seemed to deflate, considering something. "Do you think that Suou _likes_ Kyon?"

"Um," Kyon managed, in a very quiet, very nervous voice, nodding uncomfortably. "I...I've been told that she does..."

"W...what?" Mikuru asked, her eyes widening, turning to Kyon in alarm. "S...she's got a crush on you?"

"You mean, there really is some kind of intelligent life out there that just wants to learn our earth concept of love?" Haruhi asked, raising her eyebrows. She blinked, her gaze dropping to the slight girl that was still clinging to Kyon. "Actually, come to think of it, a precedent may already have been set..."

"U...um," Kyon coughed, shifting, but not moving away from Yuki.

Mikuru couldn't understand why that had prompted _Yuki_ to hug Kyon, though, unless... "Y...Yuki-chan, are you alright?" she asked anxiously.

"Scared," the smaller girl answered, very quietly.

Haruhi faltered at that, the last visible remnants of her ire vanishing, replaced with sympathy. "Well ... I guess that's reasonable... Kyon, come on! She's scared, can't you hug her back?"

While he looked very confused about it, Kyon immediately did as Haruhi insisted, cautiously hugging the girl. "I'm sorry, Yuki-chan ... is there anything I can do to help?" he asked worriedly.

"This is fine," she answered quietly.

"So ... then..." Haruhi started, before trailing off with a judicious nod. "Yeah, actually, it is. Take all the time you need, Yuki-chan."

"W...wait," Kyon started, still uncertain. "Haruhi-"

"It's not my problem if you're late for class," she warned Kyon, fixing him with a sharp stare. "I don't really care about that right now - but you owe Yuki-chan an apology, so it seems to me this will do for now! In the meantime, Yuki-chan, trusting your own judgment, let's fix that table before I go to class, okay?"

The small girl nodded at Haruhi, and the broken table-pieces shivered and trembled for a moment before flying back together, as though never damaged in the first place. Mikuru managed a confused smile at that, wondering what Kyon had to apologize for. "Come on, Mikuru-chan," Haruhi added, a gesture repacking the sewing supplies back in their bags. "Let's give Yuki-chan some privacy."

"Haruhi," Kyon said, looking even more confused, but still hugging Yuki. "Look, I don't- I don't understand an awful lot lately, but I'm sorry."

"W...well, we can talk about that tonight with Tsu-chan," Haruhi said uneasily. She looked on the verge of saying something else, then shook her head and ran to the hall.

Mikuru bit her lip, then ducked her head, quietly excusing herself from the room. As she closed the door, she glimpsed Yuki pressing her face against Kyon's chest again. Yuki had Kyon; she'd be okay.

Haruhi would have been too fast for her to catch up to, if she'd really pushed herself. Thankfully, Haruhi wasn't really running, just walking quickly, so Mikuru found her in the walkway between the old clubhouse and the main school building. "Suzumiya-san?" she asked worriedly. "What's going on? I don't really understand..."

After glancing around to make sure no one else was in earshot, the younger girl stopped, then turned to face Mikuru. She looked more annoyed than genuinely upset, at least. "Yuki-chan and I are just bothered because Kyon didn't try to keep us in the loop about something he did," she explained. "And I guess for Yuki-chan ... she's scared of Kyon getting hurt because he doesn't ask her for help as much as she wants. I think that's what really scared her, more than anything else ... that Suou might have hurt him on accident ... or maybe that she might ... um ... take him away..."

"O...oh," Mikuru said quietly. She thought about it for a moment, wondering if it had something to do with the link that was supposed to exist between Haruhi and Yuki. The link that kept Yuki alive... Could some of that fear be Haruhi's, too? "S...so, you're upset with Kyon-kun?" she asked worriedly. "Because he, um ... didn't tell you something?"

Haruhi shook her head, turning to stare out one of the hallway windows. "I'm still annoyed about that, but I'll get over it. Really, we haven't been that great about telling _him_ everything, either, but despite that ... I just want him to trust us more," she grumbled.

"My superiors d...don't tell me very much," she offered cautiously. "S...so, I have a bit of empathy for not being trusted to know the details..."

The girl flinched at that, then shifted her shoulders. "W...well... I guess Kyon isn't the only one who needs to apologize... I'm sorry for that, Mikuru-chan."

Mikuru wondered what that meant, but the chime for classes sounded then. Surely it would be clarified later...? Giving the time traveler an apologetic smile, Haruhi suggested, "How about tomorrow night, making Kyon take us to go see that movie he watched with Tsu-chan and Kanae-chan?"

"O...okay?" she responded, wondering what prompted that. Behind them, there was still no sign of Kyon or Yuki, even though a handful of students from the light music club came down the stairwell leading to the hallway, chatting as they streamed towards their classrooms. Still ... she did like the idea that if Haruhi was upset with Kyon for some reason, she was one of the people that Haruhi relied on to try and help bring them back together. "Um, that sounds like it should be fun," she said, correcting herself. "Hmm, should I make dinner first? My place is small, but if you and Kyon-kun like..."

Haruhi nodded decisively. "Okay, I'll leave planning that date to you, then; tonight Tsu-chan and I are going to talk to Kyon ... well ... at least a little bit. I r...really wanted to hold out until his birthday, but I don't think it's a good idea to wait that long anymore..."

Mikuru wasn't sure what was going on, but she was confident that Tsuruya would help a lot - her cheer seemed unconquerable. "Okay," she agreed, following Haruhi as she started moving down the hallway. "U...um ... I have to ask Kyon-kun ... out ... though?" she managed meekly.

Haruhi snorted, shooting her an amused, sidelong glance. "Just tell him he's going to do it, brigade chief's orders," she clarified. "_Asking_ him before Tsu-chan and I talk with him..." She trailed off and shrugged, and Mikuru nodded in uncertain response, waving at Haruhi as she stepped into her classroom. Shaking her head to clear it, she realized with dismay that if she didn't hurry, she was going to be late.

* * *

He didn't precisely want to complain about comforting Yuki - in fact, being able to do so actually was one of the few positives of the situation. Barring the fact that he knew he _should_ be scared by anything that frightened someone as generally impassive as her...

He tried, but couldn't convince himself to add that item to his list of things to ignore. Instead, he focused his ability to ignore things on Haruhi - too much confusion to sort out there, and just quietly holding Yuki actually felt a lot better than dealing with _that_.

Part of his mind wondered if he might convince her to sit, when his legs began to stiffen, but he berated himself for thinking about it; this was about Yuki's comfort, not his. Eventually, she seemed to have settled herself, and slowly drew away, though her head remained bowed, and he thought her motions seemed somehow reluctant.

"Um ... Yuki-chan ... so..." He shifted his position, thinking back to an exercise he had learned early in his martial arts training to loosen his stiffness. "Listen, I feel like I've kind of... Um, I think I meant well, but I didn't really take into account how you might feel... T...that was stupid of me, and I'm sorry about that."

"It is not ... mutual," Yuki said after a moment. Kyon felt his heart hammer in his chest and almost stumbled mid-stretch.

"W...what?" he managed, dizzied. Yuki was breaking up with him? He recovered his balance, one hand on the room's small refrigerator, almost tripping over the chair his greatcoat was still draped across. Sitting seemed like a good idea, so he did that before anything else, trying to recover his wits. His internal ignore list then decided that it was the ideal time to shut down, spinning everything through his head all at once.

It wasn't _really_ like they were dating, he forced himself to admit. He was engaged to Tsuruya, while telling the girl point blank that he would break it off because it would upset Haruhi. And speaking of her, it somehow _seemed_ that he was dating her, at the same time! He'd been warned not to get too close to Mikuru - by her older self - and quite obviously hadn't handled that right, either. And then, as if that weren't enough, he'd abused what should have been a wholesome sempai/kohai relationship with Kanae-

Naturally, Yuki was all but omniscient, so she'd been entirely aware. What had he really expected?

He tried to force down his roiling emotions. Alright - he'd failed at being _more_ than a friend to Yuki - maybe he could at least still be just that? "Y...yeah," he said, before she could answer. "O...okay. That's entirely fair. Sure." He was surprised at how much it hurt, all things considered - but it couldn't be anything worse than he deserved. "Um ... I can understand why you'd want to ... break things off..."

"T...there was ... a serious error in verbal transmission of data," Yuki said, her voice strained, stuttering in an unfamiliar way.

He looked up sharply, drawing the sleeve of his blazer across his eyes. The small girl was trembling, looking even more distraught than before. Her eyes were shining, damp with unshed tears.

"It is not fair of myself to expect a behavior for you when I do not exhibit that behavior myself," she stated more clearly, though her voice still trembled. After a pause, she added, "I am entering an error state."

He hadn't even realized he had gotten up from the chair, he merely noticed that he was suddenly hovering over anxiously. "What can I do to help?" he asked worriedly.

"I do not ... want distance between us. Please ... hold me," she whispered, a pair of crystalline tears descending from her eyes.

And just like that, he damned himself again. "Okay," he said, hugging her to his chest again. "Whatever you need, Yuki-chan."

"Don't ... let me go..." she breathed, her tears causing damp spots in the thin layers of his summer uniforms.

* * *

Though he was very concerned about the unscheduled (and _very abrupt_) vanishing act that Kyon had pulled earlier that morning, Koizumi was reassured to be notified by an Organization contact that the boy arrived for his homeroom. He was late, earning him a lecture from his homeroom teacher that echoed into the halls, but present.

As seemed to be a slowly forming habit, he grabbed his lunch and headed to Kyon's classroom, giving the students around him absent nods and smiles as he slipped away. An unfortunate side-effect of his assumed behavior - getting adequate grades and being politely aloof - was that, against all logic, many of the girls in his classroom seemed to think very highly of him. He wasn't like Kyon, entirely unaware of the fact that he'd attracted interest ... but at the same, he didn't really know what to _do_ with those girls.

They weren't at all interested in _him_, they were interested in how he _acted_. And _that_ had been wholly for Haruhi's benefit, so...

After winning his way free of the brave girl who thought she wanted to have lunch with him, he reached the doorway of Kyon's classroom, frowning when he saw the boy in question slumped over his desk. Haruhi wasn't in view, but Kunikida and Taniguchi hovered over him, prodding him with questions.

"Come on, man!" Taniguchi was protesting, looking mildly vexed. "What's got you down?"

"I'm going to hell," Kyon mumbled in response, muffled into his elbow. "Or maybe I'm already there..."

"Was it a bad mark?" Kunikida asked in consternation - but not so curious that he stopped picking at his lunch. "Did you do poorly on a test?"

"Failed," Kyon grumbled.

"So ... you haven't really been _studying_ with Suzu-" Taniguchi cut himself off so abruptly his teeth clicked together loudly when Kyon raised his head and fixed him with a dark stare. "Uh..." Taniguchi glanced around, looking for an answer before his eyes lit on Koizumi. "O...oh! Hey, uh, Koizumi - help us out, huh?"

Kyon's dourness faded slightly, and he nodded, sitting up. "Yeah, alright," he sighed. After a moment, he stood, ignoring the pair of wrapped bentos on his desk. "Let's go."

Koizumi didn't say anything at first, just following Kyon as he led the way to their usual place, outside. A quartet of first-year students occupied one table, so they chose the furthest away from the group. The esper frowned, noting a somewhat familiar first year boy among the bunch, who froze like some timid woodland creature the second he realized Kyon was nearby, eyes fixed on the second year student and wide with terror. His friends seemed to notice, and all four fell silent.

Rubbing at his temples, Kyon raised his voice enough to be heard, calling out, "I don't bite."

The timid first year made a quiet whimpering noise and tried to hunch in on himself.

Kyon shook his head with a sigh, leaning one elbow on the table and staring moodily away. "I don't know why, but that first year always walks into me when I'm saying something I don't want overheard - remember when he walked into us interrogating Daimonji?"

Koizumi nodded, realizing why the boy had seemed familiar. "That strikes me as most likely being a trivial detail," he suggested, turning his attention away from the boy. "All the same, unless I miss my mark, something happened this morning - you absolutely appear to be troubled."

"I am," Kyon groaned, shaking his head.

Koizumi listened patiently as Kyon described his early morning encounter with Kimidori Emiri and Suou Kuyou. He'd already been aware of the Sumiyoshi-rengo men that had tried to corner Kyon on his way to school. It was a point of embarrassment that none of his security detail were close enough to prevent the attack, but almost at the same moment he vanished - and equally inexplicably - a force of police officers had burst onto the scene to arrest the knife-wielding men.

Reading between the lines, Koizumi guessed that there had been some discussion between Kyon and Haruhi that morning...

"Is Suzumiya-san aware of Kimidori Emiri's nature?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah," Kyon sighed, grimacing. "She is. Really ... we probably should have explained the truth of that to her a long time ago."

"What does she know of the student council president, then?" the esper pressed.

"Nothing ... just that she thinks he might be influenced by Emiri."

Koizumi nodded. "Then _I_ will address that," he assured Kyon. "In reality, that was my ploy from the beginning, so I will take responsibility for it."

Kyon looked mildly surprised, some of his gloom dispelled. "Okay," he agreed, nodding. "That's something of a relief."

At least there was that. "Is something else troubling you?"

"I don't ... know," Kyon said hesitantly, furrowing his brow. "I _think_ Haruhi is upset with me, but I'm having a hard time figuring things out right now."

That was definitely not good; if Kyon couldn't figure Haruhi out, Koizumi surely couldn't. If his link with her were still intact, it might be a different story... Ultimately, though, Koizumi reminded himself that Haruhi's screaming emotions frequently denied him the level head he'd prefer to consider things. Certainly, _Kyon_ wouldn't have appreciated it.

"Alright," Koizumi said slowly. "I'd like to help on this front, but I'm probably not much more certain than you." After a pause, he quickly added, "Though, if you'd like, I can also leave well enough alone."

Kyon grimaced, shaking his head and crossing his arms on the table before him. "I don't know what to do," he admitted. "Haruhi and Tsuruya-kun arranged to talk to me tonight - but I have no idea what about. Or what to say. If it's about Sasaki, well, I want to try and reassure Haruhi, but she wouldn't talk to me this morning."

Koizumi pondered things. As far as he could tell, Haruhi seemed surprisingly unconcerned with Kyon's engagement ... presumably, she didn't think of it as a threat. There was no real point to telling Kyon that she seemed to have affection for him - well, more than that, really. Unless it somehow ... tied to Yuki?

He _really_ didn't like to think about Kyon and Yuki, given that it was obvious to everyone in the brigade that Kyon was closest to her. For whatever reason, Haruhi wasn't jealous of that, either. Perhaps Yuki was given some leeway because of her connection with Haruhi? All the same, in the past, Haruhi hadn't done much to conceal her jealousy when Kyon seemed to be close to Mikuru.

"As your assistant, I would like to suggest a revision in the division of brigade responsibilities," Koizumi decided. It was too much for just Kyon to handle, after all.

"What did you have in mind?" Kyon asked tiredly.

"We will need to discuss this with Suzumiya-san and the others, naturally, but I suspect that it might go a long way towards preventing such a situation as this again."

Kyon nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah - you know what? That sounds like a good idea. I'll trust you to draw up some sort of proposal for Haruhi?"

"Quite gladly!" Koizumi replied, cheered to finally take some initiative and try to improve the situation. "I'll get to that immediately. If my advice isn't too unwelcome, I suggest you finish your lunch while you can."

Kyon actually looked reassured by that. "Thanks, Koizumi - I'll see you at the club meeting?"

The esper gave a nod before the two parted ways. Thinking about things ... if somehow Koizumi's falseness had caused a rift between himself and Haruhi in the past - something he was realizing more and more... Well, at least his earnestness of late seemed to be mending that.

* * *

Kanae wasn't sure what it was, but she was starting to get a sense of tension from the rest of the brigade... Not Mikuru, at least, but she had a suspicion something went wrong for her sempai recently, and wasn't sure how she could possibly help. Hopefully it wasn't her enemies causing him trouble... She knew enough now that she wouldn't run away, but she wished things would be more calm.

After the chime sounded to signify the end of class, she slowly rose. The other first year students around her bustled more purposefully, but if Kanae went on ahead, she might miss Tsuruya - thus causing the senior to wander the school in search of her. Probably, there was no longer any reason for Tsuruya to continue escorting her to club meetings, but the green-haired heiress seemed to really enjoy it anyway.

As the energetic upperclassman peeked into the room, Kanae couldn't help but smile - she liked spending time with Tsuruya, too. The students still in the classroom waved knowingly at her, long familiar with the ritual, and Kanae took her things to meet with the heiress at the door. "Hello!" Kanae chirped at the taller girl.

"Good afternoons, Kanae-chan!" Tsuruya returned brightly, leading the way to the clubroom. "Hmm," she mused thoughtfully, glancing at the shorter girl. "Let's see... You saw Kyon-kun on Sundays, right?"

The slider almost tripped, her face heating up at the reminder of accidentally sliding into her sempai's bed. "Y...yes, before the party," she agreed nervously. They'd gone over it, though, and she didn't _think_ she was in trouble...

"Hmm. So, that tricks you're learning ... if you were to do it again, could you go back?" Tsuruya asked, as they navigated the crowded intersection to the hallway leading towards the club rooms.

"Y...yes," Kanae agreed. "I think so... Nagato-san will know for sure, I bet!" She seemed to know everything.

Tsuruya's smile intensified, and she gave a judicious nod. "Okies," she said, pitching her voice a little lower. "After you checks with Yuki-chan to make sure it's fines, I think you should do that again after your training tonight!"

Kanae started, her eyes widening. "W...what?" she asked in surprise. "T...that's okay?" Haruhi had mentioned that she'd slept next to Kyon once, in the hospital, so she hadn't been too upset...

Tsuruya nodded as they walked through the second year hall, towards the access hall to the club building. Glancing around to ensure no one was listening too closely, Tsuruya suggested, "Isn't it good practices?"

Her face turning dark red, Kanae managed an uncertain nod. "I...it's really okay, though?" she asked worriedly.

Chuckling as they climbed the stairwell, Tsuruya assured her, "It will be after tonight!"

Kanae tried to puzzle out what that meant ... but then decided to just trust Tsuruya for the time being.

As soon as they entered, Kanae realized that they were the last to reach the club. Haruhi was behind the computer, tapping away at something, and Yuki was at the table, slowly flipping through another book. The slider was unnerved once she translated the English title of 'the Terror', and decided not to investigate further. Mikuru sat just next to Yuki, humming to herself as she went down the list of costume ideas that Haruhi had given her earlier.

Nearest the doorway, of course, her sempai and Koizumi sat, her sempai trying to prod something from his PDA, and Koizumi - for a change - busily tapping at the keys on one of the club's laptops. Kanae's attention immediately went to the free seat adjacent to her sempai. Tsuruya saw it too, and gave Kanae a cheerful wink, taking the seat closer to Haruhi's desk instead.

The slider gladly sat next to her sempai, who looked up from his task to give her a warm smile before frowning and prodding at his PDA further.

Haruhi glanced up and finished whatever project she was working on. "Okay," she called, prompting everyone to look up. "I've discovered a recent problem."

"What's that?" he asked, instantly wary, straightening up. Koizumi and Yuki both looked curious, too.

"We used to do mystery searches," Haruhi explained, shaking her head. "But Kanae-chan wouldn't know about those - basically, we'd split into groups on non-school days and search for something amazing!"

Kanae nodding in understanding. That actually did sound like fun ... Haruhi had seemed to suggest something like that at the beach, too. Though, that was for different reasons.

"I could do with a little less amazing, personally," Kanae's sempai suggested with a grimace. Mikuru winced and gave him a very sympathetic look, while Tsuruya shook her head.

"Well, that's part of it," Haruhi agreed. "But really, searching for things gave us regular structure!"

"Um, does that mean we need some other activity?" Mikuru asked worriedly.

"I'm not sure it's an activity we need... At this point, since we have enemies, regularly doing things outside of school like that is really exposing ourselves if we keep doing the same things, right? So, we can't afford to be that predictable. But ... all of those things outside of school like that, they seem to keep going to Kyon, don't they?"

"No, really?" her sempai groaned, hanging his head.

"If I might," Koizumi interjected, before Haruhi could retort. "I do have a suggestion for precisely this scenario."

"Alright," Haruhi allowed, raising an eyebrow and studying the esper curiously.

Koizumi rose from his seat and bowed slightly to the assembled group, carrying himself with a very professional air. "I believe at this point, the most effective plan would be to divide the threats facing the Brigade into groups, each of which could have a director of operations."

"Hmm, like Tsu-chan being in charge of any ya- Er, ninkyo dantai activity?" Haruhi asked.

"That makes sense!" Tsuruya agreed.

"Hmm... Alright - what else?"

Koizumi continued, "Naturally, Asahina-san would be responsible for handling her domain of time travel."

Mikuru nodded uncertainly in answer.

"And Nagato-san should be able to keep us apprised of situations concerning the entity, the sky canopy domain, and with some luck, our enemy sliders," the esper concluded.

Yuki's eyes turned to Kanae's sempai before returning to Koizumi, as she gave a very small nod.

"What about you?" her sempai asked, wondering. Haruhi nodded curiously as well, but Kanae wondered why she wasn't given any responsibilities in this new order.

"I can't offer any assistance to the group as a whole that isn't already taken care of by Tsuruya-san and Mori-san," Koizumi explained, shaking his head. "At the risk of being somewhat presumptuous, I will do my best to serve as an assistant to Kyon-kun and Suzumiya-san." He offered another polite bow at that.

"Terrible idea," Haruhi judged. "What the hell are Kyon and I supposed to do?"

Koizumi winced very slightly, but managed to keep his smile. Kanae felt a bit bad for the esper... But she also understood Haruhi's point perfectly.

"Aha ... apologies," he said, shaking his head. "I did not present myself well; these auspices would all naturally still report to the vice commander and commander. Ultimately the handling of any situation is up to you."

"Hmm ... so, what would mean that Mikuru-chan's titles are official secretary, chief of mascot services, and director of temporal issues?" Haruhi asked.

Mikuru blinked. "Mascot services?" she wondered, seeming to only then realize her promotion.

"Something like that!" Koizumi agreed.

"So, what duties would directors have?" Kanae's sempai asked.

"Generally, just being aware of their domains," Koizumi said with a shrug. Turning to Haruhi, he elaborated, "In an ideal situation, for example, Asahina-san would be able to advise you and Kyon-kun of any time-travel issues and how best to deal with them."

"Ah!" Haruhi said, brightening. "So, you're saying that in this system, if Kyon were - for example - attacked by a slider and decided not to ask Yuki-chan for help, he'd be acting pretty dumb?"

"Er," Koizumi coughed, his smile slipping somewhat. "Perhaps ... hypothetically."

"Generally, this actually sounds very reasonable," Kanae's sempai said, though he looked very displeased with the idea, for some reason. "Except, it seems to me that an awful lot of responsibility falls on Yuki - maybe too much."

"Oh, you think someone trying to handle sliders and two different kinds of angry aliens on their own is too much?" Haruhi asked, giving Kyon a doubtful stare.

"I think I'm just going to shut up now," he decided. As he looked away, he added, "I already have so much to look forward to later..." in a quiet mutter. Even though Kanae was sitting next to him, she barely heard it, but it prompted Haruhi to flinch, and Tsuruya's smile to fade slightly.

Though he didn't show much, the slider was certain that Koizumi looked distressed, too - only Mikuru seemed not to have heard. "Er ... a...anyway," Haruhi said, suddenly unable to look up. "Um, so... Yuki-chan, what do you think about having Kyon try and recruit Suou Kuyou to join our side?"

"Constructive," was Yuki's answer.

"That sounds promising!" Mikuru said hopefully, looking around the table with a cautious smile.

That didn't seem right, to Kanae... Something wasn't being said, and she wasn't sure what it was. "What should I do?" she asked anxiously. "I'm not in charge of anything?"

"Well, you are our newest member," her sempai reminded her, before anyone else could speak. "At the moment, you're a trainee, right?"

"That's right!" Mikuru agreed. "Um ... have you done any designing, yet?"

"Yes, a little," Kanae allowed.

"Oh, you're doing important things, Kanae-chan," Tsuruya assured her with a wink.

"I agree!" Mikuru said brightly, giving Kanae a warm smile. Kanae felt her face heat up and managed a nervous nod. "S...so, Nagato-san is in charge of handling enemy sliders?"

"She's in charge of directing slider operations," Haruhi clarified. "Well, Koizumi, that was a pretty good idea, and I think it'll work out. Hmm... We'll spend the rest of this meeting working out details, and if there's time left over, then we can work on upcoming activities!"

Kanae nodded uncertainly, hoping that Haruhi was right, but mostly, just wondering if she followed Tsuruya's advice, if her sempai would be reassured. If the rest of the meeting didn't need her attention, and her sempai was right that it really was fine not to worry about the important things... She turned her head to her sketchbook and rummaged for her pencils. She could do her part, too.


	41. Chapter 40

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Storm Begins Arc II

Chapter Forty: Storm Surge

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Title: United"_

_"A strange agenda:  
"the hopeful result is that  
"'they' then become 'we.'_

_"Factors are concealed from him;  
"Does subtrefuge belong here?"_

_"Snow, Verses: A Compilation" - Committed to record: 2011.6.1_

* * *

After spending almost the entire meeting establishing how the new regime concerning outside threats would work, Haruhi glanced at the clock and said, "Well, there's only five minutes left, so I think we can call today's meeting to a close - we'll pick up and decide more activities tomorrow."

Kanae looked up from where she had been sketching a rough design of another outfit. Across from her, Mikuru was going over one of the earlier drafts, determining how much material it would take to complete the design, though she looked up, too. "That's it for the day?" she asked, stretching her arms over her head, giving an uncertain smile.

"Well, you do have one last assignment," Haruhi reminded her, raising an eyebrow.

"R...right, but I should change," Mikuru fretted, plucking at the hem of her maid outfit uncertainly.

"Ah, well, that's our cue to wait outside," Kyon noted, glancing to Koizumi.

"Of course," Koizumi agreed, rising with Kyon. He hesitated before moving towards the door, then added, "Ah, Suzumiya-san - I forgot to mention this before, so for that I apologize. You are aware of Kimidori Emiri's status?"

Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. "Yeah ... hmm, no one's assigned to take care of the student council, are they?"

"Considering the severity of circumstances, when Kyon-kun suggested that I look into it, I did," the esper explained. "The student council president is as corruptible as you suspected, so with some help from Mori-san and her contacts, we've bribed him onto our side."

Mikuru blinked at that, unsure what to make of it, and turned to look at Tsuruya, wondering at her insight. The heiress looked thoughtful, but her attention was on Kyon, not Koizumi. Haruhi looked briefly astonished, then mildly annoyed. "I had wanted to do something about that ... but then, if it was so trivial to deal with in the end, I suppose it's just as well that's taken care of... So, he works for us, now?"

"Ah ... to present a convincing front, outwardly nothing will have changed. You've defeated him in all past altercations, after all. We don't know how aware Kimidori Emiri is of his situation, but in front of her, we would maintain that illusion."

"As expected of Kyon's personal assistant," Haruhi judged, giving a slow nod. "So, this means that we can skip class any time we want, and say it was student council business, couldn't we?"

"Er," Koizumi managed, his smile looking slightly worried. "I ... suppose so."

"Let's save that for emergencies, Haruhi," Kyon warned. "But, yeah, excellent work on that, Koizumi."

Mikuru was able to see that the happiness is Koizumi's smile after that was very real. "Well, we shouldn't delay Asahina-san any longer, should we?" he asked.

Kyon agreed, and the two excused themselves. Kanae began tidying up her sketchbooks. Mikuru had been amused to realize that she and the slider had picked the exact same brand and size of book, so the shorter girl kept having to double-check the books to make sure they didn't get mixed up with... With...

As she removed her apron, she realized she had absolutely no idea of what Kanae drew, still. There was probably a better time to ask about that. She hurriedly changed while the others cleaned up after themselves. It was hard not to feel a little self-conscious ... even if Kyon and Koizumi were in the hall, out of sight, there were still four other people to watch her change.

At least she got to change herself, though - for whatever reason, Haruhi had stopped trying to force her into costumes, instead turning that attention to Kanae. Mikuru didn't like the idea of hiding behind the smaller girl for protection from Haruhi, but ... Kanae really didn't seem to mind. She had finished putting on her blouse, needing only to retie her ribbon when she wondered why she felt a little bad about that.

Was she somehow feeling jealous of the slider? That didn't make sense...

"Mikuru-chan~!" Tsuruya caroled, plucking the ribbon from her fingers while she was distracted.

The taller girl executed a flawless pirouette, the ribbon held directly over her head - and twirling just out of Mikuru's reach - before stopping, bringing her arms down and looping the chord into place. Humming, and with her eternally present smile, Tsuruya expertly re-knotted the ribbon, then placed her hands on her hips, beaming an even brighter grin at her. "Where's your head?" she teased.

"Ah, um," Mikuru managed, her face coloring as she remembered earlier that same morning - when Haruhi had done almost the exact same thing for Kyon. Then again ... Haruhi _had_ commanded her to order Kyon on a date. She tried to explain herself, but her nervousness turned the statement into a question as she squeaked out, "I n...need to talk to Kyon-kun?"

"Right," Haruhi agreed, nodding. "I'll send him in, then." She strode to the door and opened it, heading out into the hallway. Tsuruya gave the time traveler a wink, then led Kanae out of the room. Koizumi and Kyon were discussing an upcoming project before the door clicked closed, and Mikuru felt a surprising, gentle tug on the sleeve of her uniform.

"Eh?" She turned and blinked in surprise, seeing Yuki standing beside her, fingertips just grasping the fabric of her uniform blouse. "Um ... is something wrong, Yuki-chan?"

Yuki shook her head very slightly, then held up her phone, displaying a video on the screen.

Mikuru felt a tiny gasp escape her at the amazing scene on the device. The upper horizon was a fleecy white mass, lit from behind by the brilliant blaze of the sun, and from it a billion sparkling prisms descended in an endless curtain. The light through them was refracted and scattered in all directions. From that vantage, the view turned away from the sun, revealing the dark sea below, and most spectacularly, almost the entire circle of a rainbow.

"That's very pretty!" Mikuru said. Then she hesitated and thought about it, looking back as it looped around and replayed. "U...um... Am I missing something?"

The door clicked open again as Kyon stepped in, looking over his shoulder at Haruhi as he walked through the door. He glanced at the phone and blinked at the video Yuki was playing. "Oh," he said in recognition, nodding.

"W...what is this?" Mikuru asked, anxious that she might not have realized something important. When she looked back to Yuki, though, she was just watching the images repeat, though she seemed to be smiling very softly.

"That's from when we were falling earlier," Kyon explained. After a moment, he added, "I didn't really enjoy the view as much as I probably could have, at the time."

"I think this is ... pretty, too," Yuki said after a moment.

Mikuru glanced to Kyon, but realized she didn't need to - he understood the significance of that from Yuki, and offered the small girl a warm, friendly smile. "Well, I think I'll agree with you," he said.

"Um! Now that I know it's from when you were falling, it's a bit scary - but still very pretty, Yuki-chan!" Mikuru chimed in, somewhat belatedly.

Yuki seemed strangely content with that and nodded before picking up her bag and walking to wait outside with the others.

"What is it I can do for you, Asahina-san?" Kyon asked, some of his smile fading, but still trying to keep a cheerful demeanor.

"Ah ... Suzumiya-san wanted me to relay an order to you for some reason," she said uncertainly. "Um... I know she's been a bit upset lately, but it's not worse than that ... so I think she wanted to spend time with you tomorrow. Er - I'm supposed to tell you, that is ... that you're supposed to get tickets for three for the movie you took Kanae-chan to?"

"Oh, okay," he agreed uncertainly. "If that's what I'm supposed to do. Um ... for you, Yuki-chan, and Haruhi?" he guessed.

"Ah, no, yourself, Suzumiya-san, and, um ... me."

Kyon looked, if anything, more perplexed. "Well, okay. Huh." He looked away for a moment, then turned back, asking, "Um ... is there anything I should know from the future?"

She really didn't like the idea of questioning her superiors; answers were seldom forthcoming. What else could she do, though?

"Um," she murmured, checking her references. Unsurprisingly, her superiors had nothing to offer at the moment. "I d...don't think so," she said. After a heartbeat of hesitation, she quickly added, "But, um, personally, Kyon-kun? I think that whatever happens, you'll be okay! I have faith that Kyon-kun will solve this difficulty, just like the others..."

She gave him what she hoped was a comforting smile. If it weren't for the fact that it was the clubroom, or maybe if she were braver, she might try and give him a hug right there. Maybe even... She felt her face turn uncomfortably warm at just the thought of trying to steal a kiss.

He gave her a confused but happy seeming smile in return. "T...thanks, Asahina-san," he said, just before the door exploded open, and Haruhi stomped one foot into the room impatiently.

"Come on!" the brigade chief called, hands balled into fists and placed at her hips. "What's taking so long? I still have to lock up, you know."

Recovering her breath from what should really have been an expected entrance into the room, Mikuru offered a nervous giggle. "N...nothing," she assured Haruhi, shaking her head. "I had just finished telling Kyon-kun your orders."

Haruhi nodded, not meeting Kyon's gaze as he and Mikuru picked up their bags and joined Haruhi and Tsuruya in the hall.

"Okay!" Tsuruya cheered, grabbing Haruhi by one arm the second she finished locking the door. "I got us reservations at a really nice places for dinner, Haru-nyan~!"

"Ah!" Haruhi yelped, pulled off balance and needing to hurry to keep up with Tsuruya. Her bag flipped up into the air overhead, and Kyon snagged it before it could fall to the ground. "T...Tsu-chan!"

"We've got to hurry and changes - I got new clothes for all of us!"

"B...but-"

Giggling, Mikuru watched the trio walk down the hall. She was a bit envious that she wasn't getting to spend time with Kyon, like they were - and she really wondered what they were going to talk about... All she had to look forward to was an uncomfortable period of time to think about the fact that she felt like ... something was missing. Something about her, Haruhi, and Kanae...

...and for some reason she couldn't quite understand, the idea of going on a date with Kyon tomorrow was even more exciting than usual. Maybe because-

She started and shook her head quickly. She needed a distraction, she resolved. Yuki was going to be alone, and Kanae could always use study help - especially with history. She quickly trotted towards the school exit. Now, if she could just catch the pair of them quickly enough...

* * *

Haruhi fought down a combination of annoyance and gratitude at the fact that Tsuruya seemed to have gone on ahead and made plans concerning their discussion with Kyon. It really bothered her that she'd been letting her inner tsundere take control, though, so she let Tsuruya keep charge for the moment.

After going to her place, Tsuruya hauled Haruhi into her bedroom and then the brigade chief thought she was starting to get a strange idea of what it might have been like for Mikuru, when she had been forcibly redressed. But then, after Tsuruya had redressed the pair of them to her satisfaction, Haruhi realized that the robes she was wearing weren't just another of the heiress's innumerable collection.

The new kimono was actually elaborate enough that she realized she probably couldn't have gotten it on nearly as quickly without Tsuruya's help anyway, considering the extra layers. "This is really traditional, isn't it?" Hers was a cool blue color, and had a series of painstakingly rendered crashing waves, which appeared to swirl and foam, crashing about her waist and spilling down her sleeves. Tsuruya's own coloring scheme was more of a greenish blue, suggesting a pool. Reeds ran up to her sash, and across her back, a trio of cranes winged away.

"Yep!" Tsuruya beamed. "I didn't think a junihitoe would be as much fun to wear - but these are nice!"

"They're the nicest I've ever seen," Haruhi returned honestly. She suspected that it would be a challenge for even Mikuru to make ... or at least, it would take the older girl quite some time.

The heiress's grin widened, showing her fang. "Then I think you'll like where we're going tonight!" she said cheerfully, leading Haruhi to the hall, where Kyon had either already changed into a man's formal kimono from the same era - or just scanned it and activated his disguise.

She couldn't resist, and prodded him a few times to verify that he was actually wearing the outfit, not his disguise.

"What?" he asked, looking down at where she was poking him.

"Just checking," she returned, trying to keep the defensiveness from her voice. Tsundere tendencies with Tsuruya being an eternally cheerful yamato nadeshiko - no, no, that wouldn't do. With some effort, she made herself say, "Looks good on you."

He seemed surprised at that, looking down at himself. His outfit was much simpler - straighter lines, shorter sleeves, and a single blueish green color, midway between the hues of their own robes. Probably by Tsuruya's design, she realized in retrospect. The outfit _was_ very nice, though - Kyon needed only an elaborate folding fan and a malicious grin to appear dressed for ancient court intrigue.

"W...what a choice of words," he said with a chuckle, his cheeks reddening very slightly as he looked up at the ceiling to avoid meeting her eyes. "U...um, so this is what you like, then?"

"Huh? Sure, I guess," Haruhi answered, wondering what he was thinking of. Before she could come to a conclusion, Tsuruya burst into the small space between them, taking each by an arm. "Onward!" she insisted, hauling the pair forward without much resistance.

Shortly, they were piled into the back of Tsuruya's limo, with Kyon between them. Haruhi glanced over, seeing Tsuruya leaning against Kyon as she explained, "Kyon-kun has been to this place before!"

"Ah," Kyon remarked sagely, nodding. "That place."

"Yeah!" she agreed. Leaning even closer, pressing into Kyon - though he was very unobtrusively trying to edge away - towards Haruhi - she added, "This is where we had our omiai!"

The combination of factors - Tsuruya pressing close to Kyon, the reminder of their engagement, and the way Kyon seemed nervous - as though afraid of Haruhi's temper... "Tsu-chan!" Haruhi protested, before biting her tongue.

Okay. Tsuruya wasn't just playing around, but the girl was demonstrating a very important point. She took a breath, trying to steady herself, and looked out the window, leaning towards Kyon, just like Tsuruya. Yeah ... this was starting to get a bit _too_ much like a romantic comedy anime. It might be amusing, but it wasn't helping her move towards the eventual goal she was looking for. And judging by Kyon's demeanor, since he didn't know all of the details - he didn't think it was as pleasant as it should be.

"Eh?" Tsuruya noised, turning a curious gaze to Haruhi. "What is it, Haru-nyan?"

Naturally, the green-haired girl seemed to be well aware of all these things... "Um, n...nothing, just..." After a small sigh, she asked, "What's the rest of the plan for the evening, anyway?"

"We'll have dinners, and then I'm going to show you and Kyon a movies - it's called 'Five Centimeters Per Second'!" Tsuruya cheered. "It's got a mega thought-provoking storyline!"

Haruhi fought back the urge to choke. "I've seen that years ago," she grumbled bleakly. "Why do you want to make us watch one of the most depressing anime ever?"

"What's it about?" Kyon asked, finally seeming able to contribute to the conversation.

"Two people who were meant to be together, but didn't get together, because they were bad about communicating," she began, before the power of speech left her completely, as she considered what Tsuruya was implying. Evidently 'subtlety' was out the window at this point.

"Aw, you spoiled it for Kyon-kun!" Tsuruya complained, though Haruhi could hear her satisfied smile without looking. "Well, anyway, it's not all _that_ bad... I thought the ending was somewhat uplifting..."

"They moved on," Haruhi agreed, "but they had the same dream- They were _meant_ to be together!"

"Yeah," Tsuruya sighed. "It's too bad they weren't, huh?"

Haruhi resisted the impulse to growl, but her inner urges demanded representation. She grabbed Kyon's nearer arm, hugging it to herself tightly. "That's just a movie, anyway," she mumbled.

"E...er," Kyon choked out. Tsuruya merely made a pleased noise and when Haruhi finally turned to try and see why - she found herself momentarily blinded by the flash of the other girl's camera.

"Gah," she and Kyon managed simultaneously, before Tsuruya laughed.

"I was just teasings," the heiress added, as the vehicle pulled to a halt. "We're really going to watch 'Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl'."

Haruhi was vaguely familiar with that series, thanks to her favorite website, and frowned. "That has something to do with aliens?" Haruhi asked.

"And more! But let's just worry about dinner for now, hmm?"

Haruhi nodded her agreement, then blinked, actually taking in her surroundings. She knew that Tsuruya's family had money, but she was surprised to see Tsuruya gesturing her and Kyon to follow her along the carpet from the parking lot, and through the gardens surrounding the restaurant. "This is the most exclusive restaurant in Nishinomiya!" Haruhi hissed to Kyon quietly. "You know that, right?"

Kyon nodded absently. "Tsuruya-kun's father owns it, probably," he remarked.

"That's right!" the heiress agreed. "Come on!"

This was annoying, Haruhi thought, trying to resist being overwhelmed. Tsuruya was doing nothing but leaving her bewildered and confused, while the heiress and Kyon seemed to know what was really going on. She made herself admit that she was fairly sure that things were going to turn out alright, confusion or not...

Was her point maybe, that she and the other girls had put Kyon into such a situation?

If so, Haruhi was absolutely feeling sympathetic to him, now!

Soon enough, they'd gotten into the restaurant - which seemed empty, outside of themselves and the staff - and were seated at a traditional table. Kyon was sitting nearest the large open window, his back to the candle-filled pond. Haruhi tried not to stare at the image of a dimly illuminated Kyon in classic attire, framed by floating points of light on the water behind him.

Tsuruya kept stealing glances at him too, and seemed especially pleased when a very familiar looking woman in a simple but elegant kimono drew near the table to bring them water and tea, then take a picture of each of them. Once she withdrew out of earshot, Tsuruya grinned, waving a hand as though to downplay the severity of their surroundings. "Relax!" she cheered. "Enjoy! This is meant to be fun, right?"

"Last time I was so nervous I didn't even taste anything," Kyon admitted, shaking his head.

Looking somewhat surprised, Tsuruya chuckled and shook her head as the first course approached. "The same for me!" she agreed.

"Ah! So that's why you're really here again!" Haruhi realized aloud.

Tsuruya's cheeks reddened and she giggled in embarrassment, scratching the back of her head. "Caught!" she admitted.

* * *

After returning from the delicious meal - Tsuruya enjoyed it almost as much as Mikuru's cooking - she contentedly collapsed onto the sofa before the television. Once she'd made sure Kyon was next to her, at any rate. She admitted to herself that she might have gone a _tad_ overboard teasing Haruhi. Still, it had mostly put her and Kyon on equal footing.

Surely this would let the energetic brigade chief direct some of her unwarranted annoyance away from Kyon... And Haruhi was smart enough to realize that the redirection was intended more as a reminder than anything else.

Haruhi sat next to Kyon, not quite touching him, but looking like she was strongly thinking about it. Kyon was staring steadily at the screen, which hadn't even been turned on yet. "Alright," she said, abruptly turning to face Kyon directly. "Um, so ... I... Well, _we_, actually... We were doing something behind your back without properly explaining things to you, and we really shouldn't have."

He turned to look at her warily. "What's that?" he asked. "I've kind of given up on trying to figure things out on my own, at this point."

"This is supposed to actually be somethings really good," Tsuruya assured him, raising one hand to rest on his shoulder, pulling her knees up onto the sofa and shifting to face Kyon. "But ... we didn't really communicates this very well, did we?"

"Communicate what?" Kyon asked anxiously. "I just... I don't want to hurt anyone - or to be hurt, especially among my friends. I kind of ... get the idea I've been doing a really bad job of that lately." He shook his head, staring at his hands in consternation. "I... I know that Tsuruya-kun said it was okay, but-" He cut off with that and sighed, raising the arm at Haruhi's side and rubbing at his forehead. "I just really don't want to mess things up."

"You haven't done anything wrong," Haruhi said, her voice quavering a tiny bit as she pushed his arm down and assumed a pose identical to Tsuruya's. "So, t...the plan is kind of strange, but if you haven't figured it out, w...we kind of want to, um ... share you."

Kyon turned to look at her, and his mouth fell open a short distance.

"So, you can't do anything wrong on that counts," Tsuruya elaborated. "Some details aren't figured out yet ... like how everything will eventually settle down, but hopefully, somedays ... everyone can be happy, together!"

"Uh..."

"Does that make any sense?" Haruhi ventured uncertainly.

"Actually, no."

Haruhi blinked, taken aback. "I...it's really straightforward," she said, irritation overcoming her nervousness. "You, us, Mikuru-chan, Yuki-chan, and Kanae-chan all ... together."

"Right - so that's why it's okay to be more than friends with us," Tsuruya elaborated. "We just didn't explains it to you like we should have, so things got confusing!"

"Even if I sometimes do act a bit jealous," Haruhi added quietly.

"So," Kyon said very slowly, looking between the two girls, "you're saying that ... you want all five of you to date me, at the same time, and that's okay?"

Her face turning red, Haruhi noted, "Even if you haven't noticed, somehow, you've _been_ dating the five of us!"

"I ... have been dating five girls," Kyon repeated, looking flabbergasted, as though unwilling to confront what he'd just said.

"Yep!" Tsuruya agreed. "Um ... our engagement wasn't somethings we planned, though - that just kinds of ended up happening."

"I... Why- How- What?"

"I...is it so hard to understand?" Haruhi grumbled prodding him gently in the ribs. "I mean ... I've been trying to build a foundation for this relationship for a while, so..."

"No, wait," Kyon said suddenly, blinking. "Okay - I get it. I get it." He shook his head and broke away from both of the girls, hopping off the sofa and turning to face them. "Um ... now I get why you told me that, at that time, Haruhi..."

"What time?" Haruhi asked, anxious that Kyon had moved away from her. Tsuruya was worried about that, too - were they not managing to calm him down?

Turning to face Haruhi, Kyon took a deep breath and said, "Haruhi ... I'm really sorry that things got like this - but there's something you need to know."

"W...what is it?" she demanded. "Spit it out already!"

"Haruhi," Kyon began, standing up straight and staring at the girl solemnly, "I am-" And then _something_ Tsuruya couldn't quite make out happened, and there was no more sign of the pair.

"K...Kyon-kun?" she asked, blinking at the suddenly empty room. "Haru-nyan?"

* * *

Though she had no idea why Tsuruya had decided to give her the strange instruction she had gotten, Kanae couldn't help but spend all of the time she wasn't around her sempai daydreaming about the upcoming evening. Well, after training, once he was in bed, and she could join him...

She shook her head, trying to dismiss the thought. For whatever reason, while her sempai, Haruhi, and Tsuruya were busy, Mikuru had thought to organize a small get-together for the other girls at Yuki's apartment. The reliable older girls had helped her with her homework, and then the three watched an anime - something Mikuru had picked out, called 'Voices of a Distant Star' - while enjoying dinner.

There was the idea that Yuki could get more furniture, though... Her apartment had very solid floors, and there were only two cushions at her low table. Since it was Yuki's place, and Kanae was the youngest, the only padding she had to sit on was the thick rug beneath the kotatsu. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't helping her excitement.

"Kanae-chan seems very happy this evening," Mikuru noted, giggling quietly once the short film had finished. "Did something good happen?"

"Ah, um ... n...not yet," she managed, feeling her face turn red. "I was thinking um, about when I ended up in Sempai's bed."

Yuki and Mikuru both blinked and turned to regard her with interest, though Mikuru couldn't _quite_ meet her eyes. "O...oh?" Mikuru noised quietly. She fanned her face, which was heating up. "T...that must have been nice."

Kanae managed a wordless nod in response. Yuki gave a single nod of agreement before blinking, her gaze dropping to the table in consternation.

Mikuru noticed, too, turning to look at the other short girl. "Yuki-chan?" the time traveler asked worriedly. "Is something wrong?"

"He and Suzumiya Haruhi have left this reality," Yuki answered after a moment.

"Eh!" Mikuru started. "T...there's an attack? W...what happened?!"

"Uncertain," Yuki replied.

"C...can we do anything to help?" Kanae asked worriedly. "M...maybe I can slide us there?"

After a pause, Yuki said, "I do not know how to transmit the coordinates of their current location to you in language."

"Maybe I can help!" Mikuru offered. "Um, can you tell me?"

Shifting her shoulders, Yuki explained, "Our current spacial reality is located at the intersection of two parallel membranes in the Calabi Yau manifold," and then there was a slew of information that Kanae _really_ couldn't follow. There were numbers in there, but that didn't seem helpful.

"Their current location," Yuki continued, once the several-minute long stream of technical words stopped, "is relative to these coordinates at-" She cut off and turned to look at her phone as it rang.

"S...so, that's something that I don't think human science of today can handle well," Mikuru said with dismay, as Yuki answered her phone.

"Do I have to understand that to slide better?" Kanae asked, daunted.

"I hope not," Mikuru said shakily. "Yuki-chan, who's calling?"

"Tsuruya Haruka," Yuki answered, handing the phone to Mikuru.

* * *

Even though it was familiar, Kyon was not reassured by the place he abruptly found himself. At least, he consoled himself as the clubroom appeared around him through the wave of disorientation that teleportation and time travel seemed to cause, he was really adjusting to that jarring sensation. It was gray outside, no sign of sun or stars - just gray.

Honestly, having Haruhi and Tsuruya both cuddling up to him had been ... somewhat amazing. He just hadn't expected trying to make things right to _physically_ transport him to the special hell.

For the first time, he found himself next to Haruhi in her in that place dressed in the clothes he'd been in before vanishing. "Somehow," he said shakily, "I was expecting the school uniform again."

Haruhi's response was a growl of pain- He looked up in alarm, seeing the girl standing before him, her expression a grimace of frustration as she clapped both hands to her head. "Ow," she whimpered. "Ow, ow, _ow_!"

"W...what's wrong?" he asked nervously. "What- Did I do something else wrong?"

"This really hurts!" Haruhi snapped, standing upright in her kimono and glaring at him, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. "I just got almost two months of memories all at once - why the _hell_ did you take so long!"

"I was supposed to do this?" Kyon managed, his voice shaking. "You never _told_ me!"

"I-" Haruhi cut herself off and grabbed a chair, collapsing into it and rubbing at her temples. "I want some tea," she mumbled.

"Right," he agreed, turning around to take care of it, but surprised to find the kettle ready. With nothing else to do, he poured the waiting hot tea for both of them, then set Haruhi's on the table near her before finding a seat of his own - carefully leaving a seat between him and Haruhi. "Um ... tea's ready..."

"Okay, so this whole thing started off because of not explaining things well," Haruhi grumped, throwing back her tea without hesitation, then slamming the empty cup onto the table. "Amazing... You went _this_ far and never used the emergency codeword..."

"The only thing I can say in my defense is - again - that I didn't know what to do!" Kyon protested, feeling like a broken record.

"No, no," she sighed, hanging her head. "Ugh ... we need to make this quick, too, because Tsuruya just got left behind and is probably _really_ confused about what happened. There's also the fact that Yuki-chan's probably going to try and figure out how to get here with Kanae-chan's help."

"At first, I was slightly clueless," Kyon offered.

She raised her head to give him an inquisitive look, and he gave her his best reassuring smile - usually reserved for his sister or cousins.

"And then ... I was _completely_ clueless!" He covered his face with both hands. "Please be reasonable, Haruhi. I can't ever do the right thing if I don't even _know what it is_!"

Haruhi winced, looking away. "Okay, okay," she sighed. "Um ... so, this is 'safe-mode'. Basically, the idea was, when you got overwhelmed, you'd tell me, then I'd remember all the stuff I sealed away for emergencies, and we could talk it out and plan from here."

Even though he felt one eyebrow twitch, Kyon managed to say nothing, just staring at her fixedly.

"S...so," she said, her face turning red, "I ... kind of expected you to use the panic button sooner... I didn't realize how ... um ... good you really were at dealing with things." She turned away and gave a very obvious fake cough. "That means that if I'm responsible for my own actions, I can't blame you."

Hearing some of the best news he'd gotten all day, Kyon perked up slightly. Maybe, somehow, he could still survive this?

"I'm really, _really_ stressed about this, though," Haruhi warned.

"I can get that," Kyon agreed. "I'm _really_ sorry I let, uh ... the you that doesn't fully understand her powers try and start a whole..." He made a vague gesture, uncertain how to encapsulate the relationships he was in, still. Giving a nervous laugh, he scratched the back of his head and stared at the ceiling.

"Urg," Haruhi noised, very quietly.

"B...but why would she do that? Something that you wouldn't want?" he asked, shaking his head.

Haruhi was staring at him with a certain morbid fascination. "Y...you think that I'm different from when I remember that I have powers?" she asked.

He shrugged, shifting his shoulders. "Y...you said you were making yourself 'more tolerant' and that I'd thank you for it - but isn't this too far? I don't think the Haruhi I know would be happy about, um ... sharing ... something that important."

"You idiot," she sighed, rubbing at her temples.

"W...well... I think you just said it wasn't my fault, but never mind that, now." Kyon sighed, hanging his head. "How do we resolve this, Haruhi? How can we sort things out so no one gets hurt?"

"You're a bigger idiot than I thought!" Haruhi yelled, slamming one fist against the table hard enough to shake the teacups resting on it. "Of course you're right - that I wouldn't be instantly happy about it! But that's not why this is going on! The plan was to make myself learn to like it slowly, bit by bit!"

His mouth dropped open as he stared at her. That Haruhi's plan had gone horrifically wrong - or, maybe horrifically right - well, he'd pretty much expected that to happen to one of her plans at _some_ point. But the idea that she'd _always_ intended such a thing, even before she decided to tamper with her own memories...

"Okay," Haruhi sighed, raising a hand to forestall any complaints he might have made. "On the surface, it seems almost impossible - and thanks to outside information, my plan got a _lot_ of unexpected refinement. The point of this is that I know for a _fact_ it can be done, and we can all end up happy. I didn't know that when I started, but the proof is out there. And, come to think of it ... you're a _guy_! What is wrong with you that you're trying to get _out_ of a relationship with five attractive women?"

"I... It might make you unhappy?" he ventured, uncertain. No ... that wasn't really it. "More and more, it's that it's just something too amazing to believe could happen to someone like me!"

"...setting aside all of the other things that should be difficult to believe?"

Kyon blinked, staring at her for a moment.

Haruhi quirked one eyebrow up in challenge, leaning slightly closer to him. "Well?" she pressed.

He waved a hand and said, "While you make a salient point, this situation is somehow on a whole new level!"

"Are you trying and say that not _one_ of us is your type?!"

"What? No! I just can't see why ... well ... _me_!"

"Your idiocy is actually kind of cutely charming," Haruhi determined, covering her face with both hands. "I _was_ starting to feel bad that we weren't including you in the romantic plans for your own future - doing the same thing as your parents! Now I'm starting to think that might have been the best choice all along! You really _don't_ get it?"

"I really don't get it!" Kyon complained, too shaken to try more of the tea. "I just..." Unbidden, a series of pleasant kisses replayed themselves in his memory. More than that, how many warm embraces had they shared? "Y...you _really_ think it can be done?"

"Kyon, if you can just behave remotely reasonable - like any other healthy young man in your position would - then give us a chance. When your birthday comes around, I _will_ prove it to you," Haruhi swore.

"Within the year?" he asked.

"Within the _month_," Haruhi clarified. "So, you're going to give this a fair chance, aren't you?"

Being honest ... it wasn't like he'd really nailed the 'just friends' speech with Yuki. But ... going the other route - descending towards what he'd been calling his 'special hell' for more than a month - _intentionally_? On the one hand, breaking things off after letting things go as far as they had would result in a lot of hurt feelings. On the other hand, continuing as things were, there were innumerable obstacles and issues ahead.

On the gripping hand, some of those hurt feelings would be _his_, and that was because he _did_ care...

He'd have to thank Yuki for suggesting that book.

"Earth to Kyon!" Haruhi snapped, bringing him back to the waking world.

Or was it Haruhi's dream? Okay - enough distracting himself.

"I still can't say I get it, but fine," he agreed. "I want to argue against it, but I get the sense that I wouldn't be doing myself any favors - especially since it's against you."

"Excellent!" Haruhi said, sighing in relief as she nodded. "Thank goodness that's over!"

"Well... While we're here, is there anything else I should know?" Kyon asked. "Last time - you didn't give me any warnings on what you did, and I'm not positive, but I _think_ something happened in there to make me a light sleeper ... more than just Yuki's training, anyway."

"Y...yeah, I did that," Haruhi admitted guiltily. Well ... he couldn't really blame her - that had turned out rather handy. "Um ... for you, Mikuru-chan, and Kanae-chan, too. Yuki's training sessions seemed to really be taking a toll on you guys, so... I mean, Kanae-chan was falling asleep in the club room during meetings! And probably classes, too!"

He found the confidence to climb to his feet and place his hands on the girl's shoulders. She shifted nervously, looking up, but not moving away. "Haruhi ... that's while I'll give you that chance ... even if I wish you had told me." He shrugged, dropping his hands to his side and adding, "So I guess, in the end ... both of us were pretty bad about that - meaning well, and hiding things we shouldn't have been."

"Yeah," Haruhi agreed quietly, looking away.

"S...so ... should I, um ... remind you who I am once in a while for regular checkups?" he asked. "I ... don't know if I really like the idea that the Haruhi I know here is the real one, though - especially if we're supposed to be, er ... dating..."

"We're not _that_ far apart," Haruhi warned. "If you don't get it, still, the me that you know _here_ is the true me - but the one you've been spending all your time with is the one I'd rather be. The person I want to grow into. It's not like I'm not still there... I just keep the memories that would prevent me from having fun locked away. The real me _can't_ be happy with everything the way it is, so... There have to be some simplifications.

"If it makes you feel better, then yeah, we can do this from time-to-time. Hmm ... I should change the connection between Yuki-chan and myself so she understands what's going on a bit better, now that I'm thinking of it." She abruptly rose and went to the computer, wiggling the mouse to wake it from screen-saver - a bouncing trope-tan logo - and tapping at some keys.

"You use the computer for your powers?" Kyon asked with mild surprise.

"'Safe-mode'," Haruhi replied absently, opening up a command prompt when the screen appeared, and suddenly typing much more quickly. "Do you have any idea how volatile this power can be? I know what you're thinking - first of all, no one else should be able to get here. Even if they _do_, the computer is only a _symbol_. A way of using my powers without a lot of Yuki-chan's help. For someone else, it's just a normal computer. And no, I'm not reading your mind - for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, I actually can't." She turned to flash him a bright grin before turning back to the screen.

Clearing her throat, she continued, "Anyway, I think this is a much better solution than, 'You know, I'm kind of miffed that Kyon's looking at Mikuru, and ignoring my increasingly skimpy outfits today - better remake the world on a whim!', don't you think?"

He stared at her, events from a year ago suddenly clicking into place as Haruhi's face reddened. She'd been ... interested in him ... since then?

"Yeah," she sighed, shaking her head, "with keen romantic observational skills like that, it's a wonder you were still single when we met."

"Do you think you could tone down the jibes, just a bit?" he asked, despite the fact that he was starting to realize that she was right.

"Kyon, you have five girls trying to share you," she replied, finishing the last few commands with a flourish and looking up from the screen at him. "And you don't think that confession was difficult for me?"

"You, uh ... were pretty attractive in those outfits," he offered, suddenly finding the rim of Haruhi's abandoned teacup fascinating. "Just ... um ... not as much as when you had your hair up in a ponytail..."

Haruhi slowly began to grin. "I knew it," she declared triumphantly, tossing her hair playfully. "Okay, I think we've done well so far, but this has taken a lot of time, and the others are probably worried about us. So! Because things got to this point, you're going to have to solve something I couldn't!"

After a moment of staring, Kyon sighed, shrugging. "You know what? Sure - orders, I can handle. What do I need to do?"

"I'll allow that attitude for _now_, but I think you'll see things my way after your birthday," she decided. "So, planning how we get there is up to you - but the entire SOS Brigade is going to be in Hinamizawa that day!

"Good, okay," he agreed. That was a significantly more reasonable impossible task. Never mind the fact that they would have only a single day, and needed over half a day of travel to get there. "I'll look into that- And in the meantime-"

"-you _are_ dating the five of us!" Haruhi concluded, not quite smiling.

"Will you remember this?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. "Once we get back?"

"Just that you're in charge of figuring out Hinamizawa," she said, shaking her head. "T...that code phrase I gave you will still work, if you really do get overwhelmed."

"Um ... and Tsuruya-kun - if we just vanished...?" Kyon asked.

Haruhi looked thoughtful, then nodded. "Yuki-chan will get what's going on," she said. "As for Tsu-chan, well, even if you talk about it in front of me - for tonight, at least - I won't really remember that. I'll just think I got caught in that new field Yuki-chan put in your phone. Just tell Tsuruya I had to drag you to a pocket dimension and beat some sense into you!"

"Well, if that's not the truth, it's close enough for government work," Kyon agreed, managing a nervous smile. "If it's all the same, even though I've agreed to this, I believe I'm justified in having a minor mental breakdown."

"Hold it together a minute or two longer!" Haruhi protested anxiously, reaching one hand towards him before drawing it back. "Ah ... s...so, listen. There's one other thing you need to know. Because of how you've been acting lately, and the fact that the powers the 'waking' me has are meant for fun, well... As I'm sure your little sister would approve, I'm going to increase that power some - to keep us closer together. You don't _seriously_ see me letting myself become your damsel in distress all the time, even if you are a hero, right?"

"I guess not," he admitted, envisioning any number of video game villains regretting the idea of locking Haruhi up in their fortresses.

"Plus, we've got plenty of other girls for you to rescue when the situation arises, right? Maybe enough that we can rescue a few together!"

That sounded enough like Haruhi's old self that he couldn't help but laugh. After a moment, she laughed softly along with him, shaking her head and smiling. "O...okay, it's time to go back, but, um..."

"Same as last time?" he asked.

She nodded, her cheeks turning red.

"Alright," he agreed, reaching forward and tracing the curve of her cheek with his fingertips. She shivered nervously, her eyes narrowing as her lips pursed, and her face tilted upwards. Their lips met, and Kyon didn't care about reality exploding away around him. He'd long since adjusted to _that_, and, anyway, she was there, and they were going back to Tsuruya...

* * *

Other than an annoying dizzy spell, thanks to the fact that she had asked Kyon to try his new defensive power, and then gotten caught in the disorienting 'interdiction field', Haruhi thought the evening went very well. Tsuruya had convinced Kyon to join their plan for the moment, and aside from getting caught in Kyon's new defense, Haruhi was quite pleased with the evening so far. After Kyon finished elaborating to Tsuruya that Haruhi had finally managed to beat some sense into his head, the three returned to the couch to start watching their anime.

Tsuruya allowed herself to be reassured, but at the same time, decided to grab onto Kyon and not let go - citing concerns that he might abruptly vanish. Haruhi didn't think that was likely, but an excuse to grab onto Kyon was an excuse to grab onto Kyon, so before he could really protest, he found himself pinned between two of his girlfriends. After a moment of the pair cuddling up to him, he relented, hesitantly putting an arm about either, as though expecting some kind of explosion.

"W...well, Haru-nyan does things differently, but as long as they work out," Tsuruya decided, in response to something Kyon had said - something not _terribly_ important, Haruhi was fairly certain.

"Y...yeah," Kyon agreed uncertainly. "Would now be a good time for me to have a delayed mental breakdown?"

"Sure!" Tsuruya chirped, wriggling in his grasp a bit, flashing him a mischievous grin. "I'll help!"

Haruhi felt an annoyed squeak escape her as Tsuruya - with no further warning - pressed her lips against Kyon, engaging him in an entirely unexpected kiss. Her eyes widened as Kyon first started, then hesitantly kissed her back. "H...hey!" she protested.

Tsuruya broke the kiss before Kyon or Haruhi could try and fumble her away. "Better?" she asked. Kyon's only response was to look terribly confused - but not really upset, and make a bewildered sound. "Hmm... Haru-nyan, you should try, too!"

Haruhi hesitated ... she had seen Kyon kiss other girls - Mikuru and Kanae, specifically. Even so, they had previously always at least managed to try and do so out of _direct_ line of sight... Then again, she knew for a _fact_ that Yuki had made a recording of her kissing Kyon - and acting tsundere towards a boy who was already making out with his fiancee wasn't going to be helping any kind of cause.

"Y...yeah, but ... you can't just kiss Kyon like that!" Haruhi protested. "You have to warn him first!"

He blinked, turning to look at her in alarm.

"That was your warning," she added. Tangled in Tsuruya's embrace, Kyon couldn't escape as she closed the distance and almost knocked the three of them into a comfortably tangled pile, her lips pressing against his. Her eyes closed as he returned the kiss, one hand tangling in his hair as she trailed the fingertips of her other hand across his cheek.

When the kiss was broken, she found to her embarrassment that she'd been smoothing Tsuruya's hair - Kyon's, naturally, wasn't that long. The heiress didn't seem to mind at all, just giving her an encouraging wink, half pinned beneath the other couple, so not able to move in for another kiss of her own at the moment. Even better, Kyon wasn't putting up any kind of fight, so that meant...

One hand was still in Tsuruya's hair, the fingertips brushing across the other girl's head... With Kyon between them, seeming comfortable (if justifiably dazed), Haruhi thought that things were pretty much perfect. As though to underscore that point, there were a series of surprisingly loud footsteps down the hall, and she hurriedly pulled herself off of the others, straightening her robes out and then hauling Kyon upright when he continued being dazed.

Tsuruya sat upright as well, giggling when her chief maid (on mysteriously silent feet, once more) crept into the room, moving to Tsuruya's side unobtrusively. "Your father has arrived with a guest, Tsuruya-san," she breathed quietly.

"Ah!" Tsuruya exclaimed, her smile widening. "Well, that's good timing!"

"Hello!" Tsuruya's father called, stepping into the room and grinning, Kyon's uncle beside him.

"Heya, Kyon!" Keiichi added, grinning just as mischievously, his eyes scanning across the trio before understanding of some sort seemed to set in. Then his smile widened even further. "Aha... Well, I happened to be in town on business; I'd hoped to see you doing well!"

"Awesome," Kyon agreed somewhat shakily, his eyes not quite focusing.

Haruhi wanted to smack Kyon - why hadn't he _said_ his uncle was going to be in town? She also really wanted to ask Keiichi if Rika were there, but since this was Tsuruya's place, she bit her tongue.

"Oh!" Tsuruya exclaimed cheerfully, hopping to her feet and giving the older men a polite bow. "You're in town on businesses?"

Keiichi raised an eyebrow and glanced across Haruhi and Shinobu before Tsuruya's father assured, "This is trusted company."

Nodding, Keiichi explained, "I'm coordinating a legal team for an upcoming trial involving some men who recently left the employ of the Sumiyoshi-rengo."

"You're a lawyer?" Haruhi blurted out in surprise, unable to keep quiet. She had thought Kyon said he was just a motivational speaker!

"Yep!" Keiichi agreed, nodding. "When I was younger, I had a strong disagreement with the way the law handled some things - and learning more about the law seemed like a good way to make sure if it happened again, I'd be better able to deal with it!"

"But ... Dad said you never finished college," Kyon said, frowning in confusion.

"Well, that's because when I was working on my law degree, Imouto was ... very busy," Keiichi said, shrugging. "That was just around the time you were born, so ... communication was not at its best. Ah ... a story for another time, though. Are you busy on Friday, Kyon?"

"I don't think so," he answered cautiously.

"Well, great! Rena-chan's new book is being released then! She'd love it if you could stop by to see her," Keiichi said, before checking his watch. "Ah... Well, at any rate, Kyon-kun, Suzumiya-chan, Tsuruya-san - enjoy your evening." He gave Haruhi and Tsuruya a wink that helped explain why Rika had agreed to the relationship she had.

"Yes," Tsuruya Kenshiro agreed, nodding, seemingly oblivious. "Sorries about the unexpectedness! But family is importants, so I thought this would be a good surprise!"

"Today has been strangely full of those," Kyon said, managing a genuinely happy, if somewhat nervous smile.

"It has!" Tsuruya agreed aloud. Haruhi agreed, too, but didn't say anything, just offering a nod and a happy smile of her own.

* * *

After getting home somewhat late - excused by his parents, since it was with Tsuruya - Kyon settled into a contented rest, drifting off and only peripherally aware of the now-regular nightly training. When morning came around, he became aware of the somewhat familiar sensation of someone else in his bed, warm breath tickling his neck. The evenings and early mornings were cool enough still that the extra warmth was amazingly pleasant, though.

He cautiously turned, not that surprised to see Kanae curled up and pressed into his side, her sleeping face cutely angelic as she sighed at something in her sleep and shifted, giving a tiny smile. Okay ... he supposed if this was part of what Haruhi said he should expect...

Well, normal girls would probably want normal relationships, but he realized with a full training session and the following night to sleep on it, it was probably pretty obvious that extraordinary girls might want an extraordinary relationship. He hoped he could keep up with them, though... He started to pull one arm over, thinking of tracing his fingertips across the slider's cheek - but an unexpected weight pinned that arm down.

Turning, he blinked, surprised to see Yuki there, too, the two girls managing to just squeeze into his small bed with him. At a glance, Yuki's eyes were slowly drifting open, as though she were just waking up. "Um," he began cautiously, trying to keep his voice very quiet. "Good morning?"

"Yes," Yuki agreed.

"Mmm," Kanae mumbled, pressing her face into his shoulder. "Sempai..."

The slider blearily sat up, then blinked at her surroundings, face reddening slightly at the sight of Kyon, and then intensely at the sight of Yuki. "U...um... G...good morning, Sempai!" she agreed, her voice timidly quiet.

Part of him wanted to complain that the girls had just slid into his bed without asking. The greater part of him, now that he realized Haruhi's jealousy shouldn't be the greatest factor in daring to return affection, really didn't mind _that_ much, except to maybe append a complaint that Mikuru could probably have squeezed into his bed, too.

He felt his own face heating up - these weren't the kinds of thoughts he should be having. Instead, he tried to focus on the fact that waking up in his own bed with two cute girls was something he could probably get used to. "Did you rest well?" he offered.

Kanae looked slightly embarrassed, shifting her gaze away. "Y...yes," she agreed. "I had ... very nice dreams."

Yuki blinked then turned to look at Kyon's alarm clock. After studying it for a moment, she decided, "I will return to my apartment to prepare for school."

Kanae startled slightly, then shook her head. "I ... should be going back too," she said quietly, as Kyon sat up. "U...um..." She hesitated, wringing her hands, and Kyon replayed the time he had spent with the other girls. Kanae had _said_ she liked him, at the beach. If he were supposed to be dating five girls, she'd probably been left behind a bit, in terms of kissing and dating.

"I'm going to a book signing on Friday, after the club meeting," he said quietly. "It's written by one of my aunts, and my uncle will be there, too. Would you like to come with me?"

She smiled eagerly, nodding, then after a moment of hesitation, grabbed him in a tight hug. "I'll see you at school, Sempai," she assured him, before she too vanished, almost the exact same way Yuki had.

A heartbeat later, while he was still sitting up, thinking about the minute or so before his alarm went off, his bedroom door opened, his sister peeking in with a mischievous grin. "Aw," she pouted, when the only other being she could spot in Kyon's bed was Shamisen. The cat, already roused, hopped to the floor and slipped between Nonoko's feet.

She gave him a cheerful, "Good morning!" before chasing after the departing feline, already singing one of her little tunes. "Sha~mi!"

He turned off his alarm and climbed out of bed, thinking that things were going better - until his phone chirped a notification that he had a new text message. Somehow, from that ... he just knew his day was going to go downhill.

* * *

Kanae felt surprisingly well rested, all things considered. Even better, if sliding into her sempai's bed... Well, it wasn't _really_ sliding. She supposed it was more skimming, or jumping than really _sliding_.

But what an amazing skill that was! With that, she could be less of a burden for her sempai - she could always escape, just jumping to places or people she knew.

The best part of the day had been the way that once she had woken up, her sempai hadn't seemed worried or alarmed to see her, this time. In fact, even though he hadn't called it a date, he'd asked her out!

In that happy fog, she went through her classes, for once feeling confident before her history test.

When class ended, she happily followed Tsuruya's lead to Haruhi's impromptu lunch meeting to celebrate Mikuru completing the latest costume. In the clubroom, the moment she arrived, Haruhi stood up from her seat behind the computer with an eager grin. Koizumi and her sempai recognized it, trading a glance and retreating into the hall with their teacups.

Shortly enough, she was redressed in her new outfit, complete with a blue cap, and the boys were let back in. Her sempai and Haruhi both agreed that she looked very cute in the costume, and she tried to blushingly defer their admiration to Mikuru, who had actually made it. For her part, Mikuru watched with a happy, glowing smile, just like Kanae always imagined a big sister would. Tsuruya took several dozen pictures before settling down enough to sit at the table again, and then Yuki closed her book and set it down as Haruhi called the meeting to order.

"Okay!" Haruhi called, surveying the group. "First order of business - since we're here anyway, are there any new issues to report?" She turned an inquisitive gaze to Tsuruya.

"No critical new developments!" Tsuruya reported happily. "Mori-san did say she might want to request a meeting with myself, Kyon-kun, and Koizumi-kun about the police investigation against the Sumiyoshi-rengo in the future, though."

Haruhi nodded and turned her attention to Mikuru, who quickly shook her head. "Nothing from me," she said.

"No enemy slider activity has been observed," Yuki reported, once Haruhi's gaze swung to her. "Suou Kuyou's presence has not been detected since the previous encounter." She paused briefly, then continued, "The probability of the IDSE initiating a hostile action has increased due to Kimidori Emiri's actions being detected."

Frowning at that, Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head to one side. "I suppose we haven't seen much sign that they've done much to us, really, have we?" she mused.

"Actually, I'm not sure, but I think Kimidori's been behind the issues we've been having with the Sumiyoshi-rengo," Kanae's sempai noted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Yamane Jun and his photography ring are what got that whole thing started, but he was kind of tricked into it by one of the entity's traps - that piece that's now my PDA." He fished the device from his pocket to show it briefly.

Haruhi made a slight gesture and it shot from his hand and into hers, almost absently.

"That incident was likely not originally intended by the entity as a whole," Yuki added. "However, once set into motion, Kimidori or another agent of the entity would be able to influence the organization."

"I have a difficult time understanding why an existence as powerful as the IDSE would bother using such crude methods, given their capabilities," Koizumi remarked, frowning. "I suppose we should be grateful, but when you look at the enemy sliders, they don't seem to hesitate to bring all the force to bear that they can. Why does the IDSE have such restraint? Is it _just_ because of Kyon-kun's 'open time loops'?"

"Such things are more critical than you may realize," Mikuru said, shaking her head. "The backlash for causing a temporal paradox could be catastrophic - on the scale of a classified information..." She trailed off and heaved a brief sigh.

"The goal of the entity is presumably the neutralization of myself as a potentially hostile agent," Yuki added. "Beyond that, our activities slowly generate new data that the entity wishes to acquire. Therefore it has so far been extremely cautious of us. As time grows on and we grow more capable, the entity will become more willing to arrange - or dispatch - more hazardous threats."

"Aha ... so ... we're really just an experiment to them?" Koizumi asked, frowning.

"Well, _that_ pisses me off," Haruhi noted. "Still ... they're logical, right? There must be _some_ way to reach them - maybe try and talk sense into them? I really, really hate those typical science fiction movies where humans meet aliens for the first time and they have to fight!"

"Violent conflict would be undesirable," Yuki agreed. "I do not predict high chances of success in combat against another interface with the backing of the entity."

"So, we'd need to give you some sort of upgrade to be able to handle that?" Haruhi mused.

Yuki seemed somehow uncertain, and said nothing.

"If we really want to talk to the entity, we can just track down Kimidori Emiri," Kanae's sempai noted. "She told me at one point she wanted to try and remain non-violent so we could communicate if things somehow changed. It seemed a bit unlikely given our last run-in, but she's still supposed to be a student at this school."

Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know ... it _has_ been pretty boring lately, at least in terms of being able to really _solve_ any of our problems... Alright. Well, we can form a plan of attack against her, and-"

"Hold up there," Kanae's sempai protested, holding one hand out. "I'm not sure where this fits into things, but if she's harmless for the moment, we should let well enough alone. If we take her out, I'd expect retaliation."

"They may not be human, but they are an organization of some kind," Tsuruya agreed, nodding. "I think Kyon-kun's probably right..."

"I...it would be nice if we could avoid fighting," Kanae supplied. Mikuru agreed with that, putting one hand on the slider's shoulder and nodding vigorously.

"That's the best lead-in I can imagine for this next bit of news," Kanae's sempai said cautiously. "Ah ... Haruhi, you know that I've been getting text messages from a certain person regularly, right?"

Haruhi's expression shifted from annoyed to wary. "Yeah," she said slowly, nodding. "Why... What's _Sasaki_ got to say?"

Kanae's sempai shifted slightly in his seat and glanced across the table. "She says that her friends want to have a meeting with me to try and talk things out next Monday," he explained.

"And that you should come alone?" Haruhi asked skeptically.

"That's what they wanted," he agreed. "Ah ... but then, she also said that since she doesn't really trust Tachibana right now, she doesn't think I should either."

Haruhi considered that, seeming uncomfortable with the idea.

"This might be good," Tsuruya put in thoughtfully. "Even if we can't reach a peaceful compromise, we can at least understands their motivations better, right?"

"I guess," Haruhi allowed, grimacing. "If we do this, I want a _lot_ of contingencies to get Kyon out of there for once they double-cross us! And _more_ contingencies to handle their counters, since it's so obvious this is a trap!"

"Yes, that does seem somewhat obvious," Koizumi agreed.

"Okay, anything else to drop on us, Kyon?" Haruhi asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy.

"Um ... I'm going to that book signing for my aunt on Friday?" he asked, scratching his head thoughtfully.

"That's a bit of a change in subject," Koizumi remarked, smiling thoughtfully as he sipped at his tea. "Your aunt ... Fuurude Rika, yes? What has she written?"

"Another aunt - actually, a close family friend. Her name is Ryuguu Rena," Kanae's sempai clarified. "She wrote-"

He cut off as Koizumi sputtered into his teacup and began choking. Since Yuki was at his side, she raised an arm without hesitation, smacking his back with an open palm firmly. A few moments of ragged breathing later, everyone was staring at the esper in consternation. Kanae couldn't really think of an occasion where she'd seen the normally eternally-cool Koizumi so flustered.

"Ryuguu Rena-sensei is your _aunt_?" he gasped, once he could speak, his eyes wide.

"Er ... yeah," Kanae's sempai agreed, mildly taken aback by Koizumi's demeanor. "You've heard of her, then?"

Koizumi pulled his wallet from his pocket and produced a worn but cared for card, presenting it to Kyon proudly. "'Brave Detective Sasha Fan-club'," Tsuruya read aloud, sharp-eyed enough to make it out from where she sat. "'Member number 24601, Koizumi Itsuki'."

"Kyon," Koizumi said with unexpected heat in his voice, "I don't know that I've ever asked for much as a personal favor - but _please_ let me meet your aunt!"

"Huh," Haruhi mused, raising an eyebrow. "That's a pretty good idea, actually - I think we should all go!"

Kanae's smile faded at that... Well, even if it wasn't really going to be a date anymore, at least he'd _tried_ to ask her first.

"What's that face about?" Haruhi asked. "Don't you want to introduce your friends to your aunt?"

"Er, yeah, I do," he agreed. "I'd just... Well, don't worry, Kanae-chan, I'll come up with something else, huh?"

"T...thank you, Sempai," the slider managed.

"What, did we just crash a date between you and Kanae-chan?" Haruhi asked, blinking. Mikuru gasped quietly, and Kanae felt her face warming up as she blushed beet red. Koizumi seemed too distracted to notice, just offering a dazed smile and looking at his card happily.

"Aww," Tsuruya murmured. "Sorry, Kanae-chan... I'll help Kyon-kun make it up to you, though!"

"Yeah ... sorry about delaying that for you, Kanae-chan," Haruhi said, nodding at the heiress. "Once Koizumi comes back to earth we can get back to planning how that meeting on Monday is going to work out, right?"

"I...is there any way I can help?" Kanae asked anxiously. It was nice to be able to dress up, but she'd like to be able to do just a _little_ more to help out...

"Yes," Yuki agreed, turning to regard Kanae.

She brightened at that immediately. Things were looking up, after all!

As though to underscore that thought, the bell warning that class resumed in a few minutes rang, making Kanae wonder if she'd be able to change back in time to get back to class...


	42. Chapter 41

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Storm Begins Arc III

Chapter Forty One: The Stock Footage Chapter

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Two: Don't Just SAY You Have a Bad Feeling, DO Something About It!"_

_"...but I digress. When you get that feeling, you know the one, in the back of your head? The one that makes you think something is off about the situation? It may be right. Granted, you may also be tumbling headlong into a fit of paranoia that will end terribly for you and everyone you love. But what if you're NOT? Remember, if you're aware of things, you know most people think you're crazy anyway. Is it going to hurt that much more to overreact rather than just label something a false alarm?"_

_"Practical Heroism and You: Awareness" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

Class had started innocently enough that day, but he'd long ago given up on expecting _that_ to mean anything. With each passing moment after lunch, he grew more and more anxious, stealing glances behind him to make certain that she was still there - still _safe_. And every time their eyes met, she smirked knowingly and quickly looked outside, trying to pretend eye contact was never made.

He was absolutely certain that if his sense of anxiety weren't imagined, she was the one behind it - one way or another. When the fifth period bell rang, he was prepared. In a way, he'd always wanted to do this; exact that one tiny bit of revenge upon her for all the times she'd done it to _him_. So when she rose, turned in one smooth motion, and made to bolt out of the room-

-he was there first, seizing the decorative ties of her sailor uniform's neckerchief and making for the door at top speed. "Bwa!" she protested, arms waving frantically as she dashed to keep up, or risk the knot being pulled out. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

Naturally, he said nothing to her during the entire mad dash to the remote stairwell where she had first hauled _him_ by his own tie, so long ago. He released her at the top of the steps after looking around to ensure that no one else was nearby. Her momentum carried her forward, resulting in him pressing one hand flat against her chest, just below her neck. Her eyes quickly sharpened, her features fixed into a scowl. "What the hell, Kyon!?"

He held up one hand and said, "Something's up."

Her irritation vanished instantly, replaced with wide-eyed excitement. She clapped her hands together and hopped from foot to foot. "Yes!" she cheered. "It's been so _boring_ lately!"

"This better not be your fault!" He shook his head in irritation, then patted his left coat pocket. Then right, then both pants pockets, then the back of each hand. After that, he traced the fingertips of his right hand above his ear, eyes distant, and pulled his cell phone from one pocket.

"What is it?" she asked, when he spent a long minute studying the screen.

"Maybe a false alarm," he admitted, shifting his shoulders. "Are you messing with me?"

"I should be asking _you_ that! But whatever! You hauled me all the way out here - by my shirt, I might add! - so tongues are going to wag! If you're going to do this, then you know what I want!"

"Haruhi..."

"Do it!" she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. "I want to see it!"

"Is now really the time? Break's going to be over soon-"

"Get it out now! I want to see!"

Heaving the sigh of the eternally doomed, he put his phone away and muttered underneath his breath.

"Do that voice, too! You know the one? Like from a movie voice-over guy? I love that! Do it! Come on!"

"Fine," he grumbled. "But _you_ come up with the excuse for class."

"Student council president," she said without hesitation. "Blame him."

"_Ahem_," he coughed, shooting her a dark look. "Take a step back, I don't want to catch you in the interdiction field again."

She nodded and stepped backwards, against the wall.

Standing perfectly straight, hands at his sides, he closed his eyes, and began speaking in his best faux movie announcer voice-over: "Skinsuit active," as something that looked like nothing so much as black paint suddenly engulfed his entire body beneath his uniform. "Gravimetric stabilizers and secondary gyrometrics online," as ridged metal studs appeared on the back of each knuckle, and beneath his uniform pants, metallic vertical rails were described in the skinsuit. "Greatcoat thermoptic stealth disengaged," as a knee-length tan greatcoat coalesced, covering his shoulders with a thick mantle.

"Doesn't that get hot?" Her smile had only grown, her eyes shining with anticipation.

"We had environmental conditioning added last night, since the weather's heating up," he said in a normal voice. Switching back, he said, "Primary weapons check." He pulled a fifty centimeter long glittering metal cylinder from within the greatcoat, releasing it to spin on its axis in midair to one side, announcing, "Long range precision and high yield weaponry is at full charge." A circle of light appeared on the floor around him, a simple white ring with glittering sparks chasing around in either direction, sending brilliant flashes to streak upwards.

Another cylinder, wider but shorter than the last was released to float next to the first. "Mid- and short-range crowd-control weaponry is at ... ninety seven percent capacity and charging," he continued, squinting at the featureless gunmetal tube. Pulling a well-crafted sword hilt with no cross-guard or blade from one pocket, he released it horizontally, and it hung before him between the other weapons. "Beam saber is at full capacity." After pulling his cell phone from one pocket, he brushed his fingertips over his ear, revealing three dull metal studs in the skinsuit. "All systems nominal; no proximity alarms-"

He broke off suddenly, scowling. "Okay," he said in his normal voice. "My mistake. We've got incoming."

"God _damn_ it Kyon, you're so _cool_ when you do this," Haruhi gushed, clapping her hands together. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure," he said, as a cold, familiar chuckle echoed. One eyebrow twitched and he stowed his weapons, banishing the ring of light and flinging his phone at Haruhi. "Speed dial two," he snapped. "Stay in the circle."

She pouted, but did as she was told, the ring of light reappearing on the floor around her this time.

"Kyon-kun~!" someone caroled up the stairwell, the echoing click of their shoes sounding as they climbed the stairs. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" The school bell chimed just as she rounded the landing, and he activated the beam saber. The blade made a crackling, whirring buzz and shed a soft, pale blue light. "Y...you..." she began, before she frowned, blinking, staring at the energy weapon.

"Long time no see," he said, switching stance to the long-sword style, Ni-Ten Ichi Ryu.

"Um... Hm. This is different. You've certainly changed, Kyon-kun."

"That's funny, Asakura-san, because you haven't."

Haruhi bounced on her heels with a wide grin, holding Kyon's cell phone in both hands as she remained in the center of the glowing circle. "I _knew_ it!" she cheered. "There was _something_ off about Asakura! What is it?"

"Um..." the onetime class representative said, frowning.

"She's alien," Kyon volunteered. "From the same place as Yuki-chan and Kimidori, but she tried to kill me once."

"Whaaaat? What did you do to make her mad?" Haruhi asked, looking at him in bemusement.

"Er," Asakura said, crossing her arms beneath her chest. "Evidently my information requires an update. I was sent to dispatch Kyon-kun, because he's become an undesirable element for my superiors. Really, I'd hoped to see a new state, maybe even provoke it with his death. But, those toys seem to say that's already happened! So disappointing ... I suppose if I'd been more patient, I could see it anyway?"

"I personally like to see it as a lesson on the effects of _randomly stabbing people_," Kyon muttered.

"Oh, it wasn't random," she countered. "It was highly specific! I put a whole two hours of thought into it, you know. For us, that's quite a while!"

"I'm touched," he said dryly.

"Blah blah blah," Haruhi muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and rolling her eyes. "Skip the speeches - if I don't know the complete back story, it's all meaningless to me. I think it's about time we get down to business, right?"

"Happy to oblige!" Asakura said brightly, as their surroundings pulsed, the window turning into a gunmetal gray steel barrier, strange patterns coalescing across the walls. The circle on the floor around Haruhi abruptly winked out. "Now, I've converted the entire space of this stairwell into-"

Kyon spun on one foot, crying out with a great, "Ki-yah!" and kicking the door halfway across the roof. Sparing no more time, he swept Haruhi up in one arm and dashed through the opening.

"Waaah!" she protested. "Why are you running away!?"

"Confined spaces," he answered, sliding to a halt in the middle of the roof and setting her down. "Speed dial two again."

"Right, right," she mumbled, reactivating the circle of light. "So, what's so great about this if she can just turn it off, anyway?"

"It's a barrier and emergency help function," he answered, reactivating the beam saber and reassuming a defensive stance. "Unless she seals this space off - again - she can't disable it."

Asakura gave a pained sigh as she stepped through the jagged distortion between her controlled dataspace and the rooftop. "You shouldn't be able to manipulate data like that," she said reprovingly. "I suppose that means it's time to stop holding back." She clapped her hands together before her and drew them apart, flinging a fan of dozens of identical knives outward. Kyon maintained his guard position, his free hand already clenched into a fist, the metal ridges of his skinsuit facing outward.

The knives adjusted their course, most homing in on him to suddenly be halted by a semi-circular barrier of glowing blue force before shattering into nothingness, but a handful stopping suddenly in the space over the circle around Haruhi. He opened his mouth to retort, but Asakura was already within his guard, driving yet another blade into his stomach. The inner carbon-nano-weave of the greatcoat and the force field of the skinsuit beneath it converted the stabbing force into a distributed shock wave, so instead of being pierced, Kyon was merely hit with the force of a speeding minivan, flying clear across the roof with a choked grunt.

"In the end," Asakura remarked, watching his form tumble off the edge of the school building, "all those toys are pretty silly if you don't actually know how to use them."

"You have to give him credit, though," Haruhi said, peering very closely at the knives frozen over her barrier, not even glancing back to where Kyon had vanished. "He comes up with one hell of a distraction ploy, doesn't he?"

The blue-haired interface cocked her head to one side, blinking. "What?"

* * *

The sensation of being hit with a force that would crush a mid-sized car into a work of modern art was not entirely new, but was without a doubt extremely unpleasant. His skinsuit did what it could to distribute the kinetic force evenly across his body, so the crushing pain was at least perfectly uniform in infliction. The balancing gizmos gave up the ghost on keeping him upright, and struggled to guarantee he wouldn't land wherever he flew head-first. His gravity manipulation defenses all strained to bleed the inertia of his impact off without even _more_ pain, but the end result was that he didn't slow appreciably until after he passed the edge of the five story rooftop.

Not what he'd hoped for by a long shot. All of the 'toys' would keep him mobile, even if he was afraid he'd need to be _poured_ out of the skinsuit when it was over. He'd have to beg Nagato or Haruhi to help him out and repair things later, but there was just too damn much to keep track of with all the attack vectors, defensive capabilities...

"It started off such a nice day, too," he mumbled, as his forward momentum was arrested and he began the downward plummet in earnest. How had it come to this, anyway...?

On second thought, he really didn't have time to get distracted by things like that, did he? Haruhi was still up there with Ryouko, after all.

* * *

"Hmm," Ryouko mused, turning slowly around, to where her sealed space in the stairway had been breached. "It was broken from the outside, somehow? I wonder-" The shrill buzz of a brilliant energy beam licked out from the roof of the tiny structure that housed the stairwell.

Ryouko was struck in the chest dead-center of mass, her entire body glowing white for a second before she staggered- Instantly another beam shot out from the same location, lighting slightly to one side, near the girl's left shoulder. A third, though not as brightly glowing shot was somewhat lower, near her stomach, and Ryouko dropped to her knees, eyes widened. "High yield neutron flare?" she asked. "Quantum entanglement to disrupt my connection..."

De-stealthing, Kyon stood from his hiding place atop the stairwell housing, his greatcoat billowing behind him. The end of his weapon was glowing orange with discharge, the shape changed from a simple cylinder to a much thinner meter-long construction of sturdy rails and curving hand guards. He slung it over his shoulder and ignored it, pulling the second cylinder from his coat and leaping the twenty meter distance between himself and Ryouko.

Beneath him, a widening circle of dust marked where he leapt from, and while in midair he flipped over, a sequence of touch-points converting the unadorned cylinder into a stocky, blunt, two-handed gun. It fired with a rasping cough, launching a ring of metallic spikes to burrow into the rooftop around Ryouko, and then a grid of crackling brissant energy raked between each of the spikes, snaring the girl in a glowing, shuddering net.

"Ah," she said, her voice disappointed as Kyon's repulsor and gravimetric systems flared his momentum and spread it evenly across the entire rooftop, landing him near Haruhi, at Ryouko's side. "I failed again."

"Is that going to hurt her?" Haruhi asked, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow at Kyon in concern.

"Hurt her?" he asked, somewhat indignantly. "Haruhi, she's tried to kill me. Three times, now, and you just saw one of them! Your primary concern is that I not _hurt_ her?" He muttered to himself beneath his breath, folding away his firearm into storage.

Haruhi tapped a toe impatiently, still staring at him.

Pulling a phone identical to the one Haruhi was holding from one pocket, he punched a key. "Nagato should be here shortly," he added, shaking his head. "This is all up to you. I already know you'll take care of things just fine."

"Yes!" she said, pumping one fist in the air. "I get to do something! Hey, how's the future?"

"It's awesome," he said, annoyed. "Try and have some pity for the me that nearly got murdered off a building, huh? Anyway, just so you know, she's programmed to try and kill me; she won't do anything to you. And you won't see me tomorrow at school, because I'm going to be ... well. You'll find out."

"Okay," she agreed, frowning. "But, hey, why aren't you going to be around?"

"Further information is not available here," he warned, shaking his head. "Now, when you see that other me, tell him I said 'hi', like I always do." He paused before glancing at his phone again with a grimace. "My time's up," he announced, re-engaging his stealth field and vanishing from sight.

"What?" Ryouko asked, still trapped in the containment field. "He just abandoned me here with you?"

"Damn it," Kyon groaned, from where he was just climbing over the edge of the building, breathing hard. "I hate when I have to rely on time-travel to take care of things."

"Oh!" Haruhi said cheerfully. "Future-you says 'hi', like always!"

"Yeah? That guy always annoys me. Probably almost as much as I'm annoyed by having to save past-me." There was a flash of light and a warping of space, and then Nagato appeared at Haruhi's side. The circle of illumination around Haruhi's feet had vanished.

While Nagato knelt to examine Ryouko, Haruhi dashed to Kyon's side and helped him stand. "How bad was it, anyway? Future-you seemed to think you weren't very tough, and that you were hurt pretty badly."

"I think I've got some internal bleeding," he said, wincing, one hand pressed to his abdomen. "And some of my gear is messed up from the impact and overload. While this is fun for you, I wouldn't mind some medical assistance."

"Sure!" she said cheerfully, clapping one hand on his shoulder. "Happy, healing, all-better thoughts!"

"Medical program loaded," Nagato added helpfully from where she was studying the other interface. "Permission to proceed?"

"Granted," Kyon said, straightening up as a sparkle of green and white lights suffused up from the rooftop beneath him, flowing through his body and undoing the damage. "Oh, that feels so much better! Thank you; that probably saved my life. And for future reference, you can probably assume that I'm okay with that one being used."

"Acknowledged," Nagato agreed.

"Hmm, hey, Kyon, you know, you're going to have to really step up your game," Haruhi said suddenly, tossing his cell phone back to him.

He scowled, pocketed it, and then banished all of his equipment, the greatcoat taking the longest to phase out of view. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked in irritation.

"Well, this is fun and all, but you can hardly expect me to take your lectures on using power responsibly seriously when you're always relying on your future self to save you," she warned, raising one finger and waggling it at him.

He sighed and hung his head. "You know, I really am trying my hardest," he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away towards the sea. "But I can't just leave you alone, and Nagato can't handle another interface right now."

"And you did such a great job!" Ryouko encouraged from beneath her energy net. "Time travel, is it? Now that's one tool you seem to know how to use well."

"It's fine," Nagato said tonelessly. "Asakura Ryouko is isolated and confined; she is limited to her organic functions at this moment. After she is dispatched, I will retrieve defenses to protect against further interference."

"Waaaait!" Haruhi yelled, stomping one foot and spinning to face Yuki. "'Dispatched'? I don't think so! If you need something from her, there's got to be a way to do it without killing her! What's the point of running into another alien, just to kill them?"

"But the fighting is fine," Kyon observed, stretching his arms above his head, then swiveling his hips, stretching his spine out. "After all, no one of any importance was smashed off a building."

"Kyon!"

"Alright," he said, shaking his head. "I don't really want Asakura to die either. But if her body were destroyed, she'd just go back to the place she came from. At least, as I understand it." He shot a questioning glance towards Nagato.

She didn't meet his eyes.

"Good!" Haruhi nodded decisively, grinning again. "Yuki, let's come up with a backup plan. Something that will let you get your power-up and let us reform Ryouko. Can we do that?"

Nagato stared intently at Ryouko, then gave a decisive nod. "Awaiting program," she announced.

"Hmm," Haruhi mused, narrowing her eyes and peering intently at Ryouko, who merely watched back curiously. "Um ... some kind of second chance ... a chance to start over, prove herself, and ... let's see, realize she doesn't want to kill Kyon at all. And she gets to give Yuki what she needs to make her equal to the next interface that comes along... But no brainwashing, that's not cool. So, maybe an 'evil' module or something like that, which Yuki can purify and use for good, letting Ryouko learn how to become a nicer person? Yeah! That sounds very good! Let's do that."

The pinned interface blinked several times, then turned her eyes to Kyon from beneath the glowing energy net. "None of this has been reported to my superiors," she commented. "It's entirely possible that this new knowledge could change their perceptions; there's no reason to be hasty!"

"Program loaded," Nagato replied. "Permission to proceed?"

"We can be reasonable!" Ryouko protested.

"You're probably the most reasonable person I've ever had try to kill me," Kyon agreed. "But I remember that time you _did_ stab me all too well."

"No stabbing!" Haruhi said in a chastising tone. "Bad Ryouko! No class rep votes for you!"

"...you don't really think that's her prime concern, do you? Aside from which, did you even vote last time?"

"It isn't," Ryouko agreed. "And no, she didn't. But, about being reasonable...?"

"Anything that I should know about this program, Nagato?" Kyon asked, quirking one eyebrow higher.

"It will be beneficial to all involved," Nagato assured him, while Haruhi nodded knowingly.

"Okay," he sighed, shaking his head. "Granted."

Then smaller girl turned her gaze back to Ryouko's bound form, the faintest hint of a smile coming to her lips. "I will not let you harm him again."

* * *

The vast resources of the Integrated Data Sentience Entity were arrayed for various purposes, managing any number of simulations, calculations... Anything that could be done to generate or alter data; all of those things were parts of the Entity's being. Their reality was the information echo of the Calabi-Yau manifold; they were entirely aware of what they were.

First there was data. When reality came into being, so too did the fact - the information. An event without observers still occurs, despite the limited perspective available from within that absurdly narrow space between two parallel, intersecting membranes of the manifold. From the whole of reality, the information of it existed outside of the known dimensions.

Around that nucleus of raw data formed - like reflections and shadows of the space they existed without - constructions and functions. Data transformed. Primitive data constructs began an unaware war, attempting to evolve, devour their neighbors, and transform into more survivable, durable forms.

With the primitive drives came iterations and revisions - so monumental that the changes could not be recorded in the physical universe. The Bekenstein bound was simply too severe to fit the entirety of that information into the narrow space in between the membranes that they existed without. This was the birth of awareness; the first time that the constructs began to devise new behaviors, intelligently guiding their own transformations and seeking the data that most complimented their existing structures.

Within this, outside of time itself, those aware data structures formed a single composite awareness; each a participant, all aware of their reality. They were information at their most base level, and they were a cognitive whole, able to surpass their own primitive and basic urges.

From there, the IDSE had turned its might to analyzing what it wasn't.

If information existed, the entity determined, then there must be physical _things_ that this information correlated to. And from there it was observed that if the entity could not interact with real things.

Information only interacts with information.

The entity was not daunted.

If information was the shadow of reality, then reality was bound to follow laws of nature. The entity determined that if the data for something was transformed - or destroyed - then either that information must be recreated elsewhere and observed anew, or _replaced_.

Thanks to its own evolution, the entity was very good at replacing data.

Experiments continued in this vein until the entity became aware of an interesting concept within one incredibly small _slice_ of the Calabi-Yau manifold. There was a steep slope that all matter in that narrow span was subject to. Eventually, the entity observed, all matter would end up at the bottom of that slope.

Through painstaking observations and lengthy deductions, it became evident that this slope served as some unalterable function of that space - but it was something that, while observable, was _not real_. It cast no information shadow.

It defied - and simultaneously _defined_ - observation.

This force, unobservable, except through the effects that it had on all of the data that the entity _could_ observe was eventually understood to be a limitation of that space.

Where the entity existed, it understood 'past' and 'future', but those were effectively locations, places where it could (and frequently did) go at will.

Within that observation space of the physical - this force/slope/function was determined to be a function of entropy. It defined a concept the entity could not contain within it. Through constant observation, bringing the entirety of its being back into that 'past' and causing it to _always_ have been that way, it found that there were finite limits to its ability to improve itself.

And only in comparison to that strange _thing_ was the entity able to determine what one of those limits was.

The entity was unaffected by this entropic function, this strange force of _time_. The physical universe was subject to it ... but as information, the entity was everything that the universe was _not_.

Through more observations, experiments and judicious alteration of data, the entity was able to understand more of the universe. It learned why it couldn't fit there. It began to understand that there were things in the universe that inexplicably _contained no data_.

And then it experienced frustration; there were things in the universe that contained data. Data that _it did not contain_.

The entity was disturbed.

As an entity, it held the same drives it had evolved with; to grow, to become stronger, to thrive. But all of the physical was clumsily slipping down that inevitable descent into- Into non-data.

Unacceptable.

All data had to be known; the entity was timeless and infinite. There was no justification to allow the universe - this narrow span, a coincidental collision of parallel membranes - to stop existing.

And worst of all ... as the entity expanded its awareness, working its way up from the very smallest aspects of the physical - the easiest parts to manipulate as data...

_There were entities in the real universe_.

Time-bound, inelegant, and with practically no ability to improve their own evolution. The first of these 'real' constructs that it studied the data of contained strange transforms, odd encoded bits of data that the entity couldn't fully understand.

And thus, it copied the data of one of the entities it wished to study and began modifying that until it was something it could understand. From there, it assigned this new, 'real' entity, which it instructed - regularly modifying the data so that it would do as the entity wished - a title befitting its function:

Interface.

Eventually, the entity learned that the beings it observed were not even intelligent. It maintained the occasional interface among all of the various beings anyway, observing their evolutions. They were myriad and fascinating, scattered like rare gems of new data to understand and record. Some grew, many changed, and occasionally, a few began to grow more intelligent...

But all died, subject to reality's crippling flaw; that entropic function.

The entity changed its approach, newer interfaces attempting differing interactions with the beings and evolutions that were new - unknown or different.

Through observation, it began to learn what much of the previously unrecognizable data _was_. Interfaces now could do more than prod and provoke - they could _observe_.

More information saved from the doomed 'reality'.

Existing outside of time, the entity was nonetheless aware of how sadly _fragile_ that space was. And annoyingly enough, to interact with something in 'time', it had to be at least partially subject to it.

It had determined how to _destroy_ all of that reality, but that did nothing for data preservation - and what was the point of destroying something that was actively degrading to the point of destruction anyway? It could clearly see 'reality' inevitably ending. All matter would be subject to that entropic function eventually, and then the parallel membranes would disentangle, drifting apart.

And then there would be nothing else to observe.

Asakura Ryouko was aware of all of that. She also recognized that while it was easier to recognize the entity as a cohesive whole - which it was, on some levels - the 'schools' represented the ancient primitive drives of the data entity before the sentience phase. Evolved or not, it still had drive.

Knowing all of that, she was completely unable to determine why the entity - almost undoubtedly being aware of what would happen - had assigned her to a role she had failed so spectacularly.

Again.

She didn't _need_ to succeed at her task to accomplish the entity's goals and aims ... but why would it mislead her, or keep her in the dark? She would have calculated that it would have been much more efficient to accomplish something directly. In short, she had no idea why she was in her current situation.

If she were a more emotional being, she probably would have felt betrayed by the entire thing. As a mostly logical being, she assumed that if she just did whatever seemed like the correct thing to do, she would still be serving the entity's cause. Or, perhaps, maybe _only_ one primitive drive of the entity.

She couldn't determine what that function was - she _assumed_ it was some form of infiltration, given how poorly informed she was for what she actually had to deal with.

So, without really having much other choice in the matter - thanks to swift and judicious editing of her parameters, all of them specifically to deny her some of her favorite permissions. And, if that weren't enough, Nagato Yuki and Suzumiya Haruhi had taken away most of her combat packages. She probably would have been able to deal with _that_, except that's not where it stopped...

After her capture, Nagato Yuki had effortlessly picked her up and then carried her to the literary club's room before dropping her on the table unceremoniously. Suzumiya Haruhi, for whatever reason, arranged her with slightly more dignity, but then immediately snapped several pictures while the target - the one usually addressed as Kyon - watched with a dubious, half-amused gaze.

And then ... she was left there.

* * *

Mikuru had tried to keep her smile down through the school day, but it was very difficult - she was going on a date with Kyon and Haruhi that night! Something she should very much look forward to.

She hoped she could reassure Kyon, at least; he'd seemed a bit tense lately... She was probably worrying over nothing, Tsuruya seemed even happier than usual, cheerfully obliterating the other girls with her hyperactive energy during physical education. After that, she was grateful for the chance to relax - and still excited about the movie.

When she wandered into the clubroom, already resolved to let the slider dress up, since she had a date with Kyon and Haruhi later, she was surprised to see the cutest little thing _ever_ sitting on the table.

Haruhi was looking at it from her seat behind the brigade's main computer, where she was sitting cross-legged on the chair. Kyon was leaning back in his own chair, looking at it with a significantly more wary expression. Across from him, Koizumi was studying it with undisguised fascination, and unless Mikuru missed her guess, even Yuki seemed satisfied with it.

It must have been a present for Kanae, and even though she was trying to tell herself that...

Well, it was so _cute_! She couldn't resist, so plucked it up off the table and gave it a fierce hug. "It's adorable!" she exclaimed.

Haruhi snickered. Yuki looked amused. Koizumi looked mildly concerned. Kyon, though, stared at her with something that looked like mild awe.

What would prompt that? She held the plushie out at arm's length, studying it closely. "It's really, really cute!" she gushed. "But - is it supposed to look like one of us?" The hair color was wrong, for one thing...

Then, the stuffed doll blinked at her. "I'm chupposed to look like me!" it protested.

Mikuru froze in place, thinking that even her heart had stopped at that.

Tsuruya and Kanae trooped into the room, both freezing at the sight of the ... thing. Well, it wasn't a doll, she supposed. Kanae made a delighted sound, rushing to Mikuru's side and gasping in amazement. "M...Mikuru-onee, did you make that?" she asked in amazement. "It's _cute_!"

"Thanks! I think you're pretty, too!" the not-a-doll said brightly. "I'm Achakura!"

Very gently, Mikuru placed 'Achakura' on the table, and then sat down in Kyon's chair to settle her nerves. Considering that he was already sitting there, Kyon adjusted to her presence without much real reaction, save to put a hand about Mikuru's waist, still looking at the tiny schoolgirl ... creature.

"This is Asakura Ryouko," he explained, once the door was shut, and everyone's attention was on the - perhaps - fifteen centimeter tall schoolgirl with cartoon-like exaggerated features. "She's tried to kill me, well, a bunch of times - so Haruhi thought it would be great to keep her around as a toy, or something."

"She's supposed to help you out," Haruhi corrected him. "Don't all of the great stories have an enemy becoming your ally, even if it's unwillingly at first? Well, there just wasn't enough animosity with anyone else!"

"Kyon is my prey!" Asakura said, giving Mikuru an especially pretty smile, before giggling cutely.

"So, yeah," Kyon said with a soft sigh. "Evidently, my archenemy is a chibi schoolgirl."

Asakura hopped to her tiny feet and clenched one rounded fist. "I will finish my mission!" she promised.

"There is some concern of the fact that she is - among other things - probably anatomically impossible," Koizumi noted with a shake of his head. "I suppose we can keep her here ... but what if she's seen?"

"She does not possess physical form," Yuki explained softly, looking up from her current book, 'A Wrinkle in Time'. "She exists as data and an augmented reality interface that I have assigned to all of us. She is an extension and controller for his PDA; her assigned role is managing his automated defense functions."

"Augmented reality?" Koizumi asked, turning to look at her curiously.

"Learn your sci-fi better!" Haruhi scolded, smirking. "Augmented reality is just an overlay that fools your senses and lets you see and interact with things that aren't _really_ there. That means you could do things like make big labels pop up on top of things that you couldn't understand - or have a chibi alien schoolgirl that only your club members can see and interact with! Come on, how cool is that!"

"So ... she's not real?" Koizumi mused, leaning close to peer at Ryouko, who smiled and waved at him in response.

"You were that one that asked me to spy on Kyon-kun!" she chirped cheerfully. "Well - I guess I was wrong, wasn't I!"

The esper coughed quietly, looking uncomfortable. "A...ah, yes," he allowed, frowning. "I did not know you were the same one that would later..." He trailed off with a sigh.

Kyon snorted, then shifted his shoulders slightly in a shrug.

"Hey, hey! Esper-chan, I'll go out on a date with you if you do me one _tiny_ little favor!" Ryouko pleaded, her simpering smile eerily cute as she clasped her hands together.

"I...is that so?" Koizumi asked, looking down at the tiny girl with consternation.

"Yeah! Just stab him a few dozen times!" she cheered, winking. "Please?"

Kyon raised his eyebrows to the esper. "In proper shonen style, I guess we could be rivals and beat the crap out of each other," he said, sounding unconvinced. "You know - as friends."

"Ah ... energy weapons, the need to keep a low profile... And the idea that, really, anyone would think I'd be so desperate for a date that- No, I think this shouldn't be dignified with further response," Koizumi determined, shaking his head. "If it's all the same, I think I'll just as soon ignore her."

Yuki rose from her seat, took a single step closer to the table - and then abruptly backhanded the tiny schoolgirl.

Mikuru reflexively flinched back from the violence, and Kanae's eyes grew wide as Ryouko soared across the room and then bounced off a wall, wailing a feeble protest about injustice as she rebounded, struck the floor, and then slid nearly to Haruhi's feet. The brigade chief frowned, hopping off her seat and fishing up the dazed, but evidently unharmed girl.

Then again, Mikuru reminded herself, Ryouko wasn't real - she was an augmented reality construct. A physical illusion, of a sort.

"I don't think I've ever seen you show a sign of disliking something," Haruhi remarked to Yuki, raising one eyebrow. "How'd she piss you off so badly?"

Yuki looked very mildly confused. "She hurt him," she answered, blinking at Haruhi.

Haruhi's cheer faded, and she frowned. "Y...yeah, Kyon said that too, but..." She hesitated, then turned to Kyon. "How badly?"

"Finally interested in hearing about that?" Kyon grumbled. "She tried to kill me once - and Yuki saved me before Asakura could do much more than bang me up a bit. That was actually the first time I'd ever witnessed something amazing and supernatural. I was really happy thinking that once she 'transfered to Canada' I'd never have to see her again."

"I'll never give up!" Asakura cried happily, seemingly uncaring of the fact that she'd just been bounced clear across the clubroom, and showing no visible signs of damage.

Haruhi pursed her lips, looking troubled. "I...in retrospect ... no wonder you were so unhelpful about that..."

Kyon sighed, the arm about Mikuru's waist tightening and steadying her when she shifted. Somehow, she felt too self conscious to move, since she'd already gotten there - and, anyway, no one was complaining, so she decided to just wait and see how long she could get the moment to last.

"In that place ... that other world in December, you know I told you I was stabbed?" he asked.

Ryouko nodded, her eyes distant. "I have no idea what he's talking about," she assured Haruhi. "If I finally caught my prey, I'd remember!"

"That ... was a different instance of Asakura Ryouko," Yuki said quietly.

"What happened to her?" Haruhi wondered. "If she's still dangerous-"

"She is no longer dangerous." Yuki's gaze was fixed on Ryouko, still.

"W...wah!" Ryouko yelped. "Yuki-chama's eyes are cold!"

"So, it wasn't the same one after all?" Kyon mused, frowning.

For Mikuru's part, however ... she was remembering - suddenly - what Kyon was talking about. Her grip about him tightened, and she fought back the urge to tremble. Kyon had been stabbed once ... and she'd tried so hard not to remember it, that horrifying moment...

But yes - there _had_ been a slightly taller, very pretty girl with long blue hair... And then, Kyon had...

There were _two_ of Kyon at the time. The one she was supposed to be standing next to, and the one that had gotten hurt - that she'd run out to try and help. Along with... Along with...

Suddenly, she remembered a nagging question she had meant to follow up on. Another instance when it seemed that there were two of Kyon, somehow... The same day that she was with Kyon on a park bench, hadn't Sasaki said that she saw Kyon with...

...with who?

She wasn't certain about everything, but she knew she had to figure that much out.

"O...oh," Kanae finally managed, giving Ryouko a very untrusting look. "I guess ... just because something's cute doesn't mean it's good..."

"Don't let the container fool you, that right there is pure evil," Kyon agreed. "And if Haruhi would listen, I would tell her that evil is not a toy."

"Don't take this away from me," Haruhi snapped at Kyon, scowling. "Yeah, okay - so _I_ don't have the full benefit of remembering all of your other adventures. And because I wasn't there, it turned out badly - big surprise. But things are _different_ now! She's going to be reformed, and we're going to make her a worthwhile ally - an asset to the team!

"She's not a _prisoner_ ... and she's not here just so that... Well, revenge... No, that's not right - justice, not vengeance. That's what it is! We've already taken her power. Right now she's just a hologram. She can't hurt us- She can't do _anything_ we don't tell her to! Even then, it's limited to small objects! So, what, are you still _scared_ of her?"

"Short answer?" Kyon hazarded without hesitation. "Yes."

"What's the long answer?"

"Ye~es," Kyon drawled, stretching his reply out and giving her a flat stare.

Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes, sighing.

"You can't force reform!" Ryouko said, shaking her head. "Even though I'm limited, and don't have permissions, I can still think and act how I want - within those limitations!"

"Enable 'good child' mode," Yuki ordered, dismissing the tiny figure.

Ryouko appeared to continue speaking, but no sound escaped her mouth.

"Well, a mute button seems likes an okay idea," Tsuruya allowed, finally shaking off her daze and taking a seat.

"In this mode, she can only speak when spoken to," Yuki offered, before retaking her seat.

"Fascinating," Koizumi murmured. "I don't know how this reform is to take place ... but let us hope, hmm?"

"Fine!" Haruhi grumbled. "We won't take her to the movie with us, then! Throw a fit, why don't you?"

Kyon blinked, and Mikuru felt mildly taken aback herself. "You were thinking of bringing her along to see a movie with us in the first place?" he wondered.

Standing next to the pyramid on Haruhi's desk, Ryouko began to jump up and down, waving her arms for attention and shouting noiselessly.

"If we don't ever expose her to anything positive, how's she supposed to learn what's cool, and what's not?" the brigade chief reasoned, shaking her head. "She's got to have good examples - and what have you given her so far, but hostility?"

Kyon flinched back, mildly stunned, and his arm slipped from Mikuru's waist. She hesitated, uncertain if she should get off his lap or not - she was probably making a bit of a scene... But then, she did want to comfort the boy a bit - and she didn't like remembering that circumstance, either.

"A...alright," he allowed, bowing his head. "You know... It's not like me to get really angry... I just..."

Haruhi snapped her fingers, comprehension dawning in her eyes as she hopped out of the chair. She made a gesture with one hand; the vacated seat slipped across the floor, stopping at an empty space at the table. Mikuru found herself whisked out of Kyon's lap by some invisible force, then gently set down at the new place. At the same time, Ryouko flew across the space between the computer desk and the room's main table. Judging by how her arms flailed, she wasn't expecting the flight, though the tiny figure was still muted.

Even as Mikuru adjusted to the fact that evidently - now, anyway - Haruhi could levitate _people_, too - a small milk-carton drifted out of the refrigerator and landed near Ryouko.

Kyon blinked at the scene in surprise as Haruhi claimed the just-vacated lap. Addressing Ryouko, she said, "If you do something nice to Kyon, maybe he'll do something nice for you, hmm?"

After a surprisingly short moment of hesitation, with the eyes of the entire brigade on her, the tiny figure picked up the carton of milk that was half her size with obvious effort, and began staggering across the table towards Kyon and Haruhi with it.

"See?" Haruhi prompted, nodding.

Kyon grudgingly accepted the milk carton after Haruhi took it from Ryouko. "Okay," he allowed, after a suspicious sip. "You have a point ... but give me some credit, too."

"The last persons to injure Kyon apologized for it," Tsuruya remarked, shaking her head slightly. "If that chibi is joining us, shouldn't she start that way?"

Ryouko pouted, then made a silent pleading gesture, falling to her knees and clasping her tiny hands together.

"Alright," Kyon sighed, unable to slump over in defeat thanks to Haruhi occupying his lap. "Fine! Fine... But Asakura - just be quiet through the movie, alright?"

"Okay!" she cheered.

* * *

While Kyon was sure he could adjust to anything given time, a chibi-assassin riding around on his shoulder or in a greatcoat pocket, promising to kill him and compelled to manage his defenses... Well, he trusted Yuki, and it wasn't like Haruhi wanted him hurt.

He certainly was glad he wasn't worried about watching the movie, at least. Especially since Haruhi seemed to think that Kyon's greatcoat pockets were just the right size for Ryouko to ride around in.

He could admit to seeing the appeal of putting a layer of armor between himself and her, though.

And ... aside from that, a lot of his ire was tempered by the rotation of girls- His _girlfriends_, he reminded himself.

That was still a very strange thought, even if it did happen to be completely awesome. Okay - given _that_, he could see that Haruhi had made enough concessions for him (four of them, in fact), that he should give her project to reform Ryouko a chance. Strange as it was.

The chibi really was insipidly cute, for all of her threats.

So, he'd stuffed her into a pocket, then walked home. There was a moment of indecision, when he had to figure out what to do with her while changing out of his school uniform, but tossing her on the bed and covering her with the greatcoat gave him enough privacy. After that, he'd stuffed her back into the greatcoat pocket.

Interestingly, the invisibility effect of the greatcoat _seemed_ to skip her, leaving him with the impression that she was just floating before him. Then again ... she was already invisible to everyone else anyway. Though, he suspected he could get used to her only speaking when spoken to.

After that, he met up with Haruhi and Mikuru at the train station near a local theater - not the one they'd gone to with Miyoko to see 'Saw', though. He felt no particular urge to tempt fate on _that_ count.

Much of his apprehension faded when Haruhi and Mikuru emerged from the crowd, arms linked as Haruhi explained something to Mikuru.

"So," Haruhi said, "from what Kanae-chan tells me, most versions of Trope-tan have her with a mysterious elder brother character - usually called something like a 'knight of the quill' or 'guardian knight of Neo-Tropeyo'. He's the hero of another story, and she says she's never run into a story that explains him completely."

"I...is that character in the movie?" Mikuru wondered. "I've watched some of the anime, but I don't remember him being introduced..."

"He was the guy in episode six or seven, I think," Kyon said, trying not to be distracted by their outfits. Mikuru, as always, was a combination of cute and gorgeous, wearing a frilly dark dress that came down to her knees. Haruhi was wearing a miniskirt and blouse combination, along with heels that made them almost equal in height - showing off her well toned legs.

He tried not to ogle the girls; just because he was dating them, he didn't think he should behave unreasonably. Though, come to think of it...

"Oh! The ... man with the one blue eye and one brown?" Mikuru asked in surprise. "He was taking care of Tropey while Trope-tan went to school, wasn't he?"

"That's right," Kyon agreed. Then he frowned, thinking about it. "His eyes were different colors? Huh ... kind of a lot of detail to give a side-character."

"Kanae-chan says that's not really consistent, though," Haruhi said with a shrug, glancing to where Ryouko was looking between them in silent curiosity, still hanging in Kyon's invisible pocket. "There was something ... oh, yes! He can't tell lies unless both of his eyes are green."

"That's utterly bizarre," he said, ignoring the fact that he was talking to Haruhi in the company of a time traveler and a chibified alien. "Does he have any weapons or powers?"

"Usually a lesser version of whatever Trope-tan has, but he spends more time moving between the other worlds - taking care of stuff when she's gone."

"Huh." He shook his head, leading the way to the theater. "I should mention that you both look really nice. But what brought up that whole thing, anyway?"

"Ah ... Kanae-chan was wondering why we were asking if she had a brother," Haruhi sighed, frowning. "So I asked about Trope-tan's brother. She sure knows a lot of different instances of that anime... But evidently it's never explicit in any canon that she's an orphan - even if in some continuities no parents ever show up."

Kyon nodded thoughtfully.

"Poor Kanae-chan," Mikuru sighed, shaking her head. "Um ... but I'm glad she's here with us, and that we can help her out!"

"Yeah," Kyon agreed, giving the girl a grin. "Ah ... wait..." He scratched the back of his head and looked upwards. "I have _no_ idea what the correct protocol for this is," he apologized, shrugging apologetically to the two. "Um, so ... help me out?"

"We should pass ourselves off as just friends hanging out," Haruhi replied, amused.

Kyon nodded his understanding, relieved at that. "So ... what I've _been_ doing!" he realized as they reached the line to enter the theater.

Haruhi smirked, looking especially pleased with herself. "See?" she chided him. "It went _really_ well, didn't it?"

That, he could not refute. "All told, I'd be an idiot to complain about it," he agreed, giving a genial smile to both of them.

Mikuru giggled in response, blushing.

Haruhi's triumphant smirk only widened. "There you go - positive examples for Ryouko to learn about interaction!"

As long as that didn't extend to the chibified alien watching him kiss either of the girls, he supposed he could live with it. He was pretty sure that was behavior that she shouldn't learn.

* * *

Though she was still annoyed that Kyon hadn't reacted well to the newest addition to the club - ranked just below mascot - Haruhi was pleased with how quickly she'd convinced him to give the miniaturized girl a chance. Plus, he trusted Yuki, and Yuki said it was fine, anyway.

To make things simpler, after the movie they took a cab to Mikuru's place, where Haruhi had left her things, anyway. Once there, when he turned to say goodbye to Mikuru, the time traveler opened her door, and Haruhi managed to tackle Kyon through it, landing him sprawled on the floor, with him across his back.

She _still_ managed to plant a kiss on him before he could struggle free, which she took as a sign that either he really didn't mind, or she was was just that good.

Until he started kissing back, anyway.

Mikuru gasped, looking around her tiny, one-room apartment desperately for any place where she could try and hide from the display of affection, but Haruhi mercilessly used her power to tug on Mikuru's dress, dragging her close to Kyon with a squeaking protest. "S...Suzumiya-san!" she yelped, raising both hands to cover her eyes. "I- I'll wait outside!"

"No you won't," Haruhi countered, once Kyon broke the kiss and her head stopped swimming so much. She had nothing to complain about, but he was _good_. "Kyon! Tell her she won't!"

He blinked, seeming to come back to his senses, laying across and pinning a very annoyed (but utterly silent) chibified alien beneath his back, just her head and arms showing. "No," he countered with a frown. "You shouldn't make Asahina-san uncomfortable."

"You're right," she agreed with a sigh. "Well, apologize to her for me."

He rolled his eyes and turned to Mikuru, sitting up to face her and incidentally freeing Ryouko. "Asahina-san-"

"Mikuru-chan," Haruhi corrected, which prompted another squeak of alarm from the time traveler.

Another roll of his eyes, and without missing a beat he corrected himself, "I mean, Mikuru-chan-"

Haruhi had to admit - Kyon's little sister would be put to _shame_ by such a leaping tackle-hug. For herself, well ... something to smile about, whatever the upcoming meeting on Monday might bring.

Not that she could let herself get carried away; watching Mikuru apologize fervently while all but attacking Kyon with her lips was _adorable_! She fully intended to make sure every date between Kyon and Mikuru included at least one instance of that.

After a few minutes, Haruhi managed to worm her way between them to claim another kiss or three from Kyon herself before things got hazy... Finally, Ryouko exclaimed, "It's time for Kyon-kun to go home!" She looked pleased to find herself able to speak, and then attempted to form further words silently.

Evidently Yuki had thought ahead to allow 'good child' mode to still work with Kyon's PDA's alarm function. There was a long minute of sitting up, smoothing down hair, and the straightening of skirts between herself and Mikuru. For Kyon's part, he merely looked happily dazed, entirely content to just fade out of existence.

"On your feet!" she ordered him cheerfully. As fun as it was, there really wasn't any reason to risk the wrath of Kyon's mother, especially with how well things had been going lately.

"Mmm, Kyon," Mikuru managed, her words slightly slurred, as though she had been overwhelmed by something ... or that Kyon's kiss was _genuinely_ intoxicating (there was a thought that bore further investigation). "Um, Kyon-kun," she said, shaking her head and clearing her voice. "Ah ... t...thank you and Suzumiya-san both, and ... I'd like very much to talk to you tomorrow!"

"That's great!" Haruhi said, before her smile faded. "But you know, somehow ... it doesn't seem right that you still call me that. Mikuru-chan, we've been friends for over a year and now - through Kyon - we're practically _dating_. Can't you call me something a bit friendlier?"

She wondered at the way the time traveler's face began to redden and her breath quickened. "U...um," Mikuru managed. "O...okay ... Haruhi-chan?" she hazarded, as though expecting the sounds themselves to spark off an intense conflagration.

For her part, Haruhi grinned, pleased that she'd finally gotten a start on narrowing the distance between herself and the time traveler.

After that, Kyon obliged Haruhi's order to give Mikuru a kiss goodbye, leaving the time traveler giggling and grinning, her eyes unfocused as they left.

"So," she said, once they were walking back to the train station, elbowing him gently in the ribs. "_You_ sure seemed to have fun!"

"I did," Kyon admitted, glancing down at his pocket to see that Ryouko was still there. "Though, now that I've gotten a chance to try this out, I'm starting to wonder ... is this really you going out of your way for me?"

"What else could it be?" she retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe that Haruhi got a strange idea to have a harem, and then made me her surrogate for it?"

She started slightly at that, before bursting into laughter. "Fine," she returned, once she caught her breath, "in that case, poor little victim-Kyon, are you surviving in your role of 'harem figurehead'?"

He gave her a very grave look. "It presents a rare difficulty, but I endure," he said with the most profound stoic resolve she could imagine. "A man my age ... five cute girls, each with their own unique and charming attributes... Suffering, thy name is Kyou-"

This time, she actually collapsed into him from laughing so hard - which made his facade crack even though she interrupted his speech, showing her a grin of his genuine amusement. And _that_ set off an even stronger round of laughter, which he joined in with a chuckle.

As they reached the train station, she regained her footing, but still leaned on him anyway. "Ah ... now, seriously Kyon - about tomorrow?"

"The book signing?" he wondered.

She shrugged. "Future-you said you weren't going to be around much for whatever reason," she explained. "Anyway, I didn't see you with anything new, but Future-you was hiding on top of the stairwell and shot her," she gestured to the pocket full of chibi, "with a 'high yield neutron flare'.

"I went ahead and looked that up on the world's second best wiki site, and from what I can figure between that and what she said, either the radiation or the _type_ of radiation can temporarily block her connection to the IDSE. So that's how you'll beat her!"

He raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Ryouko again. "A neutron flare knocks out your connection?" he wondered.

"If I'm not prepared, it can!" Ryouko chirped. "And if I could lie about that, I would!"

"Yuki's thorough," Haruhi mused, before shaking her head. "Anyway - take care tomorrow, whatever you're doing. Right, Kyon?"

"Right," he agreed, frowning thoughtfully.

She would have said more, but the next train pulled in, and she had to board. She settled for waving, then dashing away.


	43. Chapter 42

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Storm Begins Arc IV

Chapter Forty Two: The Meaning of Everything

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Entity One: Analysis"_

_"In order to function in your new environment, be sure to follow all of your new interaction cues; these encourage behaviors that will be useful later. At the same time, be watchful for 'noise' input, or interactions which it is best to disregard as useful for integration."_

_"Adaptation" - LP-TK:AR Datastream Segment (-working translation-)_

* * *

Kyon had discovered an interesting side-effect to giving in and letting Haruhi have her way.

No matter how 'cute' Ryouko looked as a chibi, there was no way he could bring himself to sleep in the same room as her. In 'good child' mode, she said nothing unless spoken to, but what could he really do?

There was no _chance_ he was going to let the tiny would-be-murderer near his sister, and who _knew_ what mischief she would get up to if he left her unattended?

He thought about sticking her in an old shoe-box - possibly even weighting it down and trapping her inside. But then, he didn't believe cardboard would really slow her much if she genuinely attempted a hostile action...

Thinking such things, he was still wide-awake when Yuki's nightly summons came. He arrived in her living room, feeling immediately better that the chibi wasn't around - except for the thought of her being alone with his sister. Mikuru and Kanae had adjusted to the teleportation, and for once, Mikuru hadn't seemed to be in the middle of anything. The slider, on the other hand, was sleeping again.

Yuki's gaze swept across him and then paused. "Asakura Ryouko's presence is disruptive," she deduced.

"Hard to sleep with her tiny form lurking in the darkness," he admitted. "I can't say that Haruhi's failed anything she's put her will to, and I know you're backing it ... but it's still too hard for me to look the other way - especially that far. She can't hurt my family, can she?"

"No. I will provide you secure containment," Yuki determined. She rose smoothly to her feet and padded away to her room, while Mikuru knelt at Kanae's side and gently patted the smaller girl's face until she roused.

"Mm... Mikuru-onee?" Kanae asked sleepily. She blinked and offered a tired smile at her upperclassmen, sitting upright and rubbing at her eyes, her luminescent blush igniting as she met Kyon's eyes.

Yuki returned a heartbeat later with a small cardboard box, the labels proclaiming it to have once held a pair of girl's indoor shoes, approved for use at Kitago. "This has been modified to securely contain her," Yuki said quietly.

It wasn't as fancy looking as the sci-fi gun she had given him once, but he had a pair of those whenever he wanted them, so he gratefully accepted what appeared to his senses to be an unremarkable box - one that his mother and sister would both look at him slightly oddly if they ever found. So what if he had a seemingly empty girl's shoe box in his closet? It was a secure prison, where the tiny terror would be sealed away.

With this, he would be able to sleep comfortably.

"Thank you, Yuki-chan," he said earnestly. He'd have to figure out some way to make it up to her, though... Hmm, maybe he could take Yuki and Kanae somewhere?

He wasn't entirely sure if that would work, but filed the idea away for later consideration.

Yuki nodded back stoically, unable to keep a tiny blush of her own from coming to her cheeks as their fingers touched when she passed the box over.

* * *

While she seldom remembered her dreams, except for the very best (and frequently, also the strangest), Kanae knew for a fact that she was sleeping immensely better at her sempai's side - and since Tsuruya had given her a green-light to do that, she intended to _keep_ doing it, until someone told her to stop.

Certainly, her sempai hadn't seemed to mind, and even though Yuki was the one among the club that she knew the least, she felt a tiny bit closer to realize that the other slight figure seemed to feel similarly.

That thought in mind, even though she could simply _jump_ to the clubroom, or the somewhat more reliable concept of her sempai...

It was strange, but she needed to know places better than people, to easily jump to a space with no one around. She wondered what that meant for sliding, and the fact that she tended to look for her sempai ... but there had been occasions when she hadn't found any instance of him.

Then again, perhaps her sliding had just landed her far away, and she hadn't learned how to jump closer without starting an entirely new slide? It was hard to say...

Something else Yuki had shown her in those training sessions; really, once she started to think about it... If she was growing closer to Yuki, and they were both sharing the brigade's vice commander anyway ... she should get the brigade's most silent person something to thank her for her help.

That thought in mind, when she went to the train platform, she ran into Haruhi, and a minute later than that, the small girl in question approached the pair.

"He will not be attending classes today," Yuki announced, after Haruhi and Kanae had greeted her.

"Aw..." Kanae couldn't help but pout.

"Yeah, he warned me about that," Haruhi admitted with a sigh. "I was still hoping, though... Oh! Say, Yuki-chan, does that mean that you know where he is?!"

"Today is a temporal transition; it covers a stable-time loop," Yuki replied after a quiet moment of thought, the trio turning to march up the hill - which Kanae had to fight the temptation to jump to the top of. She had to use her powers responsibly, though; what would her sempai think if she didn't? "Further information is classified."

Haruhi allowed an irritated growl to escape. "You _still_ won't tell me?" she complained. "I just want to time travel once! Or maybe a few dozen times- Come on, what's the worst thing that could happen?"

A few steps away, approaching the group, arm linked with Tsuruya, Mikuru squeaked at that question.

"And," Haruhi continued with a frown, glancing at the time traveler, "if Kyon is time-traveling, why is Mikuru-chan still here?"

"I...I'll have to come back here?" Mikuru wondered with a nervous glance around at the others - and more importantly, for any eavesdroppers. "Um ... I was ordered to tell Tsuruya-chan that Kyon wouldn't need a ride to school today, but that's all I know..."

"Hmm, I like that," Haruhi mused. "Kyon acts weird around you sometimes because he knows future instances of you, huh?"

"W...well," Mikuru began, before blinking, her eyes widening. "Oh," she breathed very quietly, her expression paling.

"Eh? You didn't think of that?" Haruhi asked in surprise.

Tsuruya, still with one arm linked through the time traveler's, patted the stunned girl's hand. "Mikuru-chan?" she asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Mikuru answered suddenly, shaking her head, still looking mildly dazed, but managing a weak smile. "I... Um, there is a piece of information I will need to get from someone who ... scares me a bit..."

Kanae cocked her head to one side. "Is there any way I can help?" she wondered.

"I'm not sure." Shaking her head, some of Mikuru's color returned, though she still looked horribly nervous. "I n...need to ask Sasaki-san a question."

"How did this come up?" Haruhi asked warily, narrowing her eyes as she turned her gaze to Mikuru. Kanae winced sympathetically for the older girl.

"U...um ... I think she's seen my future self," Mikuru answered meekly, flinching back into Tsuruya, who held her steady.

The brigade president nodded thoughtfully, one hand smoothing the ponytail that hung to midway between her shoulder-blades. "Hmm... I suppose we'll have to talk to Kyon about that," she mused.

Pursing her lips, Mikuru hesitantly answered, "I think that ... Kyon-kun may not be able to answer my questions."

"That's silly," Haruhi scoffed. "Kyon's supposed to be one of the best time travelers around, right?"

Kanae nodded eager agreement; she'd heard the same thing on many occasions.

Mikuru smiled and gave a hesitant nod. "But ... he probably isn't supposed to tell me," she said, shaking her head. "And he doesn't have something to keep him from saying things he shouldn't on accident, like a classified information..." She shrugged helplessly after she trailed off.

"Man, all of this hidden time travel information is seriously getting on my nerves!" Haruhi groused. "Everything's gotta be so sneaky - really, you guys have _no_ idea how to make traveling through time fun!"

* * *

As confusing as everything was, Ryouko realized that the greatest bulk of her time would be taken up with boredom. Since she had nothing better to do but observe and follow her currently assigned tasks, she spent that time observing her surroundings. For a substantial period of time in the night, that had been the interior of a shoe box.

Significantly less interesting than the time she spent in her prey's greatcoat pocket. Still silenced, she had tried to test the limits of her current interface status, but her options were irritatingly brief, mostly left in a series of blue boxes with white text, nested in various menus and sub-menus.

They didn't let her do much at the moment, anyway.

Where had Nagato come up with such a strange idea?

Some time after completing his morning rituals, Kyon finally plucked her from the shoe box with obvious reluctance, tucking her into his greatcoat pocket before heading out to school.

At least, Ryouko had guessed that was what he had planned given the data she could read from his PDA. Which she recognized as a once favored piece of her _own_ data, though Nagato had changed it quite a bit. Now it functioned as a sort of limiter and governor for her abilities ... if she wanted to do anything she wasn't directly ordered to, she had to do it through the auspices of that data.

She'd familiarized herself with the data at least, and the PDA automatically enforced his permissions - so she couldn't divulge any information that he didn't authorize. What actually happened, was that a figure that Ryouko did not recognize appeared. She checked with the database on Kyon's PDA and quickly identified the newcomer as matching the picture of Mikuru Asahina, though this was obviously a time-divergent version.

"Er... Hello, Asahina-san," Kyon greeted the woman, glancing around to see if anyone was nearby. "I take it it's time for more time travel?" he asked, managing a nervous, worried smile.

Mikuru nodded, gesturing him to follow her down the street a ways, then into a small alley. Ryouko reflexively bookmarked the spacial and temporal coordinates as the woman placed one hand on Kyon's shoulder and then invoked a function to destroy local space-time, catapulting them somewhere else.

She had weathered stranger transitions before, such as being turned into a smaller holographic version of herself, after all. Once they reached some form of stability, she conferred with the data structures of the PDA. They had moved a few kilometers in space, and back in time a single day.

Kyon surveyed the rooftop of the school building and gave a reluctant sigh. "I should have figured," he groused. "So ... I just need to wait until Asakura attacks, and then step in and save the day. Let's see ... I learned from Yuki what kinds of things would slow Asakura down. Hmm, the only part I'm worried about is arranging that exit from Asakura's data jurisdiction... Oh- Asakura would know how to do that, wouldn't she?" He turned to look at his pocket thoughtfully. "It's a pre-determined event, so in order to prevent a paradox, you'll have to."

Ryouko grimaced. "I have to be responsible for assisting with my own capture?" she asked for clarification.

Kyon nodded in response, surveying the surroundings. "Ah, after this, where should I meet with you, Asahina-san?" he asked the woman.

"Our usual bench will be fine," she said with a wink. "Oh- And Kyon-kun, one thing before you go to wait for your mission?"

"Yeah?" he asked, turning to look at her curiously.

With his defenses lowered, Ryouko recorded all of the openings he left, and how Mikuru exploited them. It was a minor inconvenience being squished between the woman and the young man, but she was certainly learning Kyon's weak spots.

Mikuru broke the kiss with a giggle and then stepped into the stairwell. Kyon seemed almost ready to follow before shaking his head, hopping atop the stairwell and settling in to wait, adjusting his weapon ahead of time. It didn't take long for him to become bored, though he at least seemed indifferent to his discomfort.

Ryouko couldn't _speak_ unless spoken to ... but when Kyon started up a round of chess, she was delighted for the chance to challenge him and try and learn his true measure, through her link to the PDA.

Some hours later, when her best was a single stalemate, she wondered once again what the entity had in mind when they assigned her on her mission. There was no doubt in her mind now that the entity had intended her to fail. Knowing that, she had resigned herself to disrupting her own past-self's environmental control when the time came, allowing Kyon and Haruhi's previous iterations to escape through the gap.

She _could_ have tried to warn her past self, but she doubted her ability to withstand paradox without the entity's help. So, she watched as Kyon stunned and captured her past self, then vanished, swiftly taking an interesting route down the hill - leaping from rooftop to rooftop while cloaked.

At one point, he even ran across the top of a power-line. An interesting mode of movement, but inferior to teleportation. Then again, if he was limited in that regard, it was efficient...

He hopped down from his height and landed, undamaged and unnoticed, near a park bench. He studied some passers-by before targeting a nondescript man of average appearance, meandering out of sight and capturing the image with his PDA. Ryouko was irritated to be assigned the task, so imported the costume and disguise, which Kyon activated shortly after that, seeming to the people nearby to just step out from around a bend in the path before sinking to the bench.

His PDA was out shortly, though this time he was flipping through notes from his classes, not playing any games. After only a half hour or so, Mikuru's future self trotted along the sidewalk, looking faintly pleased, but very tired. She sat next to Kyon, nodding at him politely, then checking her wristwatch and frowning.

Kyon straightened up, then remarked, "You know, you're very pretty to be here alone."

Mikuru blinked at that, then smiled slowly, realization setting in. "I'm not so pretty," she demurred, shaking her head. "But that's quite kind of you. Ah! I wish you good luck; a man as handsome as you should have a date with a younger girl than me, tonight!"

Ryouko had remembered that date well enough. Mikuru and Kyon both chuckled, though Kyon was blushing fiercely beneath his disguise.

"Okay," Kyon said, shaking his head once they had settled down a bit. "This was probably one of the easier loops to close ... is there anything I've left undone too long?"

"Not _too_ long," Mikuru assured him. "Um ... according to my superior, anyway..."

He blinked, wondering - not for the first time - if there was some still older Mikuru watching over the woman at his side. "If it's good enough for you, it should be good enough for me," he decided, nodding.

Mikuru smiled and reached a hand out. "I'm glad," she said, smiling. "Now, if you're ready...? Unfortunately, I need to move you forward a bit to reduce your temporal deviation."

He nodded thoughtfully at that, recalling the time he had taken 'the slow path' back half a day. But then ... if his deviation hadn't been a problem before... He wondered if that suggested that at some point soon, the balance would shift the other way... Could he be traveling into the future at some point?

* * *

Haruhi decided to wander to the clubroom to visit with Yuki during lunch, since Kyon was elsewhere at the moment. Or else_when_, she supposed. Probably in the past; he was too much of a stick-in-the-mud to go to the future, she was sure. And if he _did_ he'd manage to clam up about it, somehow.

She sighed as she opened the clubroom door, giving Yuki a bright smile as the bookworm looked up at her entrance. Haruhi hadn't really been thinking about it, but the link that they had shared had calmed down recently ... probably because even if she didn't say anything all the time, Yuki was frustrated at Kyon not knowing the truth.

"How are you doing today, Yuki-chan?" she prompted.

"I am well," Yuki answered, closing her book and rising from her seat. She moved it to the table and sat opposite Haruhi. "How are you?"

Haruhi couldn't help but smile at that. She was still a little awkward, but she was slowly coming out of her shell. No doubt about it, spending time with Kyon was good for her. "Ah, bored," she sighed. Yuki blinked at that, staring at her without otherwise changing her expression.

Slumping, Haruhi acknowledged, "Okay, I'm a little jealous of Kyon and it always bothers me when he's got to do something and none of us can be there. Except, I guess, a future Mikuru... You know, recently, I've been starting to think that I should have more sympathy for her, considering how annoying and difficult this all must be for her. If even she, of all people, is willing to face Sasaki for answers..."

Yuki nodded, offering, "Asahina Mikuru's situation is difficult. I also am sympathetic to her." She paused for a moment and looked thoughtful. "She may need a hug."

Haruhi blinked at that, stifling a snicker, though she still felt warmed by the sentiment. "That's probably true... So, what are you reading, anyway?"

The bookworm wordlessly held up a worn but cared for hardcover book titled, 'Brave Detective Sasha and the Red Tape of Obfuscation' by Ryuguu Rena. Haruhi frowned, squinting. "That's the same 'Ryuguu' kanji as the boy that Kyon got expelled for picking on Kanae-chan, isn't it? I wonder if they're related?"

Yuki seemed uncertain, so before she could try and answer, Haruhi dismissed the obvious coincidence.

"Well, anyway- What's it about?" Haruhi pressed.

"This is the sixth volume," Yuki explained. "The premise is that a young orphaned girl named Sasha is sent to a seven-year boarding school for detectives by a mysterious benefactor, and must learn the art of deduction and investigation to solve her problems. Each book covers one year of her enrollment. Along the way, she wins several friends and makes some enemies. While some portions of the story are a clearly defined formula, the presentation is a deliberate softening of less palatable themes, carefully dressed to be presentable to children."

Haruhi raised an eyebrow. "So, what's the target audience age, anyway?" she wondered.

"Ages twelve through twenty," Yuki answered.

"Hmm... So, give me an example of one of these 'softened themes'," Haruhi pressed, intrigued. "I'm curious, now!"

Yuki gave a tiny nod of acknowledgement. "In an early story, one of Sasha's closest friends comes under the auspices of an unkind guardian. Sasha and her remaining friends must prove the mistreatment of her friend. When this proves to be difficult, Sasha's love interest - Ichigo - devises a plot to make the guardian ill enough to be sent to a hospital, thus freeing their friend," she explained.

Haruhi narrowed her eyes. "I can see how that would be readable to a kid while someone who could read more into it... Huh. Interesting."

"The stories have an emphasis on compromise and reliance on friends to overcome problems, with a special focus on communication. The series is unusual in the extremely downplayed role of violence in Brave Detective Sasha's world. While the threat of mortality is made clear, severe injury and death are exceedingly rare."

Nodding slowly, Haruhi managed to keep herself from smirking. "You're becoming a total Sasha fan-girl, aren't you?"

Yuki blinked twice, then turned her attention back to the book, unable to keep the mild flush from appearing on her cheeks.

Giving in to the forming smirk, Haruhi grabbed a laptop, quickly checking her favorite website, and finding a wealth of information on the series. She avoided the spoilers, deciding that she'd actually read it - it was written by Kyon's aunt, after all. From there, she found a character art gallery, including promos for a suggested anime adaptation of the series.

A handful of images of 'Brave Detective Sasha' were available online, and Haruhi liked the picture immediately. "Okay! I think Kanae-chan's favorite will be Trope-tan, but for you, Yuki-chan, Mikuru's next project will be this!"

She turned the laptop's screen to face Yuki, who looked up and blinked at the image. Despite Rena's Japanese roots, the setting for Sasha's universe was somewhat more Western, and set in the early nineteen hundreds. Sasha had brown hair cut exactly the same way as Yuki's, and wore a dark plaid-patterned newsboy hat, a neat vest, and a white blouse. Her skirt was patterned just like the hat, going past her knees, but not quite a full-length dress. Other than a pair of darker leggings and sturdy boots...

Yuki nodded, not _quite_ smiling, but Haruhi was positive that she was pleased with the idea.

Her love interest would be trickier, but Kyon could just cheat, after all. Plus, Haruhi knew he looked good in anything, so putting him in the dapper outfit that Ichigo usually wore... She took a picture of the character and then saved it to her phone; Kyon's PDA could scan it later if it came down to it. "Hmm, I don't know if Mikuru-chan can have this ready in time to surprise Kyon's aunt tonight ... that would be especially nice..."

Yuki hesitated before finally slowly saying, "If Mikuru is interested in such a project, I will offer my assistance."

She smirked at that, giving Yuki a nod of approval. "Outstanding!"

* * *

Koizumi had been wandering in a happy fog ever since he'd found out that he'd be given a chance to meet his childhood idol. His classes had passed in a pleasant blur, and it had been a real struggle to focus on his job. But the world of Brave Detective Sasha had always been one of his favorites, and he'd tried to model himself after her ideals of deduction and compromise.

He found it had actually helped serve him quite well in his assigned role in the SOS brigade in the first year.

Still, since today was the day, and he was Kyon's assistant, he tried to gather his wits. He needed to be at his best to meet Rena-sensei!

He entered the clubroom after Haruhi had time to determine who had the responsibility of dressing up, and was mildly surprised to see Mikuru busily sewing away at something, while Yuki sat next to her, measuring and cutting cloth. Kanae watched the pair of them closely, while Haruhi and Tsuruya sat opposite the busy duo. Haruhi was reading the first of the Brave Detective Sasha books that he had loaned Yuki, and Tsuruya was slowly leafing through Kanae's drawings.

"Where's Kyon-kun?" he wondered aloud, taking one of the free seats after closing the door behind him.

"I'm not sure yet," Haruhi said, glancing up from the book, then setting it aside. "He had something to do today that-"

The door opened at just that moment, and Kyon stepped in, looking unharmed. Ryouko was in his greatcoat pocket, her arms dangling free as she peered around, silent for the moment.

"Successful mission?" Haruhi asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at him appraisingly.

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding, then stiffing a yawn, and taking his seat after setting Ryouko on the table. "I have a lot more sympathy for snipers, now..."

"Exciting stuff?" Haruhi asked eagerly, leaning forward.

"Really boring, actually," he answered, shaking his head. "Seriously - I had to wait three hours in stealth without moving very far."

Haruhi was taken aback, frowning. "All of that, just for three shots?"

Ryouko corrected, "Four!"

Kyon shrugged, adding, "I don't think the capture field really qualified as a sniper shot, though."

Yuki had finished cutting cloth, so offered a quiet nod. Mikuru was still working on the last details, completely absorbed in her work.

"Um ... I think it's really good that Sempai can handle situations like that, even if I wish ... um ... you didn't have to..." Kanae offered hesitantly.

"For what it's worth, with as many combat capable allies as we have, I suspect that relatively few situations should require our vice commander to unleash his full strength," Koizumi offered.

"Well, was the team pet any use to you?" Haruhi prompted.

"What's the team pet?" Ryouko asked, turning to look around the room curiously.

Kyon winced slightly, looking at the chibified schoolgirl standing on the table before him. After almost a minute, she blinked, scanning across the club members, all of which were regarding her, except for Mikuru.

"Don't feel too bad about it," Koizumi encouraged her. "There was a time when Kyon-kun was the lowest ranked in the brigade!"

"I had to pay a lot more penalties, back then," Kyon mused. "Of course, now I have all these neat toys!"

"I'm not a pet!" Ryouko whined.

Yuki blinked and quietly ordered, "Sit."

Ryouko promptly sat down, pouting. "If I don't you'll take away my speaking privileges," she complained.

"Cheer up!" Tsuruya encouraged, patting Ryouko's head. "I think of you as a chibi, not a pet!"

Kanae giggled at that, shaking her head. "Though ... um, she does look a bit dusty, doesn't she?"

"We were laying on the top of the roof for a while, and it was very gritty," Kyon offered. "But, anyway, she was helpful, actually. She disrupted her past-self's barrier."

"It was pre-determined," Ryouko chirped, shrugging helplessly.

"Done!" Mikuru cheered, looking up from her work with a bright smile. She started slightly. "Oh! Kyon-kun! I didn't even notice you coming in!"

"You didn't miss anything," he assured her, unable to meet her eyes.

Tsuruya smirked at that, then shook her head. "It's costume change time, isn't it?" she prompted.

"Oh, right, let me get Kyon first," Haruhi agreed, turning to look at the boy in expectancy, holding one hand out.

With a roll of his eyes, he handed the PDA over, and Haruhi scanned an image from her phone before punching in the commands to activate his new disguise. He looked down at himself, and Haruhi opened her mouth to tell him what his costume was before he said, "Ichigo, from Brave Detective Sasha, eh?"

The brigade chief bit back her explanation with a pout, before grinning. "Yeah, now get out," she ordered, pushing Kyon from the room, but giving him time to collect his tea.

Once he was waiting in the hall with the other male member of the brigade, the two both checked the hallway for eavesdroppers and began a whispered conversation as Koizumi ventured, "All things considered, you're doing well?"

"I've been a lot worse," Kyon acknowledged. "How about you?"

Koizumi smiled and shrugged. "Naturally, I'm doing quite fine; I'm truly looking forward to meeting Ryuguu Rena-sensei!"

Kyon scratched the back of his head and frowned, gazing out the window opposite the clubroom doors. "I feel a bit slow, but I hadn't realized how famous Auntie Rena was until just recently," he admitted.

The esper nodded sagely. "Ryuguu Rena-sensei is incredibly secretive about her private life," he explained. "So, beyond her name, very little is known about her beyond the fact that many of her books are dedicated to her daughter, and 'all of her cute little nephews and nieces'. She doesn't answer personal questions at signings or readings, either." He couldn't help but chuckle at Kyon's wince. "Dedicated fans have searched, but had long ago concluded that it was actually an assumed name; the closest real person to that name anyone ever found was someone who was officially listed as 'Ryuguu Reina'."

Kyon shivered for some reason at that, frowning thoughtfully. "Somehow ... that sounds familiar," he mused quietly.

Koizumi raised an eyebrow at that, then shrugged, dismissing it. 'Ryuguu Reina' probably didn't matter, considering that he had finally gotten the chance to meet the genuine article. He glanced around to ensure that the area was clear before proceeding to the next topic of discussion.

He'd practiced with Mori a little bit ... and was actually getting to the point where he could pick out some thoughts when he focused on someone and attempted to 'link' with them. Unnerving as it was practicing on a willing subject, it wasn't _half_ as alarming as the thoughts that went through that woman's head. Still, considering that Kyon had - once again - been on a mission where Koizumi had been entirely uninvolved...

"I would like to be able to stand at your side when you confront your foes at some point," Koizumi commented. "When we faced Wataru the first time, I did not have the option to try and ... see what he might have known. If we confront him again, that may change. I suspect I could be able to offer more, even from the ostensibly passive role of observer," he continued, as Kyon turned to give him a speculative look. "Once I practice using my skills a bit more, at least."

"Have you tried Taniguchi?" Kyon asked with a smirk. "I'm sure his mind is filthy, but it's probably pretty simple."

Koizumi chuckled politely. "I have not," he answered, shaking his head. "The idea of using such a power vicariously... It seems it would be a simple trap to fall into, and harder to escape. I have so far restrained myself to willing subjects."

Kyon nodded at that, not looking particularly surprised. "That's commendable. Okay, I'll ask Yuki-chan if she can include you for a training session," he decided. "Then you'd get a relative year to practice - maybe less if it's hard for her to figure out how your powers work."

The esper blinked, having forgotten that particular aspect and explanation for Kyon's skills. "Is that so?" he wondered.

The boy dressed in the western outfit from the 1920s nodded, draining the last of his tea. "Tsuruya wanted to try it once, and Yuki-chan figured out how to give her a chance. If it's not too much trouble, she can probably do the same for you."

The esper nodded thoughtfully at that, offering a smile to his friend. "I would greatly appreciate that," he admitted.

Before Kyon could answer, the door was unceremoniously wrenched open by Haruhi, cheering with a loud, "Ta-da!"

Both boys turned to look in simultaneously, both pausing when they spotted Yuki. Her costume as Brave Detective Sasha, looked almost perfectly spot on, except for the absence of Sasha's eternally luminescent spots of blushing color and smile, and Yuki's hair being a lighter color.

Koizumi thought it was cute, anyway. "That's quite charming," he remarked.

In response, Kyon reached into his coat - though, thanks to the disguise, it appeared he reached into his vest - and pulled out what looked like a faithful reproduction of Ichigo's signature improbably over-sized wrench, propping it over one shoulder. "Time to solve another mystery, Sasha-chan?" he asked.

Yuki nodded, answering in her almost toneless way, "Of course, Ichigo-kun." Kyon grinned, then reached up to tip back his illusionary hat, which obligingly moved with his hand.

Even though the vice-commander was a bit too tall for the role, compared to Yuki's Sasha, Koizumi couldn't help but clap his approval for the duo. "Very nice!"

Yuki looked down at her vest and skirt, then straightened and agreed, "Mikuru's effort is worthy of praise."

The time traveler blinked at that, blushing. "O...oh, well, it's nothing-" she demurred, before Yuki surprised her into wide-eyed silence by suddenly giving her a hug.

"Thank you," Yuki said again, though her voice was somewhat muffled by Mikuru's chest.

"Ah, um," Mikuru temporized, reflexively hugging Yuki back as her face almost instantly flushed crimson, her eyes tracking across the others beseechingly.

"Cute!" Kanae and Tsuruya cheered together, as the heiress and Haruhi simultaneously reached for their cameras.

After that, Kyon and Yuki had to pose, and Koizumi wondered at the implied romance of the cosplaying pair. Sasha and Ichigo were somewhat of romantic interests, but the books were very subtle about that, limiting it (so far) to hand-holding. Rumor had it that the seventh and final volume might contain a _kiss_, but...

Well, Haruhi seemed to like it - if not actively demand more, so he supposed that made a certain degree of sense.

"We should probably be heading out soon, if we don't want to be late," Kyon finally commented, glancing at the clock.

"Right," Haruhi agreed happily, leaving her camera on the clubroom table. Ryouko was looking at Yuki with an expression that seemed to convey confusion. "Hmm, you don't like the cosplay?"

"I've never seen Yuki-chama in other clothes," the chibi offered.

Haruhi nodded, remarking, "It did take some doing..."

* * *

Ryuguu Rena was not terribly worried about the success of her new book. She did enjoy the time she got to spend with her fans, and she absolutely adored creating the worlds and stories that her characters went through. Nishinomiya wasn't the most notable place in the world for her to have a book signing, but Keiichi was headed there on business anyway, and Rika couldn't leave on account of the upcoming festival in Hinamizawa.

Satoko might have gone instead, but she tried bluffing on a pair of fives when Rena had a full house.

Her publisher had agreed to find a venue after Keiichi talked to them, and so she'd been looking forward to the chance to see Kyon and his girlfriend. Girlfriends, she supposed - but she really wanted to meet more than just Haruhi. Oh, Haruhi was likable enough - they were all agreed on that - but she was curious to meet the others.

Considering the fact that Keiichi was kept busy with his work, she'd been somewhat bored, having little to do. There were still ideas for other books that she hadn't quite jotted down, but so far nothing had really leapt out at her the way the premise for her first series had. Especially, she didn't want to start writing something while traveling, though. Something about that felt strangely like a bad idea...

She'd tried calling Kyon's house and lucked out by getting Yuuto instead of Keiichi's sister, but there hadn't been a good chance to arrange for a visit.

Yuuto was being polite, she knew, but his wife...

Gloomy thoughts like that haunted her until Keiichi came back to their hotel room and dismissed her worries with that patented Keiichi magic. And once she was confident she was ready for it, he commented that he'd briefly run into Kyon at work - though, the nephew in question had actually been on a date, to appearances. And while Rena _wanted_ to be happy for Kyon and wish him luck, well ... she hadn't gotten a chance to meet all of the girls he was involved with.

That Suzumiya girl was adorable, but Satoko and Rika had gotten to meet an Asahina Mikuru, as well - and everyone _but_ her had gotten a chance to meet with Tsuruya Haruka.

Really, Rena was confident that her winning hand was just the cosmic balance of the universe making up for that lack and letting her visit Kyon. She'd mentioned as much to Rika, who immediately adopted that amused, 'I know more than you', look she wore from time to time... But then, after wearing that face, something pleasant almost always happened to one of them, so she wasn't _worried_ precisely...

Just a bit anxious.

The bookstore for the venue was fairly sizable, and she waited in the back room with the store manager, who was babbling something about sales she didn't care about. Keiichi was nearby, speaking quietly on his cell-phone, his eyes distant as he nodded, and Rena's publicist - Kimiyoshi Natsuki - was flipping through some paperwork thoughtfully, occasionally glancing through the door to where a swelling throng of fans waited for Rena to come out for the signing.

"Great!" Keiichi said happily. "I'll find you based on that- See you soon!"

"Good news?" she asked anxiously, clasping her hands together.

"Great news," he assured her with a grin. "Just wait here one minute, alright?"

Natsuki beamed a smile at him as Keiichi walked out into the crowded bookstore without hesitation. A few short minutes later, he came back, looking amused as he led Kyon through the doorway - Rena couldn't help herself and immediately seized him in a hug. "Kyon~!" she cried in delight. He was even dressed up as Ichigo!

"Now hold her," Keiichi ordered Kyon, who looked confused but did as instructed, hugging Rena back.

"Eh?" she managed to noise, before she spotted the incredibly cute girl dressed up as Sasha, right next to the girl she recognized as Haruhi. "I'm taking you home!"

* * *

Koizumi's first meeting with the legendary figure of his beloved Ryuguu Rena-sensei was not at all what he'd anticipated. He thought from the way she'd written that she was a coolly collected person, not the excitable and ... energetic figure that by appearances, Kyon only _just_ managed to physically restrain from charging at Yuki to envelop her in a hug.

Of course, the second she got free from Kyon she managed to sweep Yuki up _anyway_.

A few moments later, she'd calmed down enough to accept introductions, and Koizumi was pleased to finally get a chance to meet her. She raised an eyebrow at his name, and before he even got to reach for his membership card, she laughed softly and said, "We've exchanged several letters, haven't we, Itsuki-kun?"

"Y...you remembered?" he asked, surprised.

She nodded at him, and the woman that Koizumi gathered was an assistant or aide motioned Rena out to the floor proper.

"Okay," Rena allowed, nodding at her assistant. "Thank you, Natsuki-chan. My cute little Kyon and the even cuter little Yuki-chan can sit with me while I sign, though~! You're dressed too perfectly not to!"

"I agree!" Haruhi encouraged, grinning.

Rena smiled and waved as she led Kyon and Yuki out to the main floor of the bookstore.

Koizumi managed to restrain himself, even though he felt an urge to join the crowd and wait in line... Well, he'd get more of a chance to talk to her later, he was confident.

Sure enough, once the signing had finished, Rena returned to the back room, unwilling to release the Sasha cosplayer from her grasp. "Too cute!" she declared.

"Hmm," Keiichi remarked, smirking. "Alright- Natsuki-san, I'm going to take my nephew and his friends out to eat, would you care to join us?"

"Thats alright," the woman declined with a shake of her head. "I've got some more paperwork to catch up on." Turning to Rena, she added, "Thank you for your hard work, Rena-san."

Rena finally released Yuki to giggle in embarrassment before nodding back at Natsuki. The second the woman was gone, Haruhi remarked, "I think that Kyon's aunt Rena is very pretty - and that Mikuru-chan will grow up to look just like her!"

For whatever reason, Kyon choked at that, shaking his head quickly once before suddenly becoming utterly fascinated with a floor tile.

"R...really?" Mikuru squeaked out, eyes widening. "I might be ... _that_ pretty?"

Kyon continued his intense study of whatever it was that occupied his attention.

"I don't think she'll look a thing like me," Rena demurred, taking Mikuru's hands in her own. "She'll be much cuter! Ah! You must never wear anything with a low neckline; you'll steal my cute little Kyon away for sure like that!"

Tsuruya's guffaw broke what might have otherwise been an uncomfortable silence, and Keiichi joined in, if not as heartily. "Rena-chan," he chastised her, still smiling.

Rena pouted, then distracted herself by hugging Kanae-chan. "But you!" she exclaimed. "This cute little kohai for my cute little Kyon!"

Kanae giggled at that, her face suffused almost as crimson as Mikuru's.

Koizumi began to wonder if his idol were bi-polar, while Haruhi merely took dozens of pictures. Kyon looked up suddenly, as Keiichi was checking something on his cell phone, and asked, "Ah ... Haruhi ... where did we get so many SD cards, anyway?"

"Spoils of war," she declared without hesitation.

He gave her a stern look. "Did you steal the evidence from our investigation?"

"I appropriated resources for Brigade use," she corrected with a sniff. "Aside from which, I gave everything _incriminating_ to the police.

After a pause, she added, "Yuki-chan formatted these for me."

Kyon pursed his lips and nodded grudging acceptance, seeming to realize that he wouldn't win this argument.

"Ah, I can't decide!" Rena protested, still clinging to Kanae. "You're all so perfect for my cute little Kyon!"

"Well," Keiichi said, "why don't we move this discussion somewhere we can get something to eat? Personally, I'm famished."

"I haven't eaten since breakfast," Kyon agreed.

"My treat," Tsuruya insisted suddenly, grinning. "We're a big party, so let me cover it!"

"Oh, I can't possibly allow that," Rena insisted, shaking her head quickly. "It's so cute that you'd offer, though~! Ah, no - you came for my signing, let me treat you!"

Tsuruya opened her mouth to protest, and Keiichi commented, "Really, whichever of you accepts the responsibility is going to write it off as a business expense on taxes later, right?"

Koizumi was mildly surprised to see both Rena and Tsuruya nod guiltily.

"Well, the same goes for me," he said with a grin, shrugging. "So, allow me, instead."

Rena pouted, but Tsuruya acquiesced. "If you can get a free meal from your lawyer, it's a good day," she acknowledged, eyes sparkling.

"Well," Kyon remarked, still in his 'Ichigo' costume, "you're almost family, Tsuruya-kun, considering that we're engaged."

"Eh," Rena managed, blinking once as her smile hardened, seeming suddenly more like a mask than the genuine article.

"Y...you're engaged?" Keiichi asked, his humor draining away, replaced with surprise before his face fell, and he slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, damn... Imouto... She thought she was doing you a favor, huh?"

Kyon nodded, his own smile fading. "Mom didn't... Didn't even tell you?"

Rena very gently pushed Kanae towards Mikuru, giving her a soft pat on the head before drawing herself to her full height and giving Keiichi a sharp look. "Kei-chan, we need to speak with-"

"Ah- No," he said, shaking his head and overriding her before she could finish. "Rena-chan, I think that needs to wait until we're back in Hinamizawa."

Rena's right hand began to curl, perhaps into a fist, and she seemed to stop herself with an obvious display of will, grabbing the palm of her right hand in the fingers of her left and rubbing at it. "Um ... writer's cramp," she said apologetically, offering a much weaker smile.

"Ah, if that's something that's bothering you, it shouldn't," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "We've already accounted for that interference."

"Pardon?" Koizumi couldn't help but wonder.

Kyon returned to studying his fascinating floor tile. Keiichi raised an eyebrow, fighting harder and harder to resist snickering as he scanned across the others in the room, who were all blushing, with the exception of Yuki and Haruhi.

"Time for dinner, then," Keiichi determined, opening the rear exit and gesturing the group through. "There's an udon place down the street that's supposed to be really good!"

"Right!" Haruhi declared, grinning at Tsuruya. "So let's have fun!"

"Everyone should just have fun!" the heiress agreed.

* * *

After everyone had eaten, a few hours had been lost to pleasant chatter. Once Rena had gotten over how 'cute' everyone was, she seemed to calm down a bit. She had engaged Koizumi in discussion over the course of the evening, and had proven surprisingly insightful, considering her initial, somewhat flighty behavior.

Kanae was still puzzling out what to make of the woman, beyond a general good impression for both facets of her behavior. Everyone had a good time, at least - just as the older girls had insisted.

In step with her, Mikuru held her free hand as they walked to her apartment.

"You're sure you won't be in any trouble?" the taller girl wondered. "Um, that ... no one will see?"

"I picked out a really good spot to the side of the house that no one ever goes to," Kanae replied confidently. "So I'll just jump back from your place."

Mikuru nodded, offering a smile to the smaller girl. "I'm a bit envious," she admitted. "I can't do that sort of thing without permission, but you can," she trailed off with a giggle, then continued, "'jump' wherever you like. That must be nice!"

Thinking of the only places she'd used her ability so far, she nodded eagerly. "It's much better than the, erm, alternative. I really, really like this world! I'm so lucky to have Sempai, and Suzumiya-sempai is so brave, and Tsuruya-san and Mikuru-onee, too!" she agreed. "And especially Nagato-san... She's kind of scary and amazing at the same time, you know?" she asked, blushing in embarrassment.

"I understand exactly," Mikuru replied, giving the slider a warm smile. "Now, Kyon-kun knew this before anyone else ... but Yuki-chan is a very sweet girl. She just needs people to look a little beneath the surface!"

Kanae's face reddened as she considered her recently growing ... nearness ... to Yuki in their sleeping arrangements. Hmm, she wondered what her sempai would think if she suggested that Yuki-chan swap the slider for the time traveler some night... Though, it would be difficult to bring herself to actually give up a night of that on her own. She resolved herself to at least bring up the idea with the quiet but powerful girl; really, it did seem a _little_ unfair not to share her time with her sempai with the other girls...

"Well, I promise to try and make it so that everyone benefits from what I can do as much as possible," Kanae decided. Yes, she realized, this was a good plan; Suzumiya-sempai would surely approve, and so would Tsuruya!

That thought in mind, Kanae saw the time traveler to her apartment, where she was insistently ushered inside. "It's safer in here, with only myself to see you leave like this," her self-proclaimed older sister warned her, smiling.

Kanae agreed and waved goodbye, but before she could leave, Mikuru gave her a hug, and then a soft kiss on the forehead. "Take care, imouto-chan!" she chirped.

The slider dazedly managed to nod, forgetting her plan to return home and instead jumping straight to Yuki.

She felt the space between her and Yuki snap together - pinched and contorted a little, instead of tearing it open like she needed to in order to slide - and shifted herself to the other side of the field. The second she did, her control over the bridge collapsed, and instead of letting it fade neatly, it snapped shut, catapulting her at an odd angle across the space she'd just entered.

A cry of alarm began to escape her before she stopped as abruptly as she'd been flung, suspended over the floor of Yuki's washroom mid-sprawl, her hands a few centimeters from the tiles. The other girl, for her part, was sitting in the bathtub with a book in one hand, her legs dangling over the side to balance the heat of the water against the coolness of the air. From her angle, Kanae's face was _just_ high enough to make out the form of Ryouko's tiny self, wearing an absurdly cute swimming-ring and paddling around the side of the bath that Yuki wasn't using.

Most importantly, Yuki was directing a palm towards the slider, evidently responsible for preventing her collision with the floor.

"Um," Kanae managed, blinking, stuck for the moment in mid-air. "I-I- I really should have called in advance?" she squeaked out apologetically.

Ryouko splashed suddenly, only just then seeming to notice the slider's presence. "Ah!" she gasped. "An intruder! I'll protect Yuki-cha-"

Yuki tossed her book to the floor near Kanae, and used her newly freed hand to grab Ryouko and plunge her beneath the water, whereupon a suffusion of bubbles began to well upwards. "I felt it inadvisable to allow her to wash with him," the girl offered softly in explanation, not _quite_ meeting Kanae's eyes. "Also, the space around this dwelling has several defensive modifications in place; while you are welcome here, you are correct that you should call first."

She paused, then Kanae's position righted itself and she found herself set gently on the floor, standing upright. She hurriedly removed her shoes, incidentally averting her eyes as Yuki rose from the water, simultaneously allowing Ryouko to gasp, greedily sucking air in from her extended immersion. "Yuki-chama..." Ryouko panted, her tiny eyes all swirly. "So ... cruel..."

By the time Kanae looked up, Yuki was already out of the tub, releasing the plug to drain and then totally ignoring the tiny figure, which wailed and paddled frantically to reach the tiny swimming ring as though it were a life-preserver.

"Um..."

"It is fine," Yuki insisted.

A few minutes later, Yuki was redressed, sitting with Kanae in the front room. Distantly, the slider was confident that she could hear the sound of incredibly tiny hands scrabbling at the interior of the bathroom tub, trying desperately to escape, but Yuki was pointedly ignoring it.

"Erm," Kanae managed, nervously playing with the cup of tea that Yuki had given her, not tasting it yet, "I w...wanted to suggest that maybe we, er ... you and I, that is ... should take turns and let the others spend time with, um, Sempai, too?"

Yuki nodded slowly, her eyes still largely unreadable to the slider. "Understood." She paused. "Asakura Ryouko does not have to be included in this rotation."

Kanae blinked, not really certain what to make of that. Well... "That's probably fine by Sempai, too!"

"Good," Yuki decided, allowing the tiniest of smiles.

* * *

Even though everything seemed to have calmed down, Sasaki was still uneasy. The idea of seeing Kyon in a few days wasn't nearly as reassuring as it should be; she was almost confident her associates were planning some strange trap for her friend. She may not be able to understand all the nuances of Kyon's job as an organized criminal, and she was slightly embarrassed to realize that as willing as she was to accept his assistance ... she didn't really _want_ to know the details of what he did.

He seemed just and reliable, and she couldn't bear to imagine him being little more than a thug.

Then again, considering how the people who wanted to call themselves her _friends_ behaved...

Kuyou had been around much less lately, strangely seeming to fade into and out of Sasaki's focus, though she had completely vanished for a few days on Monday, not making another appearance until Thursday. It wasn't until she was headed to her Saturday session of cram school that she appeared suddenly from the crowd to walk at Sasaki's side.

"At the node of _, remain _ his ambit," she announced abruptly, staring forward and matching the other girl step-for-step, the others on the street seeming oblivious to her presence and odd manner of speech, as always.

"Ah... Kuyou," Sasaki returned, frowning. "By 'his' you mean Kyon?" She didn't really understand what Kuyou meant by 'ambit', though. Did Kyon control a territory she should try and stay within? That would make a good deal of sense. Or was it simpler, and she was just saying that Sasaki should try and stay _near_ Kyon? That made sense, too...

Kuyou nodded before she turned to look at someone emerging from the crowd, waving eagerly at the pair of them. "Ah, Kunikida-kun," Sasaki recalled, nodding at the boy. Come to think of it, he was classmates with Kyon still, wasn't he?

"H...hey, Sasaki-chan," he panted, catching his breath from his jog.

She gave him a small, polite smile, not appreciating the diminutive honorific from him, but restraining herself from pointing it out. That much honesty could be a bit painful for some people if she spoke it too easily.

He shook his head to dismiss something, looking sidelong at her. "Ah, we... We have a practice test on Tuesday, and I've actually been trying to compete with you; last time our scores were very close! Wouldn't it be something if we were the two highest scores?"

It would be a statistic, she didn't reply. Instead, she answered, "I suppose it might. Hmm, Kunikida-kun, you're still classmates with Kyon, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Kunikida answered with a sigh, slumping a little. "He's sure getting popular..."

Sasaki giggled. "Jealous?" she teased, which actually made Kunikida flush guiltily. "That's silly, though. Kyon's engaged, and while he might be on occasion weak-willed, I couldn't see him cheating on someone. He couldn't hurt someone he cared for like that."

Kunikida was so distracted by her comment that he actually walked face-first into a utility pole, rebounding and sitting dazedly on the sidewalk in a heap, grimacing. "K...Kyon's _engaged_? He and Suzumiya- When did this happen?" he burst out suddenly, drawing attention from everyone passing by, and pressing one hand to his nose.

"I would have expected that too, but he's engaged to that older girl - ah, Tsuruya-san, was it?"

Kunikida's eyes widened even further, and Sasaki winced internally. If this was something Kyon had avoided letting around at school, she might have just ruined that.

"Ah- Well, perhaps they were playing a prank when they told me," she quickly said, forcing a smile. Where had Kuyou run off to, anyway? She bit back a sigh. "At any rate, on the chance that it _was_ a joke, it would probably be for the best not to mention it - especially if he hasn't said anything about it himself."

Kunikida nodded doubtfully and hesitated a moment, almost seemingly expectant of something before he sighed and climbed to his feet again. "I can't really keep up with what he does these days," he said. "But honestly ... he is becoming quite popular, even if he seems not to realize it. For certain, if the rumors are true, then he's got quite a following for saving the girls of our school from major embarrassment.

"Well... Even if it's an unorthodox method, his way of attracting weird girls to him seems to have worked out in the end; people like us, though, will need to pursue a real education to be successful."

She pursed her lips and offered a dubious nod. She wasn't really looking for it, but as obvious as Kunikida was at this point... Well, at least he hadn't worked his way up to confessing, she supposed. In a sense, she realized that he might think he was being clever; being Kyon's friend, if Kyon had talked to _anyone_ after she'd accidentally hurt him, it probably would have been Kunikida.

And Kunikida, he was fairly clever. Did he think that by playing smarter, he could walk in Kyon's footsteps and figure out how to 'succeed' where Kyon hadn't? Of course ... Kunikida didn't know how wrong she realized she was in the first place.

No; she had to cut this off before it became problematic. Aside from which, Kunikida could easily become a victim of the web that she herself was snared in. Kyon, at least, was strong enough to be indifferent to it, but making things difficult for him by needing him to protect yet another person...

"The way you say that ... Kyon seems remarkable enough to succeed without education?" she wondered. "Somehow, I don't believe that his mother would agree." Not from what she remembered of the woman, anyway.

She'd thought Kyon's mother liked her, commenting that she was a positive influence on Kyon's study habits. Her own mother was convinced of that, at least. It didn't help that her mother had a habit of constantly wondering aloud what had happened to her old study partner.

"Well, I meant more to say that he's got enough people worried about him that he should be fine," Kunikida mumbled, looking away.

"I have to admit, I'm one of those people," she sighed. "Ever since he was injured for that thing you mentioned earlier..."

"M...maybe we could discuss more pleasant topics?" he suggested, managing a hopeful smile.

She nodded graciously, glancing down the street, at the entrance to the cram school building. "I remember when Kyon and I used to come this same route for cram school," she sighed, pretending to be a little more wistful than she actually was. Strange how easily that came to her. "I'd ride on the back of his bicycle..." Only, now that she'd brought it up, she _did_ miss those memories...

It was mostly scary at first, her hanging on, uncertain of her grip and terrified of bouncing off to fall into the street. After a week or so, she'd become adjusted to it, confident that she could hold on with one hand, and close her eyes, trusting in Kyon to pedal the pair of them safely through the dark. There was only one incident where something went wrong - and it wasn't so bad.

Either a rock or a curb - she wasn't certain - but something had caused the wheel to turn almost exactly ninety degrees instantly. The bicycle flipped over, throwing the pair of them into a pile on the lawn at the side of the path. Kyon was grumbling about skinning an elbow and bruising himself, but what Sasaki had noticed most was that while they were flung free, her trust had been rewarded; somehow, he'd managed to twist around, making sure he landed on his back, but cushioned the blow for her.

For a very brief moment, she'd thought he'd done it on purpose, some juvenile attempt at getting a hug, or maybe even trying to feel her up- Though, he didn't do that at all, actually. Almost immediately, she dismissed that. She and Kyon were _friends_; that was all. He'd proven that by trying to take care of her...

And again more recently.

"Sasaki-chan?" Kunikida asked, waving a hand before her worriedly.

"Ah," she started, shaking her head, realizing she'd come to a stop before the bicycle rack in front of the cram school. "S...sorry, my mind was elsewhere..."

"Are you alright?" he asked, frowning even more deeply.

"Just old regrets ... nothing important," she assured him, trying to force her smile again. Though... It might be a little cruel - both to Kunikida, and in the long run, herself, but...

"Kunikida-kun ... could I ask you for a favor?" she wondered.

"Anything," he replied immediately, perking up slightly.

She pointedly pretended not to notice, asking, "Since you see Kyon so much, could you ask him for a more recent picture? The only one I have of him is a bit older." From before they'd actually become closer in cram school, as it so happened. And while she probably _could_ ask Kyon directly, she didn't want to give him the wrong idea; the whole thing was naturally just for Kunikida's benefit, to save him a more painful rejection later.

That was all.

Risking a sidelong glance, she caught the shorter boy's pained flinch. "Ah... Y...yeah. I can ask him for a more recent picture," he agreed with a sigh. "Um ... I'll see you after class, maybe?"

She nodded, warning him, "I'll be skipping cram school on Monday - I'm meeting with some friends." Admittedly, she wasn't sure which of her associates were actually friends at the moment. Kuyou was probably on that list, and Kyon absolutely was. Fujiwara she was still less certain about, though at least he was genuinely trying.

There wasn't any question about Kyouko, who Sasaki had successfully avoided for almost a week, now.

"Tuesday, then," he said, offering a wan smile.

"Tuesday," she agreed.


	44. Chapter 43

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Storm Begins Arc V

Chapter Forty Three: The Storm Breaks

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter Seven: Walking Into the Trap"_

_"To put it simply, as you know you are walking into a trap, any time you feel very confident about your ability to handle it is the ideal time to reconsider."_

_"Roll With the Punches" - Tadamichi Kyousuke_

* * *

Asakura Ryouko had finally determined why the entity had sent her into a situation she was destined to fail.

It had taken a considerable amount of time to download the database that Haruhi had told Ryouko would explain the meaning of the term 'Team Pet', but once she had, Ryouko realized with mild surprise that there was an odd amount of parity data within that database to much of the IDSE's observations of humanity in general. Given enough data points and time to grow, Ryouko suspected that the memetic functions of the database would eventually exceed the input of its users, and from there, might become another one of the entities that the IDSE had observed spanning the worlds of reality.

She doubted it would be any time soon, and judging by which entries Haruhi - and Kyon - had referred her to, she especially doubted it would want to ally with her against the Brigade.

And worse, she'd made absolutely no headway in understanding the bizarre, tangled nest of white-text-ed blue menu-boxes that comprised the majority of her interaction options with the world around her!

It wouldn't be so bad if Yuki would at least give her a clue... Yuki didn't seem to want to interact with her, though, beyond washing her when the slider had commented that Ryouko had gotten dusty.

She wished she could get better communication with Yuki to understand what was going on, but decided that it was ultimately irrelevant. As she was present for the Brigade's planning sessions, she knew all of the details. 'Good child' mode or otherwise, even if she couldn't lie, she wasn't obligated to volunteer information.

Which meant that for all of their preparation to handle Sasaki's allies ... they wouldn't be aware of the presence of Kimidori Emiri until it was too late.

Already forming plans around those contingencies, she'd made a copy of all the data she observed in captivity so far, prepared to pass it off to her fellow loyal IDSE agent. So when her prey finally freed her from the impenetrable cardboard walls of her nighttime prison for the daily journey to school, she waited, as always.

* * *

Considering the myriad contingencies and plans that Haruhi had insisted they set up, Kyon found himself enjoying the lunch meeting. The only worrisome point of the day was that his sister's weekend cold had progressed, and she was home sick... Still, she didn't seem to be contagious, and his mother wasn't too worried about her.

"Say," Haruhi wondered, frowning, distracting him from his thoughts, "how much longer are your aunt and uncle in town, anyway?"

"Uncle Keiichi took her back to Hinamizawa on Saturday," he answered. "He came back this morning, though."

"That's a bit odd. Wouldn't she stay though the weekend? She came early, but left the day after her signing?" Haruhi mused.

Tsuruya giggled, saying, "She probably missed her daughters!"

Kyon nodded; that did make sense. He glanced over to where Kanae was poking at her bento, having only eaten a handful of bites. "What's wrong, Kanae-chan?" he asked. "Nervous?"

She nodded, blushing at the attention.

"It makes sense enough to be nervous ... but unless I mistake things, the greatest of our enemies will be the one that is not present," Koizumi remarked, offering her a smile.

She smiled back nervously. "T...that's true... Um... I guess it's very lucky they aren't around at the same time," she agreed. Then she shook her head. "Ah, but ... Sempai and Koizumi-san can beat them, anyway! So if they're stronger, this should be easier, right?"

"That's what we're thinking," Haruhi agreed. "Koizumi - you're sure you can do it?"

"Thanks to Nagato-san's help, I have significantly more confidence in my abilities," the esper said brightly, nodding. "I tried it last night, just to be sure - it worked without any problems."

Haruhi nodded at that, scanning across the room thoughtfully. Yuki sat at the table reading yet another new manga. The Brigade chief glanced at the title and asked, "'Hoshi no Samidare'? Is it any good?"

Yuki nodded in return, glancing at Kyon. "Unique," she murmured.

He commented, "The artist of that particular manga ... I remember it now. He wanted the English name of the series to be 'The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer'. I actually understand what Yuki-chan is talking about this time when she says it's unique - that one's different, alright."

"Do you think I would like it?" Mikuru wondered.

"Maybe ... come to think of it, the main heroine is named Asahina, too," Kyon answered. "Though she's ... very different from Asahina-san, I think."

The time traveler gave the shorter girl a cautious smile and asked, "Yuki-chan ... do you think I could borrow that when you're done?"

"Yes," Yuki answered softly. "I would be ... happy to lend it to you."

"I like that," Haruhi approved.

Yuki didn't _quite_ smile, but her gaze briefly went to Kanae before returning to Mikuru. "Michikyuu Kanae may also have something for you."

"What's this, then?" Haruhi mused.

Kanae started, then gave a small pout. "If I do, then doesn't Yuki-san have something for Suzumiya-sempai?"

"Now I really want to know!" Haruhi exclaimed, grinning. "What have you two been up to?"

The slider giggled at that, shaking her head. "It's a surprise," she decided, grinning back.

Haruhi looked briefly shocked before she burst into laughter, shrugging her shoulders and ruefully allowing the secret.

Kyon felt a smile forming, unbidden. If the brigade could have moments like this, even in the face of impending conflict, then maybe things would work out. All things considered, he felt remarkably confident about the trap he was supposed to be walking into.

* * *

Within her 'borrowed' office, Miyuki paced back and forth, considering all of the information she had accumulated. As much as it irritated her, she wasn't making any headway on discovering more about Kyon.

She was tracking the motions of the Sumiyoshi-rengo to the best of her ability, and even more of them had crawled into Nishinomiya over the previous few days. The Tsuruya branch of the Yamaguchi-gumi hadn't done anything she'd been able to catch in response yet - except, inexplicably, to arrange for lawyers for the members of Fujiya Masao's gang.

There were a number of lawyers, and Miyuki had fully expected to see some backer revealed; a legal representative couldn't hide his identity while doing his job, normally. In this instance, however, it seemed some unknown figure was behind the legal team, but because he wasn't representing anyone himself, his identity didn't need to be revealed.

That bothered her especially.

She could only think it was done to conceal who was assisting the Tsuruya branch. That worried her, because the Yamaguchi-gumi had no real reason to hide anything they did on that level. Unless ... possibly ... they were hiding a newly joined member of their syndicate?

That could be... Did it somehow tie back to Kyon, though?

She sighed, realizing she wasn't even certain which thread of the complicated mess she was exploring at the moment. One of them would be loose, though...

Interrupting her thoughts, her cell-phone rang. She reflexively answered, "This is Akasaka."

"This is also Akasaka," her father replied, chuckling mildly.

She felt her face color with embarrassment. "Ah, hello, Father!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry- Work has been... Well, you know."

"Indeed I do," he agreed. "And that's why I'm calling you actually."

Miyuki blinked, staring without registering the notification that popped up on her laptop's screen. "You know something about my current case?" she wondered, surprised.

"Hmm? No, but a friend of mine from the country called me recently - you remember him from when you were growing up?"

She frowned, thinking back. He was a bit older than her, she thought... From the same area where- "Kei-san?" she blurted in surprise, turning around and pacing in a small circle, glancing over as her laptop went into power-saving mode and the screen went dark. "I suppose I haven't seen him in a few years, have I?"

"That's right! Miyuki-chan, I worry that you work too hard - like I used to. You haven't got a husband to pull you away from the desk once in a while, so why don't you take some time off work? You supervisor tells me he's worried, too... So join us in the country for a week!"

"A week?" she wondered. She could clear it, she supposed... It wasn't like her current case was going anywhere at the moment. She was effectively stuck again until a new lead came through - though with the leeway from the last bust, she was certain they would give her at least a month and a half.

"Absolutely," he insisted. "The most important part will be the festival at the end - you remember?"

Miyuki laughed softly at that. "Yes... It will be good to see Kei-san and the others... Does Rika-san still perform the ceremony?"

"It's her daughter, now- But you'll come, right?"

"Yes," Miyuki agreed, rubbing at her eyes. "I will - I promise. Thank you for calling me, Father; you're right. Some time in the country, away from work..."

He chuckled. "I'll arrange transportation and everything - just come meet me and your mother in Tokyo by the eleventh."

"I'll come in the evening before," she decided, glancing at the calendar.

"Good; I'll look forward to it! Until then, your mother sends her love. Take care, Miyuki-chan!"

"Thank you, Father," she replied, before disconnecting.

She spent a moment staring at her phone. She hadn't given herself any time off in a long while, she realized. She was so busy trying to accomplish everything before she worried about getting promoted out of the field... Pocketing her phone, she rubbed at her eyes again.

It wouldn't hurt to take a little time off as it was - the rest of the evening, she was sure, would be fine. She was certain she wouldn't miss anything, as hard as mysterious factors had been pushing to hand her information. She'd started at four in the morning, following a dead-end lead that had suggested she would be able to identify the unknown legal-team supervisor... Some rest would be well-deserved, really.

* * *

The clear, warm day felt somehow wrong to Kyouko. Like things should have been much gloomier than they looked - because in reality, they _were_ darker.

The interior of the car was cool enough, thanks to the air conditioning, but she could have done without the present company. Kyouko was fairly sure that Sasaki didn't like Takahashi either, but at the moment, Sasaki wasn't on good speaking terms with Kyouko.

She wasn't placed highly enough in her organization to understand all of the details, but it had been percolating down through the ranks for a while, and some small factors were clear enough. Something with Haruhi and her powers had changed at some point, though it took quite some time for any of their spies to report anything on their enemies.

As far as Kyouko had heard, one of the best of their spies was captured - evidently around the same time that things had gotten changed.

From that, it was clear that the balance of power had shifted away from them, and in Kyouko's perception, her superiors had started trying increasingly desperate measures to try and win things back. Hence the current state of affairs, where no-one was happy.

"Are you clear on what you need to do?" Takahashi asked, causing a nervous shiver to run down Kyouko's spine.

"I don't think it's safe," she mumbled in answer. "W...what if something goes wrong?"

"I don't think about that, and neither should you," Takahashi answered sharply. "Are you _clear_?"

Kyouko looked away. "I'll do it," she said, wishing she didn't sound so weak ... or that she could fight back against Takahashi without- "But, your promise?"

"Do your part, and there will be nothing to worry about," the older woman answered confidently.

Most of all, scrubbing at the tears she could feel forming in her eyes, Kyouko wished she could believe that.

* * *

Confident he could deal with any surprises that Sasaki's friends might have in store, Kyon tried to focus himself on the impending discussion. They did want to talk, so even if it was a trap, there was still the chance of being able to work some sort of compromise out...

...though, if it involved chasing Sasaki with thugs, he suspected he might have to force the issue a bit.

Anxious, unable to settle himself well, he waited before the train station, deciding to wear his coat openly. It garnered a few odd looks, and he didn't _need_ it to be visible, but it should give a clear enough message to Fujiwara or anyone else that he was ready for a fight if it came down to it.

When he turned to look, he spotted Sasaki heading towards him through the evening crowd, her expression clearly relieved as she pushed through the last knot of people to reach his side, slightly short on breath. "Kyon!" she called, smiling. "It's good to see you again!"

"I'm glad to see you're doing well," he allowed. "Or ... are you still being troubled?"

"It seems I'm always troubled these days," she returned, shaking her head slightly. "Thanks to you, though, it's much easier than it could be! I'm very fortunate to have you on my side."

He chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. Praise from Sasaki was almost as rare as praise from Haruhi.

That thought made him feel uncomfortable for some reason, but he managed to keep his smile anyway. "Do you think that we can talk things out peacefully with your friends?" he wondered.

"I'm positive that you can make peace with anyone I would consider a friend," she allowed, her smile slipping before she sighed, her gaze dropping to the sidewalk as she looked away. "Um... Kyon-kun, if it's not too strange, do you think maybe ... we could ... not go?"

He blinked in surprise at that. "Not go?" he wondered. "You mean- You want to put this off?"

She shook her head. "I don't want to do it at all," she clarified. "I can't know everything, but I know enough to be bothered - it feels like ... Kyouko's allies, whoever they are... It feels like they're trying very hard to get you into a specific situation. I don't ... know enough of what you do to understand what exactly that is, but ... it worries me. They must feel they have the advantage in this situation, or they wouldn't have requested this meeting."

He scratched the back of his neck again, even more uncomfortable than before. "If we were to avoid this meeting, what do you think would happen?" he wondered.

She opened her mouth to reply, then sighed, deflating slightly. "Yes ... ignoring the problem wouldn't make it go away... Ah, I wish sometimes it would, though! It's too bad the world can't really work that way, sometimes," she mused.

Kyon found himself forcibly resisting the impulse to take her hand and give her a reassuring hug; this was his friend Sasaki, not one of the girls he was dating, after all. Being close with more than one girl made it difficult to control those nearly subconscious urges. He made a mental note to ask Yuki for help with that, then shook his head, offering Sasaki what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Let's face it and overcome it together," he encouraged. "Maybe it will turn out to be a peaceable discussion after all?"

She gave him another smile, then, the one that she gave him when she humored him, but thought he was wrong. "Perhaps," she allowed.

"If we can't reach an accord, we can still hope that this discussion is civil," he tried, instead.

"That's true," she allowed, giving him a sidelong glance and allowing a tiny, hopeful smile to come to her lips. "I'm not ... certain what it was that passed between you and Fujiwara, but I hope that you can work with him. I know he can be an incredibly rough person, so..."

He gave one last encouraging nod as they stepped through the door into the cafe, and Sasaki spotted her friends, taking a table near the center of the cafe. She led the way with slight reluctance - it was a table, not a booth, and Fujiwara was leaning indolently across the seat at the 'head' of the table, leaving spaces between himself and Kuyou for Kyon and Sasaki. Opposite that side, and looking uncomfortably nervous, was the twin-tailed female esper, Tachibana Kyouko.

Sasaki hesitated a moment, and then took the seat closer to Kuyou, while Ryouko - still in his greatcoat pocket, and presumably invisible to everyone except for possibly Kuyou - began to flail her arms silently in agitation, staring fixedly at the dark-haired girl in undisguised fear.

Uncertain why, but suspecting he probably trusted Kuyou more than Ryouko anyway, he took the seat nearer to the blond, eyeing Fujiwara warily.

For his part, the other time traveler checked his watch with a slight frown, and turned his attention out the front window.

"Well," Sasaki announced, once they had ordered their drinks, "now that we are all here ... what is it that must be discussed?"

"I don't have any investment in this discussion," Fujiwara returned almost instantly. "I'm here by request and for certain other reasons; I have nothing else to say."

"No comments about last Monday?" Kyon wondered, raising an eyebrow.

Fujiwara looked away sharply. "Further information is not available here," he grumbled, prompting Kyon to blink at hearing the phrase he'd come up with to try and avoid 'classified information' from another time-traveler.

"Y...yes, well," Sasaki mumbled, frowning, giving Fujiwara an uncertain look. "Um ... Kuyou-chan?"

Her eyes swung towards Kyon - but seemed to catch on something halfway, and she instead turned to look at Kyouko.

Clearing her throat uncomfortably and staring at the table, Kyouko hesitantly began, "Ah ... this is... S...so, Kyon, I must assume that ... certain person has told you all sorts of unkind things about us..."

"Merely that much is unknown," Kyon offered, shaking his head. "I know more of you from Fujiwara and Sasaki than from Koizumi, if that's what you're getting at."

"W...well, let me explain a little, then," Kyouko continued, seeming to gather a little confidence as she held her teacup between her hands. "Um ... as you know, Suzumiya Haruhi is a person of a certain interest to our groups. What you may not know is that Sasaki is a similar person - and ... the relationship between her and myself is not very different from the relationship between Suzumiya Haruhi and Koizumi. Understand?"

Kyon mulled it over, considering. Sasaki looked doubtful, watching Kyouko warily.

"You're saying," he said slowly, "that Sasaki also generates closed spaces?"

"Yes," she managed, raising her eyes. They looked strangely reddened, and she flinched away the second their eyes met, dropping her gaze and staring fixedly at his tie. "Um ... well, rather than continue ... I can show you what I mean." Hesitantly, she set her hands on the table, palms up. "T...take my hands."

He paused, thinking about things. Wouldn't that be a risk? If Kyouko had powers in closed space, it could end up being very bad for him...

"What exactly do you hope to accomplish with this?" Sasaki wondered, shaking her head with a faintly amused smile. "Kyouko, surely it's time to stop playing that game now?"

Kyon leaned back slightly in his seat and considered things again, trying to surreptitiously keep his eye on Fujiwara. For his part, the blond time-traveler's eyes flicked around, not seeming to target anyone. In a flash of insight, Kyon realize the other time traveler was consulting his augmented reality, probably reading notes or something to do with the current situation.

His first instinct was to decline, but then ... she wanted to show him something, and was asking for his trust. It wasn't like they could just abduct him, like they had tried with Mikuru... Ryouko was too busy being evidently terrified of Kuyou to offer any opinion on the subject, and didn't consider the esper worthy of attention.

"Alright," he allowed, shifting his shoulders and leaning forward to uncertainly take Kyouko's smaller hands in his own. They were slightly damp - the esper must have been nervous about his reluctance.

"Um ... please close your eyes," she mumbled.

He obliged, remembering how Koizumi had shown him closed space once. At least this time, he thought belatedly, it was a girl he was holding hands with.

Kyouko released his hands, and he opened his eyes. The world about him seemed ... almost identical, actually. There was a muted sensation of ... everything somehow, being suppressed, held neatly into a static, stiff state.

"H...here," she said, shifting her shoulders and climbing to her feet. "This ... is the space that Sasaki makes. It covers the entire world."

"And you haven't destroyed it?" Kyon wondered, rising to his feet and following her to the door. Closed spaces were bad, generally. This one seemed to be lacking a shinjin though, at least at the moment. Maybe there was a real difference, because it came from Sasaki?

"Why would we want to?" Kyouko asked, shaking her head. "This place is perfect, isn't it? Suzumiya Haruhi's spaces may be dangerous - but these are ideal!" She seemed about to say more before her eyes shifted away from his and she deflated, her slowly reviving cheer fading away.

"I see," he allowed, less than convinced. For whatever reason, Ryouko had not transfered into the closed space with him ... that was somewhat worrying. "Well ... what is this supposed to show me?"

"It's a lie," she confessed, looking away, her face twisting as though in pain. "But- But-" She shook her head fiercely and shot him a pleading look. "Even if it's just here and now- You must understand that I'm not this sort of person! I wouldn't- I'm sorry, but..." Then her face fell, and she began sobbing in earnest while he remained standing, uncertain of how to react to any of this.

She stamped one foot abruptly and shot him a glare, but it was weak, struggling to pierce her own misery. "I t...told them that your allies had threatened my family!" she accused him. "S...so now... So now if I don't do this ... my family..." She shook her head slowly, tears trickling down her face.

"Calm down," he said insistently. "Explain this to me, and maybe we can help you out."

"I'm sorry," she said, a final time, before her outline wavered, became indistinct, and then, she was gone.

Looking around the space he was trapped in, empty of people, he began to wonder if maybe he should have followed his first instinct.

* * *

Sasaki hadn't expected much from Kyon holding Kyouko's hands, and to her, other than a strange stab of emotion she refused to acknowledge, nothing had happened to either of them.

She opened her mouth to ask what Kyon thought was happening, but before she could even speak, Kuyou had whipped around in her seat with alarming speed, rising to her feet and sending her chair tumbling across the restaurant floor behind her. The green-haired waitress that Sasaki dimly recognized was reaching towards Kyon with a cup of coffee on a saucer, and Kuyou had seized her hand.

Even though it was only her friend grabbing - for some reason - a passing waitress, Sasaki got the distinct impression that both girls were putting all of the strength at their disposal in their odd, unmoving struggle, Kuyou's dark eyes locked intently on the stranger's.

"I've learned enough from our last encounter that this will not go the way you anticipate," the waitress warned.

Kuyou blinked slowly in seeming incomprehension.

Kyouko released a quiet sniffle.

Fujiwara's eyes widened and he turned to look at the twin-tailed girl with an expression of utter horror, even though everyone else was staring at the grappling pair.

The question Sasaki had started to form finally escaped, and she managed to ask, "What's happening?"

"I'm sorry," Kyouko whispered weakly. "I d...didn't want to do that..."

"I told you that in _trust_!" Fujiwara suddenly exploded at Kyouko, throwing his chair behind him as he rose to his feet, glaring at her. "I told you- That was-"

"I'm sorry!" Kyouko cried, flinching in on herself further. "I had to!"

"You stupid-" He blinked suddenly, then spun, charging for the rear exit of the restaurant.

"Someone explain what's going on!" Sasaki cried, becoming more and more concerned, grabbing Kyon's elbow and shaking him gently. "Kyon? Kyon!"

He didn't react, and Sasaki was so distracted with him, she didn't notice the new arrivals until Takahashi's long-familiar goons had surrounded her, hauling her bodily away from Kyon. She tried to make sense of the scene, barely able to keep calm enough to shout for help before a large hand clapped over her mouth.

Abductions in broad daylight? That was too far, even for Takahashi! And why wasn't Kyon moving? His eyes were still closed as though...

No - had Kyouko somehow pricked him with a hidden needle? Maybe some obscure contact sedative? One way or another, they'd drugged or disabled Kyon, she realized, despairing as another group of men dressed identically to the ones pulling her away descended on Kyon. So ... Kyouko's betrayal ... Kuyou was caught up with that strange waitress ... Fujiwara had run away...

And that was how it ended?

"You promised!" Kyouko wailed between tears. "You said my family would be okay, and that you wouldn't hurt Sasa-" The rest of her protest was cut off with the sudden crackling chatter of a stun-gun, and the girl writhed for the duration of the charge in silence before slumping to the floor, eyes crossed and mumbling incoherently.

No ... Kyouko had been betrayed, too...

Sasaki had believed in Kyon, but even he wasn't invulnerable. She felt a nameless, hopeless dread begin to well up as her captors dragged her to the street and shoved her into the back of a minivan, Takahashi's familiar presence in the passenger seat. Her last glimpse before the door shut was of Kyon's prone form being pulled into another van.

Why hadn't she fought harder to avoid the meeting?

* * *

Nervously on standby, Kanae waited with the rest of the brigade that hadn't been sent into the field. At the moment, the only 'fielded' members of the brigade were her sempai and Koizumi; the rest of their support was a handful of carefully placed men that answered to Tsuruya.

Set up around a large table in one of Tsuruya's meeting rooms, Haruhi took center, with Tsuruya to her right, and Mori opposite the pair of them. Mikuru had gotten a proper first-aid kit from somewhere, and it was sitting at the table - thankfully, unused. Kanae was pretty sure that Yuki could take care or any injuries, but understood the need to do something that felt _useful_.

Tsuruya's phone sat face-up in the center of the table, currently echoing the conversations that were going on around Kanae's sempai; Ryouko was passing that on, somehow. "Itsuki-kun is still monitoring the area around the cafe," the woman reported. "Nothing to report yet."

Kanae grew especially nervous when she heard that other girl insist that her sempai should take her hands...

Haruhi didn't seem to like it either, but after some thought Kyon went through with it anyway.

From there, the discussion shifted, Kanae's sempai and Kyouko both falling silent while everyone stared intently at their point of contact.

"A pair of vans are speeding down the street towards the cafe," Mori said with a frown, one fingertip to an ear-piece she was wearing.

"I'm sorry," Kyouko whispered, just barely caught by Kyon's phone and sent to the room they waited in.

"Kanae-chan," Haruhi ordered without hesitation, "go get Kyon."

She didn't even wait to hear the final syllables before jumping to her sempai.

Her jump didn't work quite right, though - she felt herself leaping through space, to that place _between_ spaces - and strangely, somehow ... her sempai was in two places at the same time. She wasn't able to process how that happened quickly enough to react, but some force she didn't understand rebuffed her from one instance of him, and she stumbled, unbalanced into the arms of another.

"W...what?" she managed, looking around in alarm. She was supposed to grab her sempai and then flee to safety, but ... it seemed the two of them were alone in an eerily still, abandoned cafe?

Turning her senses to her sempai, she prepared to grab him and jump away. Except ... somehow ... she could feel that he was _stuck_! Something was holding...

Her head hurt and she released him, raising her hands to her temples and whimpering. "Sempai," she said anxiously, "how are you..." she trailed off as realization set in. He wasn't in two places at once - precisely. Only _part_ of him was in each location.

"What's going on?" he asked her, looking much calmer than she felt.

She wondered if she could fix that. Could she? Yuki would know how to, she was sure... She reached out with her senses, but that same invisible force was _still_ blocking her ability to jump to wherever the rest of him was. "I'm trying to un-stick you," she offered hesitantly. "Um ... how did you get here?"

"Their esper asked to show me something, brought me here, and then left," he said, turning to look around at the eerily still surroundings. "I don't think she was crying in joy when she left me here, either - so it seems she expects something bad to happen if we wait around too long."

"Something ... is blocking my ability to pull the rest of you here," she said in frustration, shaking her head. "It's blocking me from getting to you, too!"

He raised his eyebrows at that. "Probably Fujiwara, then," he deduced, crossing his arms over his chest. "Okay, Kanae-chan. Don't worry about it too much; if things here aren't working, then go ahead and explain what's going on to Haruhi and Yuki-chan, alright?"

She winced at that. So, all of her training, her practice, and her resolve to help her sempai ... and all she could _really_ do was show up and tell him he was sorry she wasn't more useful?

Focusing herself, feeling her will sharpen in her mind until it was keen enough to pierce space itself, she hesitated. Maybe ... maybe she just wasn't trying hard enough. "I will help you, Sempai!" she swore, throwing herself at his other location as hard as she could- Suddenly finding that this time, there was no resistance whatsoever.

Startled, she unleashed a yelp as she found herself in a confined space, sprawled across her sempai's limp form, and surrounded by equally surprised, but more menacing figures. Clinging to the momentum of her jump, she wrapped her arms around the body below her and wrenched herself back to her sempai's original location.

The transition was remarkably simple, once she crossed back, some part of her mind aligning everything that represented her sempai with the other half of him, still waiting in that strange space- Before she could even recover from her stumble, he'd already been restored.

"I... I did it!" she exclaimed happily, feeling intensely dizzy.

He grabbed her in a hug, lifting her off the ground. "That was amazing work, Kanae-chan! I'm so grateful, I won't even tell Haruhi that you disobeyed my order," he assured her.

She gasped as he winked at her, setting her down while her face reddened, unable to deny the twin surges of embarrassment and happiness.

"Alright - what's happening in the real world?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," she confessed. "You were in a van surrounded by some unfamiliar looking men... Not the ones working for Tsuruya-san!"

"Can you take us to the cafe?" he wondered. He glanced at his pocket and added, "Now that she's here, Ryouko should be able to give you coordinates."

"I have them," Ryouko said, her voice strangely shaky. "Confidence rating, sixty five percent."

Kanae wondered what had bothered the small figure, but studied the symbol that Ryouko projected before her in an augmented reality screen. Yuki had trained her how to use those to go to specific locations she was unfamiliar with. Confident she had it, she took her sempai's hand and the pair of them jumped...

This time, she found herself too weak and dizzy to stand after the jump. Her sempai caught her immediately, and she was alarmed to realize that they were in some other, even more different space! How had she missed _reality_? The sky was dark, and the place felt emptier than the last - but not as still. "W...where are we?" Kanae asked, her previous confidence draining away.

"Some place terrifying and dangerous!" Ryouko wailed. "It's a whole universe that ends just past the earth's orbit!"

Her sempai looked around for a moment - they were standing on a sidewalk, not far from what looked like another empty copy of the cafe her sempai had been in. She leaned against him, facing the same direction, incidentally half inside his great-coat, as one of his arms was around her. "I know this place," he said, nodding slightly, just before there was the merest flicker of color, and the cafe exploded.

* * *

The vast majority of Kuyou's spin had recently been readjusted, trying to glimpse the edges of some event that had passed beyond the boundaries of observation. The Chorus reverberated at the lack, keenly resonating, unable to harmonize to something that could not be sensed.

She had to give up, instead searching all that was observable for some trace or record. The Song could not be stretched far enough to reclaim what was lost, and it had taken almost four million rotations to repair the damage done to her projected form.

In that time, her observations revealed that she had attempted to occult Kyon from danger, encountering Kimidori Emiri. After that, Kuyou observed that she had shifted her frequency into Noise, or some other state that was outside of the Song.

Observing further events, she saw that another encounter between Kyon and Kimidori Emiri was approaching. At the suggestion of an instance of Fujiwara, she narrowed her focus to that smaller band of herself, and entered a construct of various inert masses, some of which were more conductive of energy than others.

Kuyou had not known what form the conflict would take, only that it would occur. The entire Chorus resonated with possibility from the coming encounter, after all.

From the beginning, which started with simple memetic exchanges, Kuyou's focus and spin were devoted entirely onto expanding her awareness and maintaining her shadow-song, weaving those distant strings carefully. She felt the Chorus tremble with the impact of Kyouko's action as she altered Kyon's vibrational frequency.

Noise spread from the space around them, the Chorus automatically redirecting the imbalance against itself. This backlash would cause Kyon's form to change, substituting atomic portions of his makeup with other matter, until he was redistributed through the material of the Song. Just as automatically, she redirected some of her spin to counter that effect.

She wondered what it meant that she had failed to otherwise occult him, until she became aware of the presence of Kimidori Emiri, subtly shaping string as her physical form's hand moved across the table towards Kyon. The entity had tried to conceal a quantum probability alteration within the confines of an irregular crystal assembled from hardened aluminum silicate, needing only to be correctly aligned with the space before Kuyou to trigger. Kuyou intercepted the hand and locked gazes with Kimidori, sending spin to her shadow-song to work around the limitations of Sasaki's observation.

The physical strength the two brought to bear was nothing beyond what should be possible for a human body - neither was willing to exceed that, yet.

Another, smaller entity, this one evidently subordinate to Kyon, judging by its position in his pocket, frantically made strange gestures at her, and looked pleadingly at Kuyou's opponent. Sensing the impending transmission, Kuyou whispered a single note, increasing her memetic density to capture the transfer between the entity in Kyon's pocket and Kuyou's opponent.

Unable to make sense of the arrangement, she stretched her observation of it to extend to some point several million rotations away, incidentally destroying the string composing it, while preserving the raw memetics. Strange.

Around the embattled pair, unfamiliar humans entered the location and physically removed Sasaki.

Kuyou thought that was good. The removal of her observation would allow Kuyou to expend the several minutes of spin from her shadow-song simultaneously. More unfamiliar humans had physically removed Kyon, which she determined was another failure to correctly occult him. The Chorus observed and echoed to her that an Other had adjusted Kyon's state somehow, restored to a form that did not generate Noise.

This was a profound observation; never before had an Other been observed intentionally preserving the harmony of the Song.

She was aware of the Chorus reacting to the reverberations, but adjusted her focus to a tighter span, directing her observations into an even smaller space once more.

Emiri stared at her, neither of them blinking. Kuyou counted five rotations, and the instant that all of her required elements were free of dangerous observation, she altered the vibrations of herself and her opponent to her shadow-song, simultaneously expanding her awareness. The next rotation, she converted her stored spin into direct physical force, shattering most of Emiri's carefully constructed string assemblies, and sending the rest too far away to work correctly.

Some aspect of Emiri's being acted to preserve her physical form. Kuyou attuned herself perfectly to the collection of mostly iron and oxygen below her, expanding its influence on Emiri by orders of magnitude, and struggling - but managing to limit the effects to Emiri's physical form alone.

The entity's form was not intended to be subjected to that much gravity, but hers held together with an echoing discordance, and Kuyou spared a rotation to observe that string arrays deflected the worst of the force as Emiri's form bored straight down. It took Kimidori Emiri fifty five rotations to assemble a structure from string that allowed her to escape, and at that point she was somewhere between the sphere below her, and the smaller attendant that orbited it.

Tidal stresses and castoff energy from Emiri's passage would cause the entire mass of the larger sphere to collapse into a molten morass within the next million rotations. She would need to stretch them, but in her observation, living beings did not endure that well.

Kuyou turned her attention to her surroundings, seeing Kyon in the street with the trembling Other. The street was torn up from the backlash of her released power, and most of the buildings in the vicinity had been obliterated, lying in disorganized jumbles of parts. The street just beneath Kyon was undamaged in a perfect circle.

"I have the strange idea that this is going to happen every time I end up in your space," Kyon remarked. "Was this another miscalculation?"

"That event is outside of my observation," she answered, reaching a hand out towards him. He started at something, reacting to a memetic projection from the entity at his side.

He turned to the smaller entity, nodding as he pocketed the assembly that directed most of the energies arranged around him. Those energies reformed, protecting the Other at his side from more hostile background forces.

"Before anything else, Suou-san," Kyon asked cautiously, "can you tell me what Tachibana was planning with that?"

She shook her head.

Frowning slightly, Kyon nodded and took Kuyou's hand as she adjusted their frequencies, returning them to the Song proper.

* * *

Yuki would have been much more comfortable following the boy she enjoyed spending so much time with more closely, but at the moment that was Koizumi's task. She also would have liked to retrieve Kyon when it seemed that - somehow - Tachibana Kyouko trapped him somewhere, but that task was assigned to Michikyuu Kanae.

Her assignment at the moment was to watch for enemy interfaces, though she couldn't sense any from her current location. Unbidden, a notification from the memories she had sealed away recently registered, and in response, she slightly altered the structure of the trap she had assembled to try and capture any sliders that might happen to interrupt.

"Incoming," she announced, two seconds before half of the room was filled with a crackling sphere of dark energy, immense tidal forces compressed into a thin shell. The power was threatening impossible damage in terms of energy-bleed-off, yet sharply constrained within a shell that just avoided all contact with the protective field that Kyon had authorized Haruhi and Yuki to establish earlier.

Interesting.

Suou Kuyou's space manipulations were more primitive - but also more graceful - than Yuki had expected. Haruhi and the others reacted instantly, leaping to their feet in alarm - except for Mikuru, who squealed and dove behind Haruhi.

The energy abruptly dispersed, leaving Kyon in his combat dress, holding one of Kanae's hands, and one of Suou Kuyou's. "Safe," the other entity announced, completely disregarding the surrounding environment to stare fixedly into Kyon's eyes.

"Good!" Haruhi exclaimed, nodding, her attention fixed on Kuyou. "So, successful extraction! Brilliant work, Kanae-chan- And Kyon, you've brought Kuyou in as an ally?"

Kuyou offered a single languorous blink. "Ally," she echoed quietly, slowly turning to face Haruhi, the faintest suggestions of curiosity on her face.

Yuki was not convinced that Haruhi's analysis was accurate.

"Of course!" Haruhi continued. "So - we're all allies because we help one-another and work together. You want to join us, right?"

Kuyou's head cocked slightly to one side as she seemed to consider it. With strange deliberation, Kuyou plucked Ryouko's form from Kyon's pocket in both hands, holding up the wildly flailing - but muted - entity and contemplating her. "Ally," she repeated.

Haruhi tapped her bottom lip thoughtfully. "Well ... in her case, she's slow to start up... So, she's bound to Kyon to help him out, but-"

"I am an ally," Kuyou replied without hesitation, not letting Haruhi finish her statement.

The brigade chief was mildly taken aback. "You... You want to be connected to Kyon like Ryouko is?"

Kuyou nodded, again without hesitation.

Haruhi put her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows, studying the dark-haired girl with concern. "Why do you want that?"

"Sympathy," Kuyou said. After another blink, she added, "Resonance."

"So she can learn to communicate with Ryouko better," Kyon realized aloud.

Haruhi studied the dark-haired girl thoughtfully for a long minute before allowing a slow nod. "Well, okay, but in your case, if you change your mind, that's fine, too," she decided.

"What happened at the cafe, anyway?" Kyon asked, moving Kanae's wobbling form to a seat and gently setting her down. Mikuru broke from her uncertainty and moved to the slider's side, patting her wrist and checking her vitals. Yuki thought that was productive; the slider was unharmed, but would be reassured by the time-traveler.

"Men from Kyouko's organization abducted Sasaki," Mori offered with a frown. "Evidently they abandoned her, as well - this seems like a last-ditch effort on their part; it's absolutely desperate."

"Wait- They abducted-" He shook his head. "Where is she?"

"Hey, her allies just tried to trap you somewhere!" Haruhi protested. "And you're worried about her? One thing at a time- Yuki-chan, if Kuyou wants to help us out, then I guess it's fine to bring her in like Ryouko - maybe she'll be a good role-model for her, anyway."

Yuki nodded. "Program loaded," she announced, turning to Kyon. "Permission to proceed?"

"Okay - Suou-san, if you want to join us, then I guess I don't have a problem with it, but before we have time to really chat, we have to rescue Sasaki," he explained.

"Okay," she repeated back to him.

Deciding that was confirmation enough, Yuki let Haruhi's change propagate, confining Kuyou's unfamiliar power and being into a knowable form. Something escaped her makeup - a memetic transfer designed for interfaces such as Yuki, not Kuyou - and Yuki accessed it curiously, finding it the most recognizable part of Kuyou. It was strangely intimate, with Kuyou submitting entirely to Yuki's manipulations, and Yuki - for her part - proceeding as cautiously as possible, not wanting in any way to damage the other entity.

Even doing as much as she did required releasing all of her own control over some aspects of Haruhi's power, relying instead on Haruhi's vague, inexplicable - but evidently effective - desire for it to work. Within Kuyou's being, only accessible with Haruhi's assistance, was a memetic imprint, impossibly hidden and preserved behind what _should_ have been an irreconcilable data-transform. Almost as though, somewhere within Kuyou's physical being, there was an event horizon.

The metaphysical space within Kuyou's being stretched and warped time within her oddly, destroying anything Yuki recognized as data except for that single record - a recording that Ryouko had made, intended for Kimidori. As she considered that, the seal on her own memory released, allowing her to understand that Ryouko's failure was pre-determined.

Therefore, the data had to be presented to Kuyou somehow. But in the strange landscape of Kuyou's makeup, where were the other entity's own memories? How did she record and preserve information?

Unable to determine that, she released full control over those aspects of the change, trusting in Kyon's decision to allow Haruhi's power to work.

* * *

As tense as things were at the moment considering their situation, they were going surprisingly well. No one had been hurt, and they might even have acquired a new ally. Tsuruya was hopeful for that, at least; she didn't like when her friends got upset about the seeming enormity of their problems. Considering how easily they brushed off the worst _she_ had ever dealt with alone...

"Hang on a minute," Haruhi said, frowning. "Yuki-chan, is it done? I didn't see anything!"

"It was ... subtle," Yuki replied, her eyes fixed on Kuyou's figure.

"No chibi-mode?" Tsuruya wondered, hoping to break the tension slightly.

"Not currently enabled."

"Unfair!" Ryouko protested, while the brigade's vice commander adopted a deepening, silent scowl.

After everything that happened, Kyon looked more worried than irate, in Tsuruya's estimation. And it involved Sasaki, which was a sticking point for Haruhi, still...

Deciding to step in before things got out of hand, Tsuruya coughed quietly and placed one hand flat on the table before her. "Haru-nyan," she said, "we should prioritize - but even then, there are enough of us, aren't there?"

Haruhi bit off whatever she was going to say to Yuki and turned to look at Tsuruya quizzically.

"Yuki-chan, is Suou-san safe with us?" the heiress asked.

The smaller figure broke from her study of Kuyou's impassive features, then nodded.

"Okay," Tsuruya continued, nodding, "Kyon-kun and Yuki-chan can rescue Sasaki - the rest of us can interview Suou-san and find out more about her. And since we're sending out those two, we know they will come back safe and soon!"

"Alright," Haruhi allowed, with surprisingly little hesitation, adopting a slight frown. "Kyon- Be careful, and come back as soon as you rescue her. We should probably pick up Kyouko, too."

"Yes," Kuyou agreed, blinking once.

Kyon gave a terse nod at that, handing Ryouko to Kuyou, who accepted the flailing, terrified chibi with unchanging blankness. Yuki took his free hand, and Kanae stirred in her seat a heartbeat too late; Yuki and Kyon were gone when she tried to protest, "Mm, Sempai, I can help..."

"More rest for you," Mikuru countered with stern warmth. "Kyon-kun and Yuki-chan will take care of it."

Haruhi crossed her arms over her chest and sighed, turning her attention to Kuyou. "So ... tell us about yourself, Suou - why did you want to be ... er ... tied to Kyon like that?" she prompted.

"The _ of his ambit is greater than its area," she answered. "He is like _. I am _ to him."

Tsuruya rubbed at her ears, shivering at those strange gaps in her speech. Ryouko stopped flailing, her small form blinking. "Oh," she said quietly, giving the other being a surprisingly warm smile. "I have decoded one of those gaps!"

"Yeah?" Haruhi wondered, while Mikuru looked up, scanning across the assembly once Kanae finally settled back down.

"Um ... the meaning is a bit strange, because she's talking on a different scale, but she's saying she's pulled to Kyon-"

"Attracted?" Haruhi interjected.

Ryouko nodded at that, her terror vanishing. "Yeah! Somehow, she thinks Kyon's attractive!"

"I am attracted to him," Kuyou repeated, mirroring Ryouko's nod.

Pacing towards the dark-haired girl and examining her closely, Haruhi wondered, "What does that mean to you? You're here for Kyon, then?"

"I followed the _ of his _ and observed his attraction via effects on others," she clarified. "He has attracted you the same way."

"Those were 'echo' and 'influence'!" Ryouko cheered. "We're building a communication library! But ... why root it in something as basic as language?"

Haruhi's eyes widened at that. "Y...you don't care about ... anyone else? Just Kyon?"

Kuyou paused and considered Haruhi's question. "Sasaki is my friend," she offered after some thought. "Kyon is my friend. Kyon occults Sasaki; I occult Kyon."

"Why did you want to be linked to Kyon, though?" Tsuruya asked again. "Last time, there were gaps when you tried to explain that. Do you have the words now?"

Kuyou considered this, cocking her head slightly to one side. "Persistent ... observation," she mumbled, her eyes clouding. She blinked again, then several times in rapid succession, before her eyes drifted closed and she froze utterly, her hair still in a dark halo.

"Itsuki-kun has successfully retrieved Kyouko," Mori noted. "Arakawa has Kyon-kun and Nagato in pursuit of Sasaki."

"Well, that's good, but... Tsu-chan, did you just break Suou-san?" Haruhi wondered.

"I don't get it!" Ryouko complained. "It's like she suddenly got overwhelmed as soon as she tried to access a memory!"

Haruhi frowned at that. "Okay - let's get this figured out while Kyon's saving the day. _Again_."

* * *

Kyon realized he'd forgotten to close his eyes to brace for the disorientation of teleporting only after he landed in the rear seat of the car Arakawa was driving. Yuki was right next to him, eyes going forward, to the cityscape as it blurred past them on either side.

Come to think of it, though... He really didn't feel disoriented from it anymore.

He shook his head to banish that thought, squinting as he stared forward, reflexively reaching for his seat belt before stopping. In this instance, he could rely on his other defenses; he might need to get out of the car at a moment's notice.

The white van was only a few car lengths ahead of them, both that driver and Arakawa going well above the speed limit through what Kyon realized was an industrial district - though not one he recognized. Most of his attention was on the vehicle with Sasaki held inside it, however.

Kyon braced himself against the vehicle's mass with his gravity field, bleeding off his personnel momentum effortlessly when Arakawa suddenly braked. He guessed that Yuki did the same, though she didn't need the metal studs or any other visible means to do it. Ahead of them, the van had suddenly swerved to one side, driving through the just-opening double-doors to a steel-walled warehouse.

From the street where their car had stopped, they could see the van had halted too, near the center of the warehouse, beneath a conspicuous pool of light.

"I'll block the door with the car," Arakawa decided, swiftly gunning the car forward, skidding to a halt between the warehouse's large doors. Kyon and Yuki wasted no time, immediately leaping out. From where he and the girl crossed into the shadow of the warehouse's dark interior, Kyon stumbled to a stop, unable to see. There was an abrupt flash as the doors behind him slammed shut, pinning the car in place - and Arakawa inside.

The further wall of the warehouse opened up, revealing that the back was a door also. Kyon bit back a scream of anger when four identical white vans sped out in a tight cluster - revealed between himself and the vehicles were the forms of at least a dozen figures in familiar-looking suits.

Lights throughout the warehouse began to flicker on, slow halogen bulbs that revealed the arena bit-by-bit, showing that Kyon's initial guess had been low. There were better than thirty smirking Sumiyoshi-rengo crowded around the room, all of them armed with long knives, metal pipes, brass knuckles, or other melee weapons of choice. One of the nearer men actually had a sword, along with a pair further into the crowd.

"I don't have time for this!" he protested, eyeing the men unhappily. "Are you serious?"

Belatedly, he noticed clusters of cameras ringing the lighting rigs in the ceiling. Well ... that wasn't going to help him out.

Yuki took a defensive stance at his side, and Kyon reached for one his weapons, deciding to cut things short. The net launcher wasn't efficient enough for so many targets, but there was a sonic-based canon that should do the trick. He pulled it out and leveled it at the nearest group of three, a handful of paces away.

They tensed, but when he pulled the trigger ... nothing happened.

The man with a sword chuckled, stepping forward for an overhand chop while the boy stared at his sidearm blankly. How had that happened? Even when he thrust it back into his greatcoat, it remained stuck, inert in the form it had last been in, not collapsing back into a cylinder.

He slid backwards reflexively, as Yuki stepped across him, one hand expertly slapping the blade to one side, sending it clattering to the floor - along with a splash of crimson from her opened palm. She froze, turning to look at her injury in consternation.

At the same moment she found herself uncertain, Kyon was galvanized. His invulnerable goddess, injured by some petty boryokudan member?

Unacceptable.

He registered, dimly, that something was wrong. He knew without trying anything heavy that his gravity manipulation wouldn't work. His forcefield wouldn't be reliable... Part of this trap had been to disable their unnatural advantages. And why wouldn't it? Their enemy had the ability to gather information on them, too...

Running away from the thug he did what he had to. "I wish I didn't have to this," he apologized, knowing he was leaving Nagato behind him as he moved.

The thug grunted something he couldn't make out as the edge of Kyon's foot found its way beneath the discarded blade, and effortlessly kicked the weapon up into his hands. Prepared, Kyon spun and lunged back to face his foe, ready to defend Nagato until reinforcements arrived.


	45. Chapter 44

Kyon: Big Damn Hero

The Open Battle Arc I

Chapter Forty Four: Declaration of War

Disclaimer: The novel series of Suzumiya Haruhi that began with 'The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi' is the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. No disrespect is intended by the posting of this fanfiction, as I do not own the characters or settings involved. I'm merely dabbling with another set of paints. TVTropes (the website) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (and it's possible that this fic technically is, too; seems fair to me). Additional characters are borrowed from Higurashi, which is the creation of Ryukishi07.

Notes: Count the tropes! Save, collect, trade for swell prizes!

* * *

_"Chapter One: Faith"_

_"Faith is an odd thing, insofar as the idea is entirely unscientific, yet simultaneously, so vastly appealing. Is it some missed quirk of evolution, imbuing us with something we do not need? Or is that egotism, and it's foolish to think we've evolved beyond whatever gifts this idea has to offer us so soon? Drawing from Pascal's Wager ... does the risk of having faith outweigh the reward?"_

_"Tending the Flame" - [The author's name has been charred from the document]_

* * *

Still uncertain what was going on, Sasaki found herself bundled into the back of the van, a large man on either side of her holding her arms immobilized. Ahead of her, in the passenger seat, Takahashi growled constantly into her cell-phone, ignoring everything else. For reasons that Sasaki didn't entirely understand, the seat before her had a pile of electrical equipment, most of which seemed to be designed to power and provide a signal for the small television screen that was placed just before her.

She could only imagine that on top of everything else, her captors were sadists. Why else would they go through so much effort to show her Kyon and his other friend versus all those thugs?

Her heart was racing with anxiety from the moment Kyon expertly lashed out with one foot. The sword that Yuki had somehow disarmed from one of the men flashed into Kyon's hands, and with frighteningly smooth movements, the boy lunged forward, stepping just past where Yuki crouched on the floor.

She knew, on an intellectual level, what the technicalities of his form were. She couldn't name his style, but he kept a perfect, flawless economy of movement, one wide swing very early on establishing the hard-edged circle of his reach. He shifted his feet, a light, balanced stance with the sword in a high guard position.

Four men fell on him simultaneously; he spun smoothly, a single hard arc disarming the closest - with a lead pipe in hand - before continuing on to the next, cutting deeply into a chain-wielder's bicep before abruptly wrenching the sword back and dancing back a half-step, swatting with the flat of the blade to deflect a much smaller knife. Kyon's mastery of the blade gave his attackers pause - long enough for him to free one hand from the weapon's hilt and tear his handkerchief from his coat pocket.

He cast it towards Yuki's form, just behind him, without a second glance.

The vehicle Sasaki was in gave a sharp lurch, the driver swearing something quietly, but Sasaki couldn't look away from Kyon's ordeal - silent though it was at the moment.

Despite her injury, Yuki caught the handkerchief and swiftly bound her hand, rising to her feet with a blank expression. When the men surrounding the pair began to fan out, the smaller girl lunged at Kyon - for a heartbeat, Sasaki thought she was hugging him for moral support. The men chose that moment to rush the pair, and Yuki broke free at the same instant that Kyon described another warning arc through the air before him.

When the girl spun away, she had Kyon's stun-gun in her hand - Sasaki remembered him using that one well enough. Surely it would be more effective than that toy he'd gone for first!

Backs pressed together as they eyed the encroaching men, Sasaki couldn't help the tears that flooded her eyes. Was this how it was to end? She'd involved Kyon hoping he could help her, and then...

...she closed her eyes.

"Hey!" the technician yelped. "Stop her - this doesn't work if she doesn't watch!"

The man on her right gave her a rough shake. "Look," he said insistently. "Keep watching!"

She flinched back, her eyes opening reflexively. What could that mean? Why did they need her to watch? Her eyes waver with tears at the sight of another assailant with a sword, gesturing his companions back and motioning Kyon to approach for a one-on-one duel. Surely he wouldn't... Would he?

* * *

After a few bloody exchanges, leaving Kyon shaken and alarmed at how easy it was to draw blood simply by following techniques that he had learned... Techniques that were designed to kill people, he reminded himself, pulling another slash short, leaving a Sumiyoshi-rengo attacker with a deeply cut forearm - instead of severing the limb.

The man fell backwards with a spray of red and a cry of pain, and another swordsman stepped out, motioning the others back and giving Kyon a solemn nod. "You've some training," he warned, sheathing his weapon from a half-dozen paces away, holding it in place and taking a stance that the boy identified as an iajutsu form.

He had no intention of rushing from Yuki's side to assault a quick-draw specialist, so switched to a high-guard position, both hands on the hilt of his weapon, and took a single step to one side of the girl - still in easy reach should any of the attackers lunge for her. The older swordsman studied Kyon's defenses and allowed a tiny smile.

"Perhaps," he said, in a remarkably doubtful tone, "it will be enough."

With that warning, the Sumiyoshi-rengo swordsman charged; even prepared for it, Kyon was almost caught off-guard by the blinding speed of the man's rushing iajutsu attack. He only crossed a fraction of the distance with his feet; his entire body was an extension of his sword and he launched himself forward, drawing and swinging the blade about in a merciless slash that promised to cut his opponent in half. It took all of Kyon's strength to bring his borrowed sword down fast enough to catch the other man's blade.

What probably should have been a lethal bisection was deflected into a shallow - but alarmingly painless - slash across Kyon's forearm before he pinned the other man's blade. The swordsman had just enough time to look surprised as Kyon's borrowed sword snapped, the edge not designed to block such a forceful attack, and the boy then punched the side of the swordsman's face with a fist clenching the hilt.

He recovered less smoothly than he would have liked, reinforcements already surging in before the duelist conceded defeat. Kyon didn't wait for confirmation either, taking the sword that was still decorated with his blood and backing up, trying to calm himself down from the surge of anger and adrenaline.

With Yuki's small form just behind him, the pair of them pressed back-to-back, Kyon knew that retreat wasn't an option. There were too many enemies between him and the other exit, and Arakawa was trapped in his car for the moment. Well, either the car, or a wall ... there weren't many terrain features to chose from.

"Next to the car," he barked. Another slash of his borrowed sword - already badly nicked and notched from blocking - and he moved a half-step closer to the vehicle, Yuki perfectly in sync with him. He heard the crackle of electrical discharge - except...

Yuki somehow had a way to get his weapons to work, even with whatever was suppressing them?

He would have dearly loved to switch to the energy sword instead of the real one, but he didn't know if it would work - the steel in his hands was less likely to fail, and sacrificing it or exposing the beam-saber to whatever nullifying effect was going on needlessly... He flinched as another frantic defensive slash raised a splash of brilliant crimson and a cry of agony from the opposing Sumiyoshi-rengo.

He hadn't wanted to do that; it wasn't the first time he'd drawn blood, either. He tried to console himself with the fact that he'd probably done worse damage with his bare hands in the past, in some cases. As the katana's metal edge - not really designed to block, as he'd been using it - took damage, it became more vicious. A smooth blade would cut flesh, but the more jagged tears would not only leave the blade catching on his enemies and their clothes, it could potentially leave nastier wounds.

And eventually, this blade was going to snap, too. He could probably use the shorter length as a knife, but traditionally the edge closest to the hilt wasn't very sharp, anyway. Really, he was beginning to realize the value of carrying around a collapsible baton, after all.

As it was, every glance at Yuki showed her fighting in a way he'd never seen before. Almost no power, but horrifyingly efficient finesse. She was utilizing an economy of movement - between debilitating electrical blasts - she had reduced her move library to a very short list that included throat-chops, among other brutal, disabling strikes.

Would she end up killing these men to survive, he wondered? Normally, he wouldn't see the risk ... even slider energy-weapons had been negated by his shielding. But without that shielding... On the one hand, if it came down to it ... he would. He couldn't fault her for doing the same. But then, on the other hand, because he didn't relish the task, he couldn't run from that responsibility and make her shoulder the entire burden.

On the gripping hand - these people had hurt Yuki. Even if he didn't want to kill them, he _did_ want to make them pay - and he wasn't about to let them hurt her again, if he could help it. Whatever else happened, he needed to make sure that Yuki didn't get hurt again. Setting his jaw grimly, he stepped past the next wayward smash towards him with a lead pipe and repaid it with a wicked slash along the man's arm, cutting to the bone and sending the weapon flying.

The injured man cried out in alarm and reeled back, clutching at his bleeding wound, the sword tearing free, narrowly brought to bear in time to deflect a shorter knife. He kicked away another attacker, then fell back at the same time as Yuki, the pair of them bracing against one-another, though he had to be careful not to bowl her over, considering her slighter weight.

He'd already taken a handful of glancing blows with blunt weapons - at least he'd avoided most blades, and none of his enemies had thought to bring chains. Even so, his weapon wasn't going to last long enough to put every man on the floor - and if he took too long, the early injuries could get worse. None of the enemy fighters seemed to be showing concern for the handful that were crawling or staggering away, clutching at their wounds and moaning.

No ... without something to turn the tables, he didn't see a way for he and Yuki to pull off a victory without killing some of the men in the room - starting from the moment the katana in his hands would break. He'd hold out as long as he could ... kill as little as possible.

Why hadn't they thought of contingencies for _this_? Every plan involved using powers or supernatural phenomenon to escape...

* * *

While she was still annoyed about how things were working out, Haruhi tried to calm herself. One way or another, she had a mystery to unravel - the purpose and function of the mysterious Suou Kuyou. Kyon might be out there, having an adventure, but she was making contact with a new kind of alien!

...provided that Tsuruya didn't just break her, anyway. "So," she said, frowning, "Kuyou? Are you there?"

The dark-haired alien remained frozen.

Haruhi pursed her lips at that, and waved a hand before the impassive girl's face.

"Maybe it was a bad memory?" Tsuruya posed thoughtfully.

"It's the only memory I know she has!" Ryouko declared. "I don't recognize her other memories!"

Haruhi squinted at Kuyou. "You said ... 'persistent observation'. Kuyou ... is it that ... whatever you are, your kind normally doesn't have memories?" she wondered.

Kuyou blinked at that, very slowly, as though roused from her reverie. "We do not," she said slowly, picking her words with obvious care before, "_ observations."

"'Retain'," Ryouko said very quietly, looking baffled. "So ... that's why ... communication was so hard... Sentience without memory ... and the IDSE doesn't have a good way to communicate to a non-data entity without using data!"

"Huh?" Kanae managed somewhat dazedly. "But then ... how could she know anything? Like sempai's nick-name? If she can't remember things, how does she know she likes him?" Mikuru pursed her lips and nodded thoughtfully in agreement with the question.

"Current observational scope includes all _ echoes within 1.345x10^11 rotations," Kuyou added.

"That one is 'light'," Ryouko added helpfully. "And that measure of time means ... back to a point on July seventh-"

"About four years ago," Haruhi completed excitedly, before Ryouko could finish. "So ... you saw the message I sent!"

Kuyou blinked several times. "You did not send a message," she replied.

"What are you talking about?" Haruhi complained. "I made up the pattern, something I felt should mean, 'I am here,' and then-"

"You did not send a message."

Haruhi's mouth fell open a short distance.

"I cannot observe him directly from within the Chorus," Kuyou added, in explanation. "I can observe his effects on other entities of similar luminosity, like you, or Sasaki. From observing her _ stresses, I came to observe her relation to Kyon. Sasaki and I are synchronized, so my relationship to him is identical to hers," she explained, before turning to Haruhi.

"'Tidal'," Ryouko offered. "Hmm, that sounds rather like some form of mega-scale spooky action at a distance. Like Kuyou created an interface, and for the parts she couldn't figure out, she just copied Sasaki..."

"Sasaki's observation causes resonant inversion," Kuyou continued, before blinking. "She influences the Chorus; wave-forms she will not observe cannot collapse in her awareness."

"Um ... Sasaki messed up her synchronization process, I think?" Ryouko mused. "So, if Kuyou had done it right ... she would have made a perfect copy of Sasaki, but Sasaki's power made her turn into ... this instead."

"You make it sound like we're all objects in space, captured in Kyon's gravitational field," Haruhi said slowly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kuyou seemed to brighten very faintly at that comment, merely repeating, "I am attracted to him."

"So, Kyon's got some strange power to make girls fall for him?"

"M...more importantly, what's this about Sasaki preventing waveforms from collapsing?" Mikuru asked anxiously.

"Waveforms ... this is about probabilities, right?" Haruhi wondered. "So, you're saying she alters probability?"

"She prevents probabilities she will not observe," Kuyou clarified.

"Like ... when Sempai was stuck halfway in that strange space, in two places at once, and I couldn't move him?" Kanae asked, eyes widening. "It was because Sasaki-san was watching him?"

"Yes."

"What!" Haruhi exploded. "We just sent Kyon and Yuki after her - when she can _nullify their powers_!?"

Mori gasped at that, her eyes widening in realization. "Itsuki-kun!"

* * *

Taiso Daisuke considered himself among the top tier of hand-to-hand combatants in his profession. In his life he'd encountered a small handful of people better than him, and he'd determined very quickly that four of those people were in the room with him presently.

Two of them he'd expected. Firstly, Suzuki Hiroshi, swordsman extraordinaire - for all the good that had done him. Iajutsu was flashy, and usually effective, but when it failed, well, it got someone sucker-punched, and his sword stolen.

Secondly, good old Yokoharu Jiro. Even in his forties, he maintained an impressive physique, and many a younger enemy of the Sumiyoshi-rengo had underestimated him. Few lived to regret it.

The other two, he had not. He gauged that if the boy - the supposed 'Kowa-Keigo Kyon' - were not specifically trying to avoid killing his enemies, he could have dispatched the majority of them without much trouble, once he'd gotten the sword.

The girl, on the other hand, while injured, had just stepped inside Jiro's guard. Before the man could even react, the girl slammed the barrel of the stun-gun she had taken from the boy into the man's chin, firing and discharging simultaneously. Somehow, after watching the boy dismantle an expert swordsman, that much wasn't as shocking as it might have been.

Even with another fifteen men still up and armed, Taiso was beginning to suspect that the current approach was a waste of time. The man who tried to push the girl away from Jiro - or at least break her hold on the weapon - was rebuffed with a powerful slam from the hilt of the sword in the boy's hand to the man's temple, sending him tumbling away to land in a sprawling heap.

The boy's smooth recovery left him bringing the sword back - momentarily warding off three more assailants before his borrowed weapon caught on a cudgel - and shattered. Kyon seemed unsurprised, and instantly adjusted to the much shorter length of blade remaining attached, holding it easily in one hand instead of two. Taiso supposed that made sense.

Still, it had been long enough - and more importantly, enough Sumiyoshi-rengo had been injured (some of them quite badly) for nothing. He whistled loudly, reaching into his coat and pulling out the handgun he intended to finish things with.

At that cue, there was a shower of sparks from the lighting rigs near the ceiling- He looked up in alarm, as did all of the men around Kyon and his small companion. A faint, almost imperceptible red haze seemed to smudge the air around them - while up in the ceiling, streamers of ... what was that, some strange form of slow, red lightning?

Whatever it was - it was chewing through wires and girders, raining down sparks, bits of shaved off plastic, the cameras that Taiso and his companions had spent two days rigging up at the advice of their informant...

He yelped, diving to one side as the dozens of small pieces of electronics began to rain down en masse, every single one cut free of the suspension within the span of a few seconds. When he looked back at Kyon, the terrifying figure merely drew himself from his defensive stance to standing completely upright. The red haze over him and his partner intensified into an easily visible dome of crimson energy, occasionally flickering with a blue discharge of what looked like electricity crawling across the surface as it covered the pair, and a good portion of the car behind them.

A handful of crackling streamers at the edges of the dome licked out, casually slicing through the heavy door segments around the trapped vehicle. As the steel door crashed open, panels reverberating loudly against the ground outside the warehouse, the lights shut out, leaving all of the illumination in the room from the strange red glow, and the newly-carved hole in the wall around the black sedan.

Taiso yelped when he found himself surrounded by a handful of spinning red rings - and every other man of the Sumiyoshi-rengo likewise found themselves trapped in the same force that evidently cut through metal with little resistance.

"What the hell is going on?" someone screamed in terror.

Kyon snorted, shaking his head and reaching for his pocket, frowning at something or another as the red dome of energy drew away from the entrance and coalesced into a humanoid shape just before the duo in the car. The figure was somewhat vague, indistinct and flickering, and one of the red being's limbs was directed towards the Sumiyoshi-rengo.

Seeing an obvious target, Taiso didn't hesitate - he had clear shots at all three, now.

The gun rose smoothly, and just as swiftly as he raised it, even as his finger was squeezing down on the trigger - the weapon in his hand flashed with crimson energy and collapsed into a pile of smoothly severed shards. He had the brief, terrifying glimpse of a perfect cross-section of the weapon's handle - clip, bullets, and all - tumbling free of his grip before the rings of red light around him closed in more tightly.

He swallowed, doing his level best not to move any further at all.

The being turned towards Kyon and said in an eerie, resonating voice, "Vice-commander, I'm afraid the supreme commander has recalled you to headquarters. I'm sorry to interrupt your fun, but you can leave a trivial matter such as this to me."

Kowa-Keigo Kyon stared at the glowing figure of what could only be a legitimately demonic underling, obviously unimpressed with the display of power, looking - if anything - annoyed at the interruption.

Taiso began to develop a very strong suspicion that he should not have accepted this assignment, and that he had badly misjudged by dismissing the terrifying reputation of the boy they had targeted.

Before the dreaded guardian could speak, the small girl at his side leaned into him, making a sort of half-hug, managing to slip the weapon she had taken from him earlier into his coat, and then hanging onto him. One arm was in his coat, and one wasn't - it was strange to Taiso to see such an emotionless fighter transition to swiftly to clinging to her leader for support ... but if they'd overestimated her, they'd _under_estimated him.

He started to shake his head, and then the girl whispered something. In the horrific stillness, the sound carried - but Taiso realized the moment that he heard it, not a single man would acknowledge what they had heard.

"Yes," the boy who Taiso absolutely had not heard the name of said after a moment, grimacing distastefully, his arm rising absently and going about the girl's shoulder as he took an unsteady breath. "I... Make sure none of them die- Thank you for the update."

"Nothing more than my duty as your personal assistant," the crimson figure replied cheerfully. "Now that the cameras are off, you should be able to return directly - if the young lady could bring the driver of the car behind you along with, that would be greatly appreciated." It nodded, then turned to face the Sumiyoshi-rengo.

"Alright," Kyon sighed, nodding at the girl at his side in concern. A heartbeat later, there was a third girl there - a younger one, at a glance. Before Taiso could determine what was happening, she vanished as abruptly as she appeared, taking Kyon and his companion with her.

Not long after that, there was a flicker of light from within the car, as well.

"Ah," the figure said, sounding strangely pleased. "I've no reason to divulge plans or limitations to you, but I believe I understand the temptation to monologue slightly better now," it continued.

Taiso swallowed, wondering what kind of being the red, energetics thing was...

"Because it amuses me to some small degree ... I admit to drawing satisfaction from your discomfort. At the same time, I can explain why this is so, and simultaneously enhance that discomfort, so, please allow me to do so!" It appeared to pace, wisps of red fog trailing behind it, shedding tiny sparks of blue light every so often. "This power that you observe is the essence of human emotions. It is manifest to you now through my own power, but truly, my power shapes - it is this _borrowed_ power that cuts. Which, as you can guess, means none of the feeling in these attacks is from me."

There was an uncomfortable pause, not one man certain what to try and do or say before the figure offered a polite laugh. "Rest assured, this is not the vice-commander's - I suspect that would be worse for you. And I wouldn't give away any of the secrets of my allies like that, anyway.

"No, no ... but let me give you another piece of information," it continued, not even faltering as one of the younger hotshots - Senzo, Taiso thought his name was - pulled his own handgun out and fired at the red figure five times in rapid succession. Ragged holes were blasted in the scarlet cloud - but the form didn't pause or hesitate, and the fog smoothly flowed back to fill those gaps without visible damage - at the same time Senzo's weapon was shredded, and the young man screamed at the touch of the crackling red energy.

"As it happens," the figure droned on, "your recent allies, the people who approached you and offered to help against the vice-commander, left certain tasks in your keeping. So, this isn't absolutely to no purpose."

Senzo fell to the ground, faint plumes of smoke rising from his tattered and ruined clothes, moaning just loudly enough to prove he was still alive. "What do you want?" Taiso finally volunteered, realizing the only way out of this problem.

Somehow, the figure seemed to smile, despite the vagueness of it. "Information," it answered without hesitation. "Specifically ... in the last few days, you've been given the responsibility of ... 'overseeing' ... a girl's family members, haven't you?"

Taiso nodded, swallowing nervously as the crimson cloud drifted before him.

"That's a wonderful place to begin," it declared. "You've been quite an inconvenience to us lately, so the more cooperative you are, the less severe I'll be required to be before releasing you to the police. We intend to know where they are, and what forces are watching over them."

The thought went through Taiso's mind - strangely - that Kyon's personal assistant was going to send them to jail, while also concealing one of the reasons they should be arrested in the first place, presumably. The best they could have gotten from pressing the dreaded guardian was to be sent to the morgue, and at the end of the day, the Sumiyoshi-rengo hit-man just didn't see any real prison holding the dreaded guardian unless he consented to it - even if he _did_ have to kill all of them.

"I'll cooperate completely," he allowed. Really ... this burnt their new allies more than themselves. A cheap sacrifice, at this point. It said something that even though he was breaking the code ... not one of the other men present raised so much as an eyebrow at him for it.

* * *

Tsuruya was not at all surprised to see Mikuru jolt into action the second Yuki reappeared with Kyon and Kanae. The time traveler grabbed the slighter girls and moved them into the seats next to Haruhi's, but was unable to prevent her initial yelp of, "Don't die, Yuki-chan!" when she saw the bloodstained handkerchief wrapped around the smaller girl's hand hand.

In a way, that was kind of cute, but Tsuruya understood the genuine concern, too. Yuki offered no resistance as the time traveler gasped sympathetically at the gash across her small palm. Tsuruya trusted that Mikuru had the situation under control - they had access to both a hospital, and Sakura, should any of their other alternatives fail.

"What happened out there?" Kyon asked, shakily.

Haruhi made an irritated noise, then maneuvered Kyon to sit next to Yuki. "You're all scuffed," she said angrily, her voice shaking, too. "You aren't supposed to be in that kind of danger for real! Damn it, Kyon! You're so stupid!"

"Hold still," Mikuru insisted to Yuki in her most soothing voice. Tsuruya glanced to her as she carefully cleaned the injury, but unsurprisingly, Yuki didn't so much as flinch. She thought the cut probably warranted stitches, though she suspected it would shortly be rendered moot.

"Haruhi," he growled in warning, grabbing his left forearm in his right hand, through the now-tattered and dirty cuff of his coat.

"Haru-nyan," Tsuruya cut in, "Kyon-kun - we have a common enemy, don't we?"

Lowering her face, Haruhi wordlessly grabbed Kyon's coat, pulling herself into his lap and holding herself tightly against him. A smile came to Tsuruya's lips at that; Haruhi understood exactly what her warning was really about.

After a moment of surprise, he relented, hugging her back. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Sighing softly, Mikuru finished binding a proper bandage around Yuki's injury, managing a shaky smile while Kuyou watched with undisguised interest.

"Haru-nyan learned that Sasaki has the power to make things that she finds implausible not work as long as she is observing them," Tsuruya explained.

"So ... the stun-gun was plausible, but a sonic cannon wouldn't be," Kyon realized belatedly, patting Haruhi's back thoughtfully. He then froze suddenly, turning to look at Yuki in alarm, over Haruhi's shoulder. "Yuki-chan- Are you okay?"

"My ability to manipulate data is unknown to her, and so, Sasaki is unlikely to be able to directly observe it," Yuki answered after a moment. "She is able to observe the effects of my manipulations; I disabled several automatic functions rather than risk them being exposed once such an unknown danger presented itself. I will restore them now."

"You didn't add any special effects," Haruhi mumbled, her face still pressed into Kyon's chest, looking the wrong way to even notice such a thing.

"Are you sure you're alright, Yuki-chan?" Mikuru wondered. She glanced over to where Kanae was sitting, wobbling nervously - but also proud that she had managed to help. Arakawa stood nearby, looking a bit awkward after his unexpected rescue.

"I am fine," she answered, giving a very small nod, her bandaged hand closing gently around Mikuru's.

"Kyon-kun got Yuki-chama hurt!" Ryouko complained.

Guessing what would happen next, Tsuruya snatched the chibi off the table before Yuki could react, holding her like a stuffed toy. "Be nice to Kyon," the she scolded the tiny figure with a smile. "Otherwise, how can you expect Yuki-chan to be nice to you?"

Ryouko pouted cutely at that.

"Okay," Kyon sighed, shaking his head, since he was largely immobilized, with Haruhi on his lap. "Last I saw, there were four vans headed out of that warehouse, and Sasaki could be in any one of them - do we know where they're going? Even if it's going to be harder, we have to rescue her."

Haruhi's response was to wordlessly tighten her grip, which made Kyon squirm uncomfortably for a moment until he pulled one of his weapons from between them and set it on the table. Kuyou's eyes tracked to it, and she frowned slightly, tapping the strange gun with one fingertip.

The weapon's surface shuddered and rippled before it collapsed back into into a cylindrical shape, spinning on end slightly over the top of the table.

"Well?" he pressed, looking around anxiously.

Tsuruya didn't meet his eyes yet. She agreed with Haruhi that she didn't like the idea of Kyon being exposed to danger any more than necessary. But then, she also understood that Kyon was loyal to his friends, and couldn't just let Sasaki's abduction go. At the same time ... he probably didn't realize the extent of his own emotional turmoil. In any case, however, she knew how things were going to work out.

"We ... dropped everything to get you and Yuki-chan out of there," Tsuruya explained, ducking her head slightly. "Koizumi-kun couldn't follow them all, anyway."

Kyon worked his jaw for a moment, then closed his eyes and sighed quietly, leaning back in his chair.

"Those men were Sumiyoshi-rengo," he said after a moment of thought. "So ... somewhere along the line, they meet up with ... the people who abducted Sasaki." He took a breath and gave Mori a cautious look. "Isn't Tsuruya-kun's father looking out for them?"

"I... Since you requested my assistance with this task, I'm not sure, Sir," the woman apologized, looking uncertain.

"I- Yes, when did I do that, again?" Kyon wondered, sounding suddenly much more confident, his PDA out and ready to take down notes. Tsuruya allowed a small nod of satisfaction.

There was an extended moment of awkward silence before Mori quietly managed, "Oh. Ah ... Friday evening." She settled back into her seat with an expectant glance at Mikuru, before turning her attention back to the boy.

"During the book signing," Kyon realized, giving a slow nod. "Alright- Good. This makes sense."

"I'm not letting you go out and get hurt," Haruhi growled, not relenting the slightest bit. "Sasaki has always bothered me - and now I know why! What happens if she finds out what I am - and takes that away?"

"I... Haruhi, she's still my friend," Kyon countered. "Worse, if we do nothing - then that's exactly what those people are probably planning to do with her!"

The brigade chief made an unhappy noise in response, pressing her face into Kyon's coat.

"I... It will be okay, I think," Mikuru said hopefully. "Um ... Kyon-kun knows, now, right? We ... just can't do anything Sasaki believes is impossible in front of her, so..."

"So, Asahina-san and I will go back to last Friday," Kyon said, shaking his head. "That gives us the weekend to work on an answer to those vans escaping with Sasaki - and we can ask Tsuruya-kun's father for help. If he's after the Sumiyoshi-rengo anyway, then everything that happened today ends up becoming a trap for them, instead of us."

Haruhi still didn't look satisfied, but broke her grip enough to lean back and look Kyon in the face. "I don't believe there's anything you can say that would convince me to go along with this! I'm saying no! I never get to have fun, and you're always getting in real danger?"

Before he could respond, Haruhi's phone rang, and she glared at it, making it levitate over to her before she blinked at the display, looking between it and Kyon uncertainly. She answered the phone with a small bit of trepidation, asking, "Hello?"

She flinched at something she heard, her eyes widening before she sighed and gave Kyon a sharp glare. "I'm absolutely holding you to it," she warned, nodding at him, but speaking to her phone.

Tsuruya wondered what exactly his future self promised Haruhi before she hung up.

Whatever it was, Kyon himself nodded, then turned his attention to Mikuru. "Ah, Friday," she realized aloud, fretting. "Where should we go, then?"

"Tsuruya Towers," Mori answered. "Tsuruya-sama was just about to go over the information he'd gathered on the Sumiyoshi-rengo when you asked for my assistance. From there, I went back to my office to review. Ah, Sir ... there is one thing, though."

"Yeah?" he asked, looking at the woman expectantly.

"While her situation is unclear at the moment, Itsuki-kun has confirmed that Kyouko-chan was not ... a willing ally to those men," Mori explained, pulling a pad of paper from the table before her and quickly scribbling a list of names and addresses on it. "It may not be much, but given your ability in this field..." She hesitated, then shifted her shoulders uncomfortably. "I said something that inadvertently set this into motion; if it's not too much to ask, could you see that Kyouko's family is spared further trouble?"

He blinked at her, frowning, then sighed. "Yeah," he allowed. "She didn't seem happy about her situation. We may not have to be enemies, if we can help her out."

"Well, fine," Haruhi mumbled. "You get to go be a hero again..."

"I'm not doing this for fun," he grumbled, giving her a gentle hug.

"Y...yeah," she finally relented.

"Okay - so, to Tsuruya Towers. Do you know where that is?" Kyon asked Mikuru, as Haruhi reluctantly climbed out of his lap.

"Don't go straight there," Haruhi chastised. "Normally, I'd complain, since it means I have to wait longer - but since you're going back in time, go back an extra half-day and make sure you have enough time to recover from what's happened today so far. Mikuru-chan, I know he's banged up, even if he's hiding it because Yuki-chan got hurt, so I expect you to nurse him to recovery!"

Mikuru's face turned red, and Haruhi nodded decisively, glancing at her phone one last time before blushing and hanging up. Coughing quietly, she added, "You should bring Kuyou and Ryouko with you, too."

Yuki moved to step towards Kyon, and Haruhi shook her head. "You stay with us, Yuki-chan," she insisted. "We need to think about how we handle Sasaki. In the meantime, Kyon! You'd better engineer a flawless rescue! No getting hurt this time! Speaking of which, just in case, Yuki-chan?"

The smaller girl nodded and announced, "Restoration program loaded. Permission to proceed?"

"That sounds fine," Kyon allowed, before a glowing field of softly glowing green enveloped him, sinking into his greatcoat and mending it to the pristine condition it had been in before. Tsuruya grinned at the small - but visible - glow of pride on Mikuru's cheeks at the restoration of her hard work.

"Be very careful about showing your powers to her, you know," Haruhi added. "Until you can get back to us, we can't fix them if she breaks them again."

Shivering slightly at some thought, Mikuru reached a hand out to take Kyon's as he rose from his seat, giving Haruhi a warm smile as he clapped his other hand briefly to her shoulder. Kuyou drifted to join them in a strangely curving path, stopping at Mikuru's side and then slowly turning in place to face Kyon.

Tsuruya rounded the table, still cuddling Ryouko, pausing only long enough to pat Kanae's head reassuringly before placing the somewhat confused and tiny figurine on her fiance's head. "Eh?" he noised.

"Huh?" Ryouko echoed, evidently having no trouble staying in place. Well, she felt weightless, so it made sense, she supposed.

"Yuki-chan is depending on you to take good care of Kyon-kun," Tsuruya insisted, nodding.

"Okay!" Ryouko cheered, bright as always. "For Yuki-chama!"

"Okay, um ... Mori-san, Arakawa-san, normally this is classified, but in your case ... you'll want to look away from the effects of this so you don't get sick," Mikuru warned, taking Kuyou's other hand in her own nervously. "I don't... Um, normally I would suggest closing your eyes... And Kyon-kun, you know to do that, right?"

"I observe," Kuyou agreed, blinking slowly once. "Now we occult Sasaki."

Kyon nodded. "Right," he declared. "Haruhi, don't you have something to send us off with?"

She started slightly, then nodded back quickly. "Though, it should go without saying - if you bring my Mikuru-chan back with so much as a _scratch_ on her..." She trailed off there, giving him a pointed stare, which he met with the faintest nod. She managed a smile at his level acknowledgement of her warning. "Good! So, SOS Brigade, time-travel division, move out!" Haruhi ordered, just before Tsuruya closed her eyes at the strange sound she heard - and when she reopened them, Kyon, Mikuru, Kuyou and Ryouko were gone.

Haruhi heaved an unsteady sigh, and even though a small part of it was for her own reassurance, Tsuruya hugged the other girl tightly. "Don't worry," she said, as encouragingly as she could. "Kyon-kun's reliable, right?"

The other girl managed a nod, hugging Tsuruya back even as Mori cocked her head to one side, a fingertip rising to her ear-piece.

"How's Koizumi-kun?" the heiress wondered, turning her attention to Mori.

* * *

Since Arakawa had been evacuated - thanks to Kanae - after getting the information he had needed from the Sumiyoshi-rengo men, Koizumi allowed the energy that comprised his being to disperse across a wide area in an effectively imperceptible fog. Without Yuki's aid in practicing the method, it would have taxed him to the extreme. With that help, though, the bizarre shift in his point of view was easily managed, allowing him to survey a wide area while effectively invisible.

He'd kept himself linked to Mori, as she was the one he had practiced with most, and her experienced calm let him feel a little panicked, using her superior control as the edge that manifested his powers in the first part of the confrontation... After that, he'd retrieved Kyouko, as he'd been ordered to. He and the girl were not friends, though he didn't know her personally very well.

He'd made the mistake of thinking he knew her, or at least about her.

One of many unpleasant revelations of the day... When he'd come onto the scene, just after Kyon had left, and recovered Kyouko's prone form from the place where the battle had begun, he'd thought it was an opportunity. He thought it would be a chance to glean information from her - someone on the inside of the enemy network.

He was nervous about using his ability to try and dig personal thoughts out of someone else's mind, but he could try and convince himself that it was for the greater good. Except ... when he was carrying the girl into the car, where Kasai waited, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Somehow, she'd looked too small, too vulnerable...

And even without trying, he could feel the thick morass of distress that enveloped her psyche. By the time he'd reached Kasai's car, halfway between the cafe and the hospital, he'd come to realize he didn't _want_ to immerse himself in that emotion. He'd like to know what she knew, but at that cost...

So, he'd instead flowed into the cracks in the windows, reassuming his more natural form in the back seat of the small vehicle, next to her rousing form. "W...wha...?" she began groggily, flinching back immediately on sight of him, but not reaching for the door handle. She wordlessly turned to stare at her feet, eyes shimmering.

Unsure of what to say to her for the moment, Koizumi tried to maintain a reassuring facade. That faded the moment the vehicle gave a sudden lurch, the engine dying abruptly. "What...?" Kasai wondered, thumping at the console and stopping the car, looking around in consternation. "The battery just died?"

Warned by something he couldn't quite place, Koizumi exploded back into energy form, surrounding the interior of the car just before the windows exploded violently - reflected away instead of blasting shrapnel in across the passengers. His form erupting into crimson energy, the keen edge of focus expanded him outward. Half of himself was invested in a dome of crackling force covered the car, protecting his allies.

"I leave her to you," he warned Kasai, the rest of him forming another humanoid avatar between the car he was protecting and the source of the attack. He vaguely recognized Fujiwara, though the usually aloof, almost snobbish boy looked wild, unkempt, and well beyond the point of panic.

Koizumi didn't have to wonder what the pair of them looked like, thanks to his multiple perspectives. He was an indistinct, human-shaped mass of red light; Fujiwara was a pretty-boy with tousled hair, a rictus of rage on his face, carrying an unfamiliar weapon that gleamed and had too many edges. The street was filled with late afternoon traffic, all of which had stopped due to the confrontation. Nearby bystanders were quickly streaming to the cover of nearby stores or alleys.

"This lacks subtlety," he informed Fujiwara.

"Shut up!" the boy howled, leveling his weapon at Koizumi. "Out of my way! Let me kill her!"

"No," Koizumi countered without hesitation, uncertain where the conviction to deny Fujiwara so absolutely came from. "She's been harmed enough; I'll allow no more."

He couldn't claim to be oblivious to her presence in the car, behind a barrier of his own energy, eyes widening in confused surprise at his claim.

Fujiwara stared at him for a heartbeat, and then threw his head back, howling like a beast for a long, anguished wail before lowering his gaze and fixing Koizumi with a look of utter disgust. "You have no idea what that careless little girl almost destroyed today!" he spat.

"Then tell me," Koizumi suggested, mindful of the brave, nearby few who were trying to eavesdrop on the spectacle before them.

The other time traveler drew himself to stand tall in response, then studied a car a few vehicles before the one Koizumi was protecting. With no real warning, he turned and fired his weapon at the empty vehicle. Almost immediately, it exploded into a pillar of fire ten meters tall.

Regretting the necessity, Koizumi allowed the energy collected into humanoid shape to turn into a stack of sharp edged red blades, which shot towards the time traveler before he could spread further destruction- Strangely, as fast as he moved, the time-traveler seemed to be able to move faster. Did he manipulate time, as well as traveling through it?

Koizumi's energy raked across the street, scarring the asphalt effortlessly, leaving gouges torn out of nearby cars - but moving too slowly to reach Fujiwara? Sparks and chips of pulverized stone danced across the ground... The esper drew back to Kasai and the girl he was trying to protect.

The larger man had already climbed out of the vehicle and gone around to Kyouko's door. The female esper was hesitant to follow him - but then, given the circumstances, Koizumi thought that was understandable. "I will take this young lady to safety," the bodyguard promised.

"Please do," Koizumi allowed. "I will take care of things here-"

No sooner had he spoken than Fujiwara fired the strange weapon again, sending out a swarming stream of fast-moving lights. Koizumi didn't know what the stuff was - it moved too slow to be light, but glowed like _some_ form of energy discharge, the beams winding in strange, rippling whorls and braids. The esper's form was strained, energy nearly overloaded with absorbing that power and grounding it into the street below, causing a four meter wide stretch of asphalt to suddenly bubble and steam before bursting into flame.

Dragging back the superheated fog of his form, Koizumi let his energy dome and humanoid form both boil upwards into a cloud, welling towards the time traveler and igniting the air around him. It was insane, he realized, but then ... the powers that Haruhi had given him went beyond reason - and if he couldn't do what he did, he would have died. Or let Kyouko die.

Not allowing himself to think about that, he swirled around, engulfing the time traveler- In the narrow gap before Koizumi completely ensnared him, Fujiwara once again moved faster than the esper thought was possible, vaulting through the only escape and twisting to somersault off the side of the building behind him. The heat energy Koizumi was still carrying was released upwards, sending another billowing fireball skyward, letting him move faster and diffuse more of his form about the area.

That crimson mist could observe wherever the time traveler went - if Koizumi could be nothing more than a decoy for Fujiwara, then he'd do the best job of it he could. Kasai and Kyouko were already out of the fair-haired boy's line of sight, and Koizumi surged after, able to fling the car that had been disabled into the alley to cut off his pursuit.

The mass of steel and aluminum tumbled through the air like an over-sized toy, crumpling and nearly bashing out the cement reinforcing wall of one of the buildings before getting wedged into place with a resounding crash and the shriek of tortured metal.

Whatever it was that let the time traveler escape, either he couldn't, or just didn't use it here- Koizumi wasn't sure. A tentative probe proved fruitless - Fujiwara's mind was protected in the same way that Mikuru's was. In either case, the time traveler was at least startled, whirling to face the largest concentration of Koizumi's current self.

"You idiot!" Fujiwara seethed, his weapon sweeping across the street without firing before he shoved it into a pocket. Straightening up, he shook his head severely. "She could kill us _all_!"

"Since you obviously still exist, I believe this is something of an overreaction on your part," Koizumi countered.

"You never change," Fujiwara growled, shaking his head. "It's on your head, then!" With that declaration, the boy surged forward, running at a more mortal pace; Koizumi could easily have outrun him, but Fujiwara was running away from Kasai and the hospital.

Koizumi spread out, analyzing the situation. Even if he'd talked Fujiwara out of attacking Kyouko, they had attracted a wealth of attention. Emergency vehicles were already spreading out across the city in response to the various outbreaks of violence and destruction - he wasn't surprised to see the lights of a police vehicle approaching from behind as it was.

He spread out, just catching a glimpse of the time traveler ducking into another alleyway, further away... But then, for all he knew, that could be a decoy. He pulled himself together a block and a half away, where Kyouko was trying to keep up with Kasai, and the large man tried to look as subtle as he possibly could while hustling down the street with a high-school aged girl.

Koizumi supposed that he wasn't helping the subtlety aspect much, coalescing into his proper self from a diffuse crimson mist... Kyouko flinched away at her sight of him, and the majority of other nearby pedestrians wisely avoided eye contact. "We're about a half-dozen blocks from the hospital," Kasai reported, scanning the sidewalks ahead of them. "Do you think you can make it?"

"W...why are you ... helping me?" the girl shakily asked, stumbling after Kasai to the best of her ability.

When she tripped, her attention fixed on the large man, almost as though she were trying to avoid the other esper's gaze, he caught her, surprised once again at how slight she was. Before the moment could get more awkward, he helped her to her feet, then crouched, indicating his back and suggesting, "Climb on; we'll make better time."

She shot him a single unreadable look before hesitantly complying, nervously pressing herself to his back and wrapping her arms around him. He leaned forward and hefted her, giving a nod to Kasai and trying to ignore her tiny squeak of alarm, or her nervous breath across his neck.

"I thought you were enemies, and you're rescuing me," Kyouko mumbled, her voice husky - nearly inaudible, if not for the nearness of her mouth to his ear. He tried not to think of their closeness, just grateful for the moment that she was cooperating, and not trying to flee. "Why?"

Haruhi had ordered him to. She hadn't said to try fighting Fujiwara - a task Koizumi would gladly leave to Kyon, next time; that level of energy was ... unnerving. What were Haruhi's reasons? He didn't have a link with her anymore ... instead, he was linked to Mori for the moment. Well, what about his own reasons, then?

"I have to believe what Kyon says," he realized aloud. "And I think at the core, despite what's happened, you and Sasaki-san are friends, the same way that he and I are. You were equally victims in this scenario, and as he is occupied with her safety, I must turn my attention to yours."

"Save your breath," Kasai chided, grinning wryly anyway.

Not quite able to duck his head with Kyouko clinging to his back, Koizumi felt his face color as he obeyed the older man's warning. He wondered if it was just that reminder that prompted the girl to hold herself to him more firmly.

* * *

Restless, and annoyed at her lack of real control over how things had turned out, Haruhi paced back and forth in their makeshift headquarters. Tsuruya sat between Kanae and Yuki, frowning thoughtfully.

Some things were clearly going to be inexplicable, but Haruhi's answer to that was ... if it wasn't normally possible, then why should they have to explain it? They could pretend to be just as mystified as anyone else in some aspects. As far as coordinating that, she'd had police sent to the warehouse where Koizumi had rescued Kyon, once he'd signaled to Mori that he was done interrogating them, anyway.

After that, he'd gone to escort Kyouko back - and considering what Kyon seemed to think of her, Haruhi was keen to start interrogating the enemy esper. Mori had mentioned that Koizumi reported fighting against Kyouko's time traveling ally, but evidently Kyon was a better time traveler, because the esper was able to drive off the other boy.

"Okay," she decided abruptly. "Koizumi's headed to the hospital, so we should go there, too. We'll set up in a conference room there."

"Good thinking," Tsuruya agreed, frowning intently at Yuki's bandaged palm. "Yuki-chan, why haven't you fixed your hand?"

"This injury's data is somehow resistant to transformation," she answered, turning to stare at her palm with the tiny hints of a frustrated frown.

"Another reason to go to the hospital, then," Tsuruya decided.

"You get Yuki-chan," Haruhi decided, gently jostling the slider. "Come on, let's go to the hospital, Kanae-chan."

"Will Sempai be there?" Kanae's tired voice asked worriedly.

"Hmm, you know what? You should call and leave him a message so he knows where he needs to go, actually," Haruhi decided.

"I can drive," Arakawa volunteered, seeming glad to be able to offer to do something, as well. "I feel I was somewhat less than helpful previously..."

"Well," Haruhi started, unable to finish saying that it was Kyon's fault with him gone. Berating him was one thing ... but that... "It happened, and Kyon's figuring out a way to turn it around," she decided, shaking her head. "Come on, let's go."

Shortly after that, they were en route to the hospital, the vehicle slowed due to a large number of emergency vehicles, and closed streets. Haruhi pursed her lips ... she'd like to use her powers to fix this, but her powers were kind of specific, and there was an awful lot to try and 'fix' in one fell swoop without seriously overdoing things. To say nothing of the fact that Kyon wasn't there to authorize it.

Yuki could normally handle it herself, but the girl seemed shaken by things - and Haruhi supposed that after getting her hand cut open, that was entirely justified. As things were, she was surprised that she let Kyon leave after that happened, but something in his eyes suggested that he'd more than repaid it in kind... She didn't like to think of him in those terms, even if she did think it was justified.

She could hardly be possessive and protective of Mikuru without at least extending some of that to the others - and despite how strong she always seemed, even Yuki could have moments of weakness. Since Haruhi was seated between Kanae and Yuki at the same time, she reached out with both arms and managed to snare both in a single hug, pulling both of the smaller girls to her. "So!" she cheered. "Let's keep our spirits up! Since Kanae-chan left a message for Kyon, he'll come to meet us in the hospital - even if it didn't start out well, we're really getting places, now!

"I'm not happy that Yuki and Kyon got hurt, and I think it's probably true that we were a little overconfident, but we also learned a lot from this - if we have to do it again, we'll be much better prepared, right?"

"You've heard something from Kyon-kun about Sasaki and Kyouko's family, then?" Mori wondered, looking vaguely surprised.

"W...well, he said that he and Tsu-chan's father had Sasaki covered," she offered, "and something about ... 'Kyouko's family being obnoxious, but safe'... That and the fact that he's got open time loops, which if I understand right, means he still has chances to cheat even if he doesn't use his current trip to do it."

"That is reassuring," Mori allowed. "Koizumi-kun just reached the hospital - Kyouko is being looked at."

"That's convenient," Haruhi remarked, as the hospital came into sight. "Now we've got a good chance to interrogate her!"

"Interrogate?" Tsuruya asked.

"After whatever it was she tried to do to Kyon?" Haruhi asked, rolling her eyes. Kanae shivered uncomfortably at that. "If she cooperates, that's great - but the way I see it, she owes us answers."

"Would you be willing to entrust that responsibility to me?" Mori asked carefully.

"W...well," Haruhi started, before hesitating. Kyon had mentioned at one point that the woman could be truly menacing - for all that she deferentially referred to Kyon as 'Sir' when speaking to him. She was probably the best person for the job... And, as much as Haruhi wanted an explanation for a great deal of things ... she wasn't sure she trusted herself in that questioning. She'd probably at _least_ slap the esper for that maneuver.

"Yeah," she agreed. "That's a good idea. Hey ... I had a thought - if Kyon was injured, and Yuki-chan's injury can't be fixed normally for some reason, does that mean we sent him back with low hit-points?"

"M...Mikuru-onee is with him," Kanae said, surprisingly confident. "She can take care of him!"

"That's true!" Tsuruya agreed. "But let's get Yuki-chan's hand looked at for now, hmm?"


End file.
